Visitors

We had two visitors this weekend: my mom and Bob. It was a good time and I know they had fun. They came to see some sites, but also to just plain visit, so they stayed with us in our spare bedroom - hopefully, the stay was a comfortable one.

They arrived by Friday at about 10:30am on Friday morning. I picked them up from the airport and headed into the City. The ultimate destination was my house, but I wanted to show them a few things on the way, just so they could get a little taste. After taking Lake Shore Drive to the North Side, we took an in-car tour. I first showed them Wrigley Field and some places around there that are fun. We actually got out of the car so they could walk around the stadium - yes it was a Cubs day game and yes we found a parking space. The Cubs' season is effectively over by then, so we had no worries about the traffic. We were all getting hungry after seeing our first site, so I decided to take them to SuperDawg for lunch (www.superdawg.com). This place is delicious and famous, so I wanted to give them a taste of Chicago by introducing them to a true Chicago-style hot dog at one of the more popular, tourist-friendly places. They have carhops and they serve the fries and dog in the same enclosed box, so it is a place like no other.

After lunch we went to my house so they could drop off their bags and I could let Jake outside. Plus it was on the way to our next leg of the tour. I took them down to Lincoln Park, so they could see the neighborhood, the park, the zoo, and the ambiance. They really liked the housing stock, naturally. The hustle and bustle was kind of cool, especially for a chilly, drizzly Friday afternoon. After that we went down to the Near North side just out of Downtown's reach to see Rush St. and a couple other neighborhoods. It was now about 3:30pm so that equaled beer:30 on our "vacation". We went to a nice bar in Logan Square aptly named Logan (www.loganchicago.com). I've seen this place from the Blue line and wanted to go there, so we did. We waited for Kristen to get off work, then went back to the house to meet up with her so we could decide what to do for dinner. I wanted to go to this place I saw on the travel channel's show Man vs. Food, so since everyone was open and willing, that's where we went. It's in Wrigleyville right down from the stadium and it is called Lucky's (www.luckysandwich.com). The sandwiches were SO good, and I had a hard time finishing the whole thing, but I did! I could never finish 3 like the famous challenge requires, but I was proud to get one down. After a few beers we headed back to the house to relax and prepare for Day 2.

Saturday we woke up and got Dunkin Donuts coffee for everyone and donuts for my mom... she loves those things! We took the train into downtown and made our way to our first tourist destination: the Sears... um...er...Willis Tower (www.theskydeck.com). We went up to the 103rd floor to the Skydeck to capture some awesome views of the entire city... luckily it was a clear day! All of us even had the guts to walk out onto the new "ledge" and get our pictures taken with nothing but glass and views of the street below our feet. It was wild! I can't wait to do it again... not a bad rush for only 15$. We were all getting hungry again since it took a few hours from my house to the top of the Tower and then back down, so we took a water taxi (www.chicagowatertaxi.com) to one of its stops along the Chicago River and walked up to Portillo's for lunch (www.portillos.com). I wanted everyone to try Chicago's famous Italian beef sandwiches, so I had one of my own while my mom partook. After lunch we walked over to Michigan Avenue and down to Navy Pier - this is when the rain began. We had to wait under a giant covered building driveway until the downpour slowed down to a light enough drizzle to where we could get indoors at Navy Pier. We goofed around there for a few hours and my mom's leg started to hurt, so we headed back for home - via trolley to the blue line, to our car. Saturday night we decided to stay in since we were so wiped out from the day. We ordered in food from Leona's and all fell asleep easily.

Sunday morning we went to Dunkin again for more coffee. Since we didn't have much time, we decided to take another in-car tour that took us through the nicer parts of the South Side on our way toward the airport (Midway). We drove through Jackson Park and saw the Museum of Science and Industry from the 1893 World's Fair, then came back up north through the Midway Plaissance, past Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House, and then up to Barack Obama's house where we got out to walk around. We couldn't actually get onto his street because of tight security, but we were able to see some of the front of his house through the trees - we may try to go back in the winter to see if we can see more. Got back in the car and drove up past US Cellular Field and then out west into Oak Park, which is just another cool neighborhood to see. Here we saw the outsides of some more of Frank Lloyd Wright's buildings including his old home and studio. Went down toward the airport and had Giordano's for lunch, for some of that famous Chicago-style deep dish pizza (www.giordanos.com)! Kristen's parents actually met us and it was a nice time. Dropped them off at the airport and they were off... we went home and hung out on the couch the rest of the day.

I'm sure I left out some mundane details, but that ought to give you some idea as to the business of our weekend! Good times! Can't wait for our next visitors...