The Giant Jelly Bean

As you probably know from my previous post, I woke up WAY too early this morning. I gave up on sleeping just after 6am and spent a couple of hours online doing research. Thankfully it paid to be up WAY too early! Those few hours let me not only plan our day, but also landed me a list of “free museum days” and a buy one get one free architecture boat tour. SCORE!

Once sleeping beauty, er, Kevin decided to greet the day (around nine) we got ready and hit the town. We’re about 4 blocks from the Subway/El Train which is super convenient. We used the red line today, the underground train. Haven’t been on the elevated train yet, looking forward to it though. We hopped on a train heading south and (with one small detour, getting off to catch the next train cause the guy next to me was doing something strange with his hands, staring at me and mumbling like a freaky terrorist…and no, it wasn’t Kevin! I refused to stay on w/ that weirdo! Yes, I’m strange like that. Ha). went past downtown to the, crap, I think we were in the south loop area today? I can’t remember (hence, I need this blog if I ever want to be able to remember our vacations!). Anyhow, we hopped off of the subway, grabbed a trusty Starbucks tomato mozzarella sammich and were on our way to the Field Museum.Yes, we traveled 2,000 miles and ended up at Starbucks. But, have you had the sammich? So good, and the perfect brunch on the go!

The Field is at Museum Campus which is a big park right on the water. This was our first encounter with the lake, it is amazing to think it is actually a lake! It is huge, beautiful and a lot more blue than I had expected. I love it.

It turns out that today was “free day” at the Field! We probably wouldn’t have checked out this natural history museum without the free pass, but I’m glad we did. As we entered we were greeted by “SUE”. The largest T-Rex skeleton ever discovered. She was pretty awesome! We perused the museum, and the whole time kept saying “Darren would die here! Darren would love this! Darren, Darren, Darren…!”.

After the Field we headed towards the planetarium and stumbled upon a stand alone bike rental kiosk. If you aren’t familiar these are basically bike banks where you swipe your credit card, take the bike,  and return it to any of their locations when you’re done. Very cool. We decided to rent 2 bikes and head along the water north, up to Millennium park. It was about 70* and a little overcast, but overall perfect weather for a stroll through Chicago.

We rode through Grant park, stopped for some photos at the fountain, then headed up to Millennium Park. Once at Millennium (just about 75 minutes later) we turned our bikes in and walked through the park. The park is super cool There is a huge, very transformer-esque, open air music venue, the giant jelly bean and the super cool crown fountain. All were unique, impressive and fun to see!

After the park we headed even further north, up Michigan avenue, to Wendella boat tours. We did stop along the way for lunch, we ended up at Noodle and Co. We ate there in San Diego in July and loved it and broke down and went there today, promising ourselves we’d try something new SOON!

Once lunch was done we kept towards Wendella, took a small detour into the Gap where I got a new jacket I’ve had my eye on, it was on sale plus I had a gift card…SWEET! Then off to our boat we went.

The river here in Chicago is AWESOME. It had a Venice like feel because the city seemed to rise right up out of the river. There were buildings everywhere, all unique and with their own story. The tour was informative, relaxing and a great way to see the city. Did you know, they reversed the flow of the river?! We’re hoping Darren will explain it to us when we get home…cause even though the guide went over it, we don’t fully understand still.

Once the boat was over we headed back to the subway, hit Trader Joes for some snacks, then back to the house to rest up before dinner. We had planned on going to a jazz club for dinner and some music, Buddy Guy Legends, but it turns out they are closed tonight for a private event. Bummer. Though, I was sort of relieved. This meant less effort had to be put into the evening, and considering I was running on just about 4 hours of sleep, this was music to my ears. I laid down to read some Chicago stuff and was out before I got through one paragraph. Kevin worked (good husband, sucking it up and making this vacation happen even though he has work to do…I <3 him!) while I slept and then we headed out to a local sushi bar at around 9:30 for a late dinner. The food was fine. Nothing amazing (I miss Sushi Deli in San Diego!) but absolutely good, affordable and great service…so we were satisfied. We found ourselves a sweet little ice cream spot on the way home, picked up some scoops, and decided to call it a night.

Something funny…I’m blogging on the sofa, t.v. on, and I SWEAR there was just a commercial for Reno. RENO!? Who in their right mind would travel 2,000 miles to go to RENO!? I feel bad for whatever poor sucker falls for that ad. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love me some Reno…but that is only because I live 100 miles away. Anything more than that, and forget it!

Oh, not sure if you’re familiar with the recent publicity my company has received (if not, google Michale Lyon, he is the owner of my company, Lyon Real Estate). It has been quit the PR nightmare, and our new president has been thanking us for sticking w/ the company through this, my direct boss, who I love, has been telling us to remember that we are the company and we can pull through this and to just keep our heads up and focus on business…etc. Well, this has been going on for a few weeks now and today I received a mass e-mail from my boss (not approved by our company) saying he was resigning! WTF!? So, it looks like I could be looking for a new brokerage to work for soon as the fallout from Mr. Lyon seems to be spreading, and fast….ahhh! I’m really pissed, I love(d) my company and firmly believe(d) that they were the best of the best in our area, only to be potentially brought to our knees by one man. UGH. I can’t wait to get the inside scoop when I get home, or maybe sooner.

Alright. I think that covers our day. Tomorrow we’re…we’ll…you’ll just have to come back and read all about it tomorrow…won’t you?! Nite, nite!