20.6.23

Summer Road Trip 2022 | Part 4: Chicago Day 2 and St. Louis

Yes, I realize it's summer 2023.  But we're still talking summer 2022.

We had such a good first day in Chicago, but I might've loved the second day even more.  We got an early start and took a little subway ride to the north.  I have to admit I was so proud of myself!  I never got the hang of the subway system last time I was in NYC and had to depend on my bestie to figure it out for us.  But it was so easy in Chicago!  I managed to get us on the right line going in the right direction.  My people weren't necessarily excited, and this was definitely outside of their comfort zone.  But when you grew up riding MARTA every time you went to the ATL, you bust up in the Chicago subway like it's nothing.

Besides, it was absolutely worth it.  We toured Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs and second oldest ballpark in the states.  I grew up watching the Atlanta Braves and loved baseball.  But that's not really a thing in Louisiana, and Seth isn't a baseball fan outside of LSU baseball so I haven't kept up with them the past 20 years.  I have to say that even though we don't follow baseball and aren't big baseball fans, we all absolutely enjoyed our morning at Wrigley Field!  It was so very interesting.  The Braves played at the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium when I was growing up.  Then they built Turner Field for the 1996 Olympics, and the Braves moved in the following year.  I can remember how much bigger and better and fancier it was than its predecessor.  And now they're at Truist Park, which probably puts Turner Field to shame and has the latest and greatest of everything a modern baseball park could possibly have.  I haven't been to a game at Truist yet.  But here's the thing.  Wrigley Field is iconic.  It's just the real deal.  It's everything you imagine a summertime baseball game to be.

It's at this point that we made quite possibly one of our worst parenting decisions ever.  Somehow Mason ended up with a 23 jersey.  I can remember feeling sick to my stomach that day.  I like even numbers.  The only odd numbers I like are multiples of five.  I was never thrilled that Mason would graduate class of '23.  A few weeks after we got back home, I connected some dots.  A 23 jersey . . . class of '23.  And I'm okay with it.  Actually, I'm pretty glad about it now.  

We took the subway back to downtown, and it was time for lunch.  We had Chicago pizza the day before.  Now it was time for a Chicago hotdog.  We went to the iconic Portillo's.  

I'm not a hotdog fan (or a fan of any meat for that matter).  But a Chicago dog?  Yes, please!  It's like a salad on top.  And the onion rings!

I knew that by this point we'd need a break from so much walking so I had already scheduled an architecture river cruise on the Chicago River.  None of us care about architecture, but the cruise was so very interesting and gave great views of the city.  But let's be honest.  It was nice to sit down for awhile.

And then it was time for more walking.  Again, the river views throughout the city are amazing.  The buildings are beautiful.  I made sure to pass by the Chicago Theater.  I'd love to see a show there.  Maybe next time.  And it's not just a concrete jungle.  There are beautiful flowers all throughout.

And then it was time to eat again.  Well, maybe not, but we did anyway.  We couldn't decide between the two most recommended pizza places in the city so we decided to go to both.  Thus, it was pizza again for supper, this time at Lou Malnati's.

After supper was, yep, more walking.  I really wanted to see the Chicago Water Tower.  It was one of the only structures to survive the great Chicago fire of 1871.  The entire area around it burned to the ground.

We strolled back to the hotel and woke up the next morning to begin the long drive back home.  But we had one more stop.  St. Louis.  

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but we very quickly decided we didn't want to spend any more time in this city than we had to.  We came.  We saw.  We left.  I'm so glad we did though.  This was another bucket list item we got to check off.

I said from the very beginning that I wasn't sure how our "tour of cities" vacation would go.  I think my people were glad to get back to the country.  But they enjoyed the city and have already asked to go back.  This summer road trip was definitely one to remember.  It was better than I imagined it would be!

All said and done, we walked over 47,000 steps in Chicago and almost 20 miles.  We drove over 2,500 miles the entire road trip.

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23.4.23

Summer Road Trip 2022 | Part 3: Chicago Day 1

We spent the next two days in the Windy City.  Chicago had been on my list for a long time.  I wasn't sure about this part of the trip.  It took a lot for me to convince my people that we should spend our vacation time in a big city.  They aren't exactly city people.  We've always gone to the beach, mountains and national parks, but I've never taken them to a big city (besides the ATL).  I loved Chicago, and I hope to go back one day.  They actually enjoyed the city, too.  It really was a super fun couple of days.  We walked and walked and walked and explored as much of the city as we possibly could while we were there.

Our first full day began with a walk from our hotel down Mag Mile to Millennium Park.  Chicago is a beautiful city with lots of eye candy to enjoy.

It's the coolest thing that the Chicago River runs through the city.

We spent awhile exploring Millennium Park.

The Cloud Gate sculpture, or the bean, is fascinating.  I'm not a big fan of selfies, but sometimes you just don't have a choice.

And, of course, it was a hoot watching the Crown Fountain and waiting on it to spit.

Then we walked some more.  There are so many beautiful buildings in Chicago, including the Public Library of the City of Chicago . . .

and The Art Institute of Chicago.  We didn't go inside because I knew my people wouldn't appreciate that, but it's on my list for the next trip.

Our next stop was the Willis Tower.  I've always known it as the Sears Tower.  It was the world's tallest building when it opened.  We went up to the Skydeck observation deck.

We left the tower and kept walking.  We saw more beautiful buildings, including the Chicago Board of Trade and the Central Standard Building.

We also saw the flamingo sculpture in the Federal Building plaza.

Our next stop was Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears.  I have never seen a football stadium like this one.

By this time, all the people were a bit tired of walking.  So we started making our way back towards the hotel.  We passed through museum row.  I would've absolutely loved to spend some time in these museums, but my people don't really appreciate a museum, and I knew I'd really be pushing my luck.  So, next time.  Museum row gives you a great spot to look out over the water front and Lake Michigan.  So we took our time walking back and really enjoyed the water front area.

By this time, everyone was starving.  We'd spent a lot of time before our trip researching where to eat.  When in Chicago, deep dish is a must.  We decided to go to Giordano's.

It was everything I thought it would be and more.  I mean, just look at that cheese pull!

It was so good.  So so good.  Last fall Seth found out that one of his vendors was from Chicago.  He mentioned how much we enjoyed the pizza at Giordano's.  Come Christmas, three deep dish pizzas from Giordano's showed up at our door.  We held on to them as long as we could and ate the last one a couple of weeks ago.  We've been known to take a road trip just to get the food.  We all agree we'd go back to Chicago just for the pizza!

After supper we took a slow walk back to the hotel.  The view never disappoints no matter where you are.

It was such a great day in the Windy City!  When it was all said and done, we walked 25,037 steps and nearly 10 miles!  We all slept really good that night and woke up the next morning ready to do it again.

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