Chicago

Friday was a bit chilly in Chicago but the sun was shinning and we were on a mission to move around the city.  We started on a hike toward Millennium Park with a quick stop at Starbucks for some refreshments.

You really can’t miss Millennium park with its massive well known Bean structure.

 It’s reflections give you some pretty cool views of the Chicago skyline.

After walking a couple of miles further down to check out our dinner location we hopped on the subway back toward our hotel to grab some lunch.

I had spotted the Cheesecake Factory immediately after arriving at our hotel and since we don’t have one anywhere near us, it was a stop on my must eat list.  I felt like we ate a conservative lunch with the Thai lettuce wraps and an order of fried cheese but yet again our waitress complemented us on how well we ate.  After lunch we headed back out to catch our city boat tour when our noses caught the smell of sweet popcorn that warranted a small detour. 

  We knew we had found a popular place when we saw the line out the door for Garrett’s Popcorn.

I have to say that it is well worth the wait. YUM! With popcorn in hand we headed down to the river to catch our boat for a Chicago architectural tour.  I have to say, Chicago is full of so many interesting buildings. 

The building to the left is so big (I think they said 8 miles long) it used to have its own zip code and the one on the right was my favorite because the widows gave a kaleidoscope effect.

There were so many interesting buildings, I don’t want to bore you with them.  We really enjoyed the tour except Friday was our coldest day in Chicago so it took us a while after the tour to defrost. 

Our dinner Friday night we decided to check out a place that Kevin had found online and managed to get groupon for. 

I think Kevin had been drooling over the menu for this place for the two months he spent planning this trip.  His wait was well worth the yummy food we ate.

I got the Burgers and waffle fries and Kevin got the Chicken parmesan with butter garlic waffle's and they did not disappoint.  For dessert they brought us a red velvet waffle…

Of course the waffle was a little on the small side (by vacation standards) so on the way home we swung back by the Cheesecake factory for some treats.

The one in the back is Oreo dream and the one in the front is snickers.  All I can say is YUM!  It was a darn good thing we did a lot of walking on Friday!  More Chicago to come!