When we went to San Francisco, I really wanted to go to the aquarium there. It’s been years since I’ve been to one, and I just think that they are so neat. Well, when we got to the aquarium in San Francisco, it was closing. :( Poor planning on our part. Anyway, when one of you readers mentioned the aquarium in your recommendations, it was on our “maybe” list–something to do if we had enough time.

Well, with our flight not leaving until 2:20 p.m., we decided to get up a little extra early this morning so that we could get to the aquarium, spend a few hours there, and then head back to the hotel, pick up our stuff, and travel to the airport.

We got down to the aquarium right after it opened.

Admission was $24.95, which is a little bit expensive in my opinion, but when you consider how much time you could spend there, it’s worth it. Plus, I can’t imagine how much money they have to spend to care for the animals, acquire the animals, hire qualified staff, etc., so I think the cost is probably justified.

Anyway, we went right into the exhibits to make the most of our time there.

Turtles! I love turtles.
These guys were eating breakfast. It looked like a really nice fruit salad, actually.
Big ass fish.
This guy’s eyes were really creepy.
Speaking of creepy… we thought this guy was fake. He wasn’t.
These fish have built-in bouffants. I like to call them Amy Winehouse fish.
Iguana
This frog was cracking me up. Check out how he was just hanging there!
This guy has a “Penelope” nose.
This turtle was in a giant tank that was in the middle of one of the big halls. It had all sorts of fish in it, as well as sting rays, and even a few small sharks. Look at him! He was chillin’ with his head between the branches of a plant. At first, I questioned whether he was even real, as he wasn’t moving at all.
Really cool display of jellyfish. I think they’re awesome as long as they’re not swimming with me.
Dolphins from above.
Dolphins from below.
Beluga whales.

I didn’t get any good pictures of them because they move so damn fast, but the penguins were so much fun. LOVE the penguins.

Who can go to an aquarium without thinking about Nemo the whole time? Anyway, we found him.

A cute little side story… We were in an exhibit area where there were scuba divers in the tanks with the fish to feed them, clean the tanks, etc. This little girl standing next to me says to her father, “A diver, like in Nemo!” Her father responds, “Yes, but this is a nice diver.” The little girl says, all serious, “Yeah, a nice diver. Nemo’s diver was mean.” :) Made me laugh.

We managed to make it through the whole aquarium in about two hours, and then we had to head out to get back to the hotel in time for checkout before getting on the train for the airport.
But of course, we had to take one last shot of the skyline (view from outside of Shedd Aquarium).

We had an absolutely wonderful time in Chicago. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a long weekend getaway… or even if you have longer to spend there. I’m sure you won’t run out of things to do. I honestly think Chicago has surpassed NYC on my list of favorite cities. There’s just something about Chicago that I like better, but I can’t really put my finger on it. I’d go back in a heartbeat. Who knows… maybe next year!

We woke up ready for another day in the city. It was a little bit hazy this morning, but it mostly burned off and we had another gorgeous, sunny day here in Chicago.

We set off from our hotel around 9:00 a.m. and headed down to the Willis Tower (or, if you refuse to conform, like me, you can continue calling it the Sears Tower).

One thing I forgot to mention about yesterday was that we picked up two $14 3-day CTA passes which give us unlimited rides on the trains (the “L”), as well as buses. It’s really come in handy so far and we know that we’ll get our money’s worth. It’s a great deal, so I highly recommend the multi-day passes if you visit. You can’t get them at the train stations, though. (This was confusing to me, as I always buy multi-day subway passes on my trips to NYC, and I’ve always purchased them right in the subway stations.) We had to go to a CVS to buy them, but that was fine as it wasn’t too far out of the way.

Anyway, so we left our hotel and hopped on the Red Line for a few stops, then walked several blocks over to the Sears Tower. Once we got there, the woman in the lobby told us that visibility was pretty poor up there this morning (only 0-5 miles), but that it was expected to get better later in the day. We quickly decided to postpone our trip up to the top and come back later.

Instead, we did some more walking, and hopped back on the train up toward Michigan Avenue. Our other plans for the day included an architecture boat tour, so we figured we’d check that out while we were waiting for the fog to clear from the top of Sears Tower. There are several companies that do these architecture boat tours, but we went with Wendella. Tickets were $22.

We got there about 1/2 hour before our tour was to start, so we purchased the tickets, then waited for a few minutes. Soon enough, they were boarding us onto the boat, so it wasn’t much of a wait after all.
This was the view from the Wendella “station” while we waited. Not a bad place to spend a few minutes.
This beautiful building was towering over us as we waited for the ride to begin. I wasn’t at all surprised when I found out that this is the new Trump International Tower. Say what you want about him–the guy certainly knows how to build stuff.

Once we started moving, our tour guide immediately launched into her explanation of all of the amazing buildings located along the Chicago River, and even some of the ones set further back. I was immediately impressed with her memorization skills, as her delivery of this information was flawless. All of the architects, the timelines for construction, the square feet or the heights of the buildings… whoa.

