Chicago

A week ago today, Emily and I got home after spending 10 days with family in Chicago.  The trip was a last minute one after getting a wedding invitation from my niece, Helen.  From the time we got the invitation to the time we flew out was just under two weeks. I had to arrange for Emily to have time off school (who, thankfully, were very understanding and wished her a fantastic holiday).  

 

 

It had been eight years since we were last in Chicago staying with Simon, Liz and the family. To say we were excited to be going, is an understatement. However, it had all been so rushed I think it was only once we were on the plane that the reality hit home :)

 



We had a list of things we hoped to be able to do while we were there - mainly things we had done on previous visits and were looking forward to doing again.  One of them was going to Barnes & Noble for breakfast.  It didn't take long for us to tick that one off the list.  That first morning we'd woken at about 3am and been wide awake.  We were sharing a room, so lay chatting for ages and then Face Timed Claire, Alice and Megan before finally getting up around 5.30am and getting ready for the day.

Snowflake is Richard's cat and she's a beauty.  She's also quite inquisitive and liked to come into our room in the morning to see what we were doing and inspect our suitcases.

When we took Richard to work on the second day, we stopped at Starbucks for breakfast.  I had the bacon and egg roll which was very nice but one thing I noticed is how much sweeter the rolls in America are compared to ours in the UK.

 

 Needless to say shopping was on our To Do list as well. Hugh had asked me to look for a Chicago Bulls or Chicago Bears shirt for him.  I hadn't expected the array that was available so ended up taking photos of numerous shirts so I could ask him what  he was looking for.  The one he would have liked was $110 (+tax) so I'm afraid he had to settle for second best!

 

Another of our wishes was to go to Olive Garden for dinner. We've been each time we've gone to Chicago and love the food there. On the Saturday, Helen and Chrissie joined us and we went for dinner.

It was just as good as we remembered.  I had a parmesan crusted steak with garlic mashed potatoes and it was the best steak I've had in a while. So tender and really tasty. 

Liz, Emily and I popped into a Joann's store on the way home.  I love the fact that you don't have to hunt for parking ;-)

Heading back to the house.

I'll post our day trip into Chicago next.

xx