“If You Can’t, You Must!”

Thursday, September 16th

We awoke this morning to a cloudy sky that soon opened up and dumped rain on the city. Thankfully we were still in bed when this happened and not walking the streets yet. We finally crawled out of bed at 9:30 and decided to take the subway down to the John Hancock center (the 3rd tallest building in Chicago) which is at the beginning of the Magnificent Mile (one mile of supreme shopping and sightseeing).

Once out the door the rain had subsided and it was just below 70* with blue sky peeking through the clouds. The subway dumped us out just a few blocks from John Hancock and the moment I got a glimpse of the building my palms started to sweat. Kevin knew he was going to head to the top, and I had considered it yesterday, when I had viewed the building from 2 or so miles away, but suddenly it looked a lot bigger than I had realized!

We headed down to the lobby (we passed a church that looked like a mini-Notre Dame on the way along with other amazing bulidings, Chicago is an architects dream!!) of the Hancock Observatory and it was virtually empty! No line, just buy your tickets and head on up. Crap. That meant I had to make a decision then and there. After about 5 minutes of going back and forth, arguing with myself, shaking, etc, I decided I could NOT do it. I was too afraid and felt sick. So Kevin bought a ticket, grabbed the camera and headed up on his own.

I stood in the lobby feeling beyond disappointed in myself. It was like the London Eye and the Eiffel Tower all over again. Epic FAIL! I tried to reason with myself, “it is safe, it is fine, etc…” as did the lady at the ticket counter “you’ll be fine, the elevator is fast, the space is wide open…”. Then, as I stood there I remembered my new favorite quote “If you can’t, you MUST”. It took me about 10 minutes of repeating the quote to myself…but eventually I ran up to the ticket counter, threw down my credit card and said “hurry up, before I change my mind!!!”. Kevin had texted me from the top telling me how amazing it was and offering to come back down to get me. I told him to stay put, and that I didn’t want him to do that.

So, there I was, all alone, big girl panties in hand, heading up to the 94th floor allllll by myself. I got in line, and waited for the elevator. The attendant asked me how I was doing, I said “crappy, I really don’t want to do this!!!” and he laughed at me. I felt like I was getting on Tower of Terror all over again! He reminded me that the elevator is the fastest in the nation and that I’d be at the 94th floor in only 40 seconds! I’m not sure that helped his case.

Thankfully three other people got in line so I wouldn’t be making the journey alone. Turns out the couple was from San Diego, were super nice, and willing to talk to me the entire 40 seconds to keep my mind off of the trip. The attendant hadn’t lied. The elevator was FAST. My ears popped half way up, then again, then again. We were moving! When we got to the top the doors opened and all I could do was focus on looking for Kevin. I forced myself to NOT look out the windows, and I just scanned the room. It is a giant “doughnut” room, 360* views, and I couldn’t find him ANYWHERE. So I decided to walk around the building. NOTHING! I freaked out. Called his cell. No service. WTF?! Was he in the lobby!?! I headed back to the elevator and spotted him around the corner. RELIEF! He was staring out the window and I ran up and grabbed his back, he turned around and I SWEAR to you I haven’t seen him look at me like that since the day I walked down that hot, hot aisle in Vegas. Heck, he may have been even MORE impressed that I showed up on THIS day!!! I did it. And you know what, it was beyond amazing up there. The view of Chicago is unlike any other. We spent at least 45 minutes working our way around the observatory, spending a lot of time looking in each direction. It was spectacular.

We headed back down to earth, hungry and ready to shop. We perused the Mag Mile for a big, hit H&M, Forever 21, Columbia, and some others and then were starving and had to eat. We stumbled upon this great place called “Soupbox”. A huge variety of fresh soup and salad, both for $11! We walked in and the place smelled fabulous. We had a few samples, Red Lentil and Veggie Soup, Beef Stew, Chicken Tortilla, Potato and White Cheddar….how does one decide?! Well, then we tried the clam chowder, WINNER! Two bread bowls of soup and side salads please!

After lunch we finished walking the Mag Mile. It was fun, but not necessarily Mag. We decided that it would have been more Mag had our budget allowed us to shop to our hearts content, but we had bigger and better things to spend our money on (food, duh) so we left the Mile empty handed and headed to Downtown.