Anyway, the sights were rather impressive, too.

The tour was 60 minutes and it was a really great way to see the city. Plus, it was such a perfect day to be cruising along the river. The tour was really informative, mixing history and some interesting trivia.
Before we got off the boat, we had someone take a photo of us.

At this point, it was noon, and we wanted to head back down to the Sears Tower. But not before making a crucial pit stop (more on that in a second).

On our way back over the river, I stopped to take this photo on one of the bridges. LOVE THIS CITY.

Once over the river, we quickly made our way to our non-negotiable pit stop. Where’s that, you ask?

It was a little place called Sugar Bliss Cake Boutique.

One of my lovely blog readers went to Chicago a couple of weeks ago and happened to mention to me that she and her husband found this little bakery. And um, hello, I am ME, after all, and I wasn’t going to let that piece of information go unnoticed.
Inside, we were greeted with… well, CUPCAKES. The most adorable, delicious-looking cupcakes. In several flavors. We had trouble deciding, really.
Ultimately, we chose Strawberry Dream (fresh strawberry cake with strawberry cream cheese icing) and a traditional Black & White (dark chocolate cake, vanilla buttercream icing).

Just look at them! They’re GLORIOUS!

As cute as the bakery was, they didn’t offer much in the way of seating, so we decided to get our cupcakes to go. Which ended up being awesome, since they put them in that sweet little box for us. We walked them over to Millenium Park and sat in the shade to enjoy every single morsel.

See? Here I am, enjoying it before I’ve even tasted it. YUM.

After the cupcakes (the Black & White was my favorite, by the way), we headed back down to the Sears Tower.

Thankfully, there weren’t any lines outside, so we were able to get right into the building and to the floor where they do ticketing/security. There was a bit of a line there, so we were delayed for probably half an hour to 45 minutes or so? It wasn’t bad.

Before we knew it, our ears were popping as we rode the elevator all the way to the top–to the Skydeck on the 103rd floor. We immediately walked around to the other side of the building to the Skydeck Ledge, since we knew they were a big attraction. After waiting for a few minutes in the crowd, we made our way out onto the Ledge.

First Michael…
Then my turn…
Then a fellow tourist took a few photos of the both of us. The Ledges are really cool. I was sort of freaked out by it at first but I didn’t have any problems walking out onto it. It’s a strange feeling to stand out there and look straight down.

We moved out of the box to give other people a chance, and wandered around the Skydeck, just checking out the view.

Then Michael had an idea. He wanted me to go onto one Ledge, while he went in the other, then take pictures that way. They came out pretty cool…
Unfortunately, there was a lot of sun glare on Michael’s side!
We spent some more time looking around and taking photos…

…and eventually made our way to the elevators and back down to ground level.

From there, we went back to the hotel for a little bit to relax and figure out where to head to dinner. After looking at various restaurants, we decided to go to a little Irish pub called Timothy O’Toole’s.

This place was great. I was hungry and it totally hit the spot. I had an awesome turkey club sandwich (with honey mustard instead of mayo!). The turkey was amazing (had a honey roasted taste). Also, they have a ton of flat-panel TVs in the place, making it a perfect place to watch sports. We enjoyed some college football while eating our meal.

After dinner, we cut back over to Michigan Avenue, which was only a few blocks away. On the way over there, we unfortunately saw this: Man Dies in Plunge from Building. We didn’t actually witness the incident (THANK GOD), but we came upon police cars and a taped off area of the street. And then we saw the white sheet. It was pretty shocking, and greatly disturbing. We paused for a few seconds, but ultimately kept moving. I am so grateful we only came upon the scene after it had already happened.

Switching gears back to “happy” and “fun”…

We wandered Michigan Avenue for a little bit, waiting for it to get dark. We browsed Crate and Barrel, and went to “visit” our dream computer at the Apple Store. From there, we walked down to the Hancock Building and once again, found ourselves in an elevator all the way up to the top.

Many people had recommended we enjoy cocktails at The Signature Lounge, which is located on the 96th floor of the Hancock Center. Disappointingly, it was a little foggy up there, so visibility wasn’t all that great. Plus, all of the tables by the windows were understandably occupied. Still, we had fun and enjoyed our drinks.

It felt nice to be on ground level again. We seemingly spent a lot of time in elevators today! And we were all about the skyscrapers–looking up at them, traveling to the top of them, etc. It certainly gave us an appreciation for the architecture in Chicago.

Since we were blessed with another gorgeous late summer evening, we took our time walking back to our hotel.

On Michigan Avenue…
A view of the river and skyline on the way back.

And so the book closes on another wonderful day in Chicago. We get to enjoy the city for a few more hours in the morning before we have to head to the airport to go home! We’ll be sad to leave but it is always nice to get home.

