We decided to take up an offer from cruise friends Pete & Mo to stay at their place in Chicago for our 10th anniversary weekend. At the time, they had a condo across the street from Soldier Field and a stone’s throw from the Field Museum. Really. That whole saying, “Location. Location. Location.” Whoever said that was absolutely right.
We took off right after work on a Thursday and got in pretty late, too late to bother Pete & Mo. Turns out, they were up late waiting for us to call while we were finding a room and ending up at the Essex on Michigan Avenue. It was a nice enough hotel, good room, clean and all. We wanted to get to the museums when they opened, so we grabbed some breakfast at Yolk (yum!) and called our friends.
Chicago is an amazing city with a beautiful city plan, world class museums just short walks from each other, and as good of resteraunts as you could want within an easy walk of wherever you happen to find yourself at the moment, the Art Institute of Chicago, The Field Museum of Natural History & The Shedd Acquarium were on our agenda. And in between all of this, we were able get some good exercise in with a run along Lake Michigan and lots of walking around downtown.
Can you visit Chicago and not get a deep dish pizza? Um. No. So we got ours at Geno’s. For another dinner, our friends took us to Shaw’s Crab House. They really knew how to show us a good time.
At the time, nobody had ever accused either Jenn or me of being an artist (though Jenn has developed as a cake artist and I’d like to think I’ve become somewhat of an artist with the camera in the years since), but for a fun evening, we walked down to Bottle & Bottega for a really, really fun evening of painting with the influence of some good wine.
We were most fortunate to have good friends with a great place in the heart of the city. For us to make this trip again, well, we’d pay at least $700-1,000 just for the lodging for a similar long weekend with the type of accommodations we enjoy. (Thanks, Pete & Mo!)
#Gates50States 
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