We crossed Michigan St. Bridge and walked along the river down Wacker Drive. I can’t tell you how beautiful this city is. I had pictured it as crowded, dirty and full of brash people, but none of this is true! The city is practically spotless, beautiful and everyone we have encountered is beyond friendly. I <3 Chicago!

We cruised through downtown, shopped some more, checked out historic buildings like the Macy’s on State Street, The Chicago Theater, got a closer view of the Sear’s Tower, and made our way to the Art Institute of Chicago. On our way to the A.I. we passed “American Dogs”. I just happened to have a groupon for that spot, free dog, fries and a drink! It had been a few hours since lunch, so eating again sounded like a plan! It was about 5pm and these dogs hit the spot! I had the Chicago (veggie) dog which had Mustard, Onions, Relish, Pickles, Tomatoes, and Sport Peppers. DELICIOUS. Best hot dog ever. Kevin had the regular dog with cheese, ketchup and relish. C’mon K, live a little!!! Haha.

We ate our dogs and headed to the A.I. We were across the street from it when the mob of people came into view (this was free night!!). The line stretched down the stairs, around the corner and half way down the city block. CRAP. We went back and forth, should we just come back and pay tomorrow? No! We sucked it up and got in line with the masses. After about 5 minutes an employee walked by and said “there is no waiting on the other side of the street”. Sweet! We headed to the other side and practically walked right in.

I should let Kevin tell you about the A.I. I mean, I like art, think it is cool to see the famous pieces, etc…but that boy loves him some oil on canvas. We got to see lots of famous pieces and artists. Waterlillies, Haystacks, American Gothic, VanGough, Monet, Renoir, Rothko, Pollock and Cezanne to mention a few. Very impressive collection, and a stunning building. Any art lover would be happy to spend a day here I’m sure! We spent just under 2 hours and were good to go.

The sun had set and we decided to walk through Millennium Park again so I could see my “jelly bean” at night. It was gorgeous, of course. This has to be my favorite spot in Chicago. I just love it. There was a live band playing near by and we spent some time just staking in the sites. After the sky darkened we hopped on the bus and made our way back up to John Hancock. We had upgraded our tickets earlier that day so we could return at night to see the city after dark. Again, it was breathtaking.

After the Hancock we headed over to the famous Giordino’s for deep dish-stuffed pizza. The wait, an hour. But, you can pre-order your pizza so it is ready just about when you sit down. So two beers or so later and we were in our booth waiting for our pizza. I had opted to get the medium, because, why not!? That was probably a bit of overkill. I had no idea how big this pizza really would be. It had to weigh at least 10lbs, probably more! It was HUGE. But, totally delicious. The sauce was yummy and the crust was this buttery pastry, not your typical dough. Mmm. We ate 3 of the 8 pieces, had the rest packed up, and grabbed a taxi back to our house.

It was about 10:30 when we walked in the door. We had been on our feet, exploring the city for 12 hours, and were completely exhausted. I took a shower in the most amazing shower I’ve ever been in (I’ll have to write a blog just about our house here!!!) and then passed out just after midnight.Somehow Kevin managed to work until 2:30 in the morning.

We both woke up at around 10 this morning. Kevin was bummed we slept so late, but I reminded him, all of our vacations do have to be exhausting alllll of the time! He agreed, and we both got out of bed and realized how sore we really are!!! We’re old. Haha. f

Today we’re taking it easy. We’ll walk over to Lincoln Park, there is supposed to be a great zoo there, and probably get more hot dogs for lunch (I have another coupon). We have to save our energy, because tonight is the night!!! The reason we’re here to being with. Tonight is night one, of two, that we’re heading to Wrigley Field to see Dave Matthews and Jason Mraz play together. Tonight we have general admission, so we’re going to get there early to get as close to the stage as possible and will be on our feet alllllll night long…so we’re pacing ourselves!

If you’ve made it this far, I’m impressed. Today my shout out goes to my Mom and Angela…they are the glue that is keeping our little life back in Sacramento together while we’re gone!! Poor Angela had to field calls from Nana all day yesterday…hahahaha…gotta love Nana! She is doing well and her leg seems to still be moving in the right direction. When I talked to Nana yesterday she told me that the Dr. gave her leg the “thumbs up” yesterday. Yay! Hopefully she’ll be home soon. And Mom, poor Mom is stuck with our pack of dogs who are keeping her busy I’m sure! Thanks ladies. You rock!!!

Now, I think I’ll go have some cold pizza for breakfast.