We got into Chicago last night around 8:30, and quickly caught a cab to take us downtown to our hotel. We’re staying at the Hilton Garden Inn. Once again, I bid on a hotel on Priceline, and this was the hotel that accepted our bid ($75/night, woohoo!). It’s really nice, especially considering it’s only rated as “3 star” hotel. We have a refrigerator and microwave in our room, which is always nice, and also… FREE INTERNET ACCESS! That almost never happens.

Anyway, after we got checked in last night, we walked a couple of blocks over to a local sports bar (called Mother Hubbard’s) to have a bite to eat. It was the LOUDEST SPORTS BAR EVER. Seriously, I thought I might have permanent hearing damage. We didn’t stick around there for very long, just long enough to eat. I was tired and wanted to get some rest.

This morning, we woke up to beautiful sunshine shining through our hotel window, and got up to get the day going. We started off by hitting up a favorite breakfast joint–West Egg. I actually ate there with my boss (who used to live in Chicago) when I was here a few years ago for work, and I remembered it being really good, so we figured there was no better way to begin our exploration of the city.

They have a pretty extensive breakfast menu, so it was a little bit hard to decide what to eat. Given that I ALWAYS get pancakes, though, it wasn’t too hard for me. Ultimately, Michael decided to go with pancakes, too.
They were really quick to serve our feast. Yum.
I had “Crunchberry” pancakes, which had blueberries and granola mixed into the batter. The granola added a nice texture to the pancakes–it was different to have a little bit of a crunch. I loved them.
Michael had “Strawnana” pancakes, which were basic buttermilk pancakes, but topped with fresh strawberries, bananas, and whipped cream. OH! And we shared homefries. Because honestly, who can resist homefries? :)
After breakfast, we walked over to wander around Michigan Avenue, aka The Magnificent Mile. It was just such a nice day to be out and about. We couldn’t have asked for better weather today.

From there, we walked South to Millennium Park. I have been a few times during my past visits, but still wanted to go again as it is one of my favorite spots.

I had way too much fun with the mirrored sculpture. We probably spent about half an hour taking pictures in its reflection.


After wandering around the park, it was time to head to the baseball park–Wrigley Field.
A few weeks back, we purchased Chicago Cubs tickets so we could go to a game at historic Wrigley. Ever since our trip to AT&T Park in San Francisco, Michael is all gung-ho about visiting different baseball parks (and other sports arenas, as well).

I used to be a Yankees fan back in my days of playing softball, and I used to watch the games regularly. I’ve even been to see them play a time or two. But I’ve fallen out of it (football is my sport of choice now!). There’s just too many games and they’re just way too long. And frankly, I’m just not that committed. So I’ll admit I could not care less about baseball. But even I could not complain about being at a baseball game on a day like this. PERFECT WEATHER. Just beautiful.
Plus, there was something nice and patriotic about being at a baseball game on September 11th. (Side note: I can’t believe it has been eight years. I found myself thinking and feeling much of the same things as last year. And the year before, and the year before that. The anniversary really causes it to all come rushing back for me.)

After being packed into the “L” like a couple of sardines on our way to Wrigley (seriously, I’ve been on a lot of subways, and have never been that closely squished next to strangers), we decided to leave in the 8th inning to avoid the crowds. We did stop for another short photo op, though.

When we got off the Red Line and walked up to street level, we were pleasantly surprised to find that it had spit us out RIGHT IN FRONT of our hotel. Literally steps away. After all of the walking we had been doing, we were grateful.

We relaxed in our hotel room for a little bit before heading back out for some dinner. Since we hadn’t eaten since breakfast, we were eager to experience Chicago-style pizza–deep dish, y’all.

Thanks to all of the blog readers who recommended it, we ended up at Giordano’s.

Upon arrival, we were told that the wait would be approximately 30-45 minutes, so we grabbed a beer at the bar and took it outside to wait and enjoy the summer evening. We were told to pre-order our pizza, so we did that, too. Stuffed pizza–cheese, onion, broccoli, and pepperoni. This day was all about “yum.”

The wait went by pretty quickly, and before we knew it, we were being served our scrumptious pizza.

It was really good, and very different from regular pizza. It almost reminded me of a calzone. My only complaint was that the amount of cheese on it was wayyyy too much for my liking. I’m not much of a cheese/dairy person to begin with, and I absolutely cannot stomach a mouthful of cheese. With normal pizza, if it’s too cheesy, it’s easy to take off some of the cheese. With this, it was sort of like performing surgery. But whatever, I made do and it was still delicious. But filling. Two slices and I was stuffed.

After dinner, we stopped back at our hotel to drop off our leftover pizza, then took a walk down to Navy Pier.

This was a perfect place to walk around on a warm summer night. It almost felt like I was walking around inside of a movie because it was so idyllic. Does that make sense, or do I just sound crazy? :)
I had a blast taking nighttime photos down there.

The lights…
The skyline…
And American flags. (Lowered to half staff for September 11th)
It was a wonderfully full, fun day. We can’t wait to do it all over again tomorrow.

Now we’re going to kick back and watch some Bill Maher since the hotel has HBO. We don’t have it at home, so it’s a real treat for us! I miss my Bill. ;)