Chi-Town was a trip. I was pretty nervous and did a lot of research before the trip. It ended up being the best time. The flight there was great and easy. We checked into the hotel and I noticed just at the corner was the Harry Potter store. Um excuse me, I was excited! It was on our list, but I didn't realize how close it was. The entire store was decorated so well. All of the details I could have stayed for hours just looking around. They also had everything you could think of to buy that was in the Magical world. I loved it and came back with my souvenirs.
First day we went to the Lincoln Park zoo. It is a free zoo in Chicago so we didn't expect much. The zoo was great! It was big and had all the animals; lions, bears, monkeys, gorillas, zebra, giraffes, and way more. We were there during the day, but they had all of the christmas lights set up which was so fun to see and get us in the holiday spirit. Benjamin and Brandon were extra the whole time and made Karmen and I laugh all day.
After the first day of games the team met up at the Cloud aka the bean. All of the fall colors, huge trees and old buildings were stunning. I put all of my places I wanted to see into AI and it made me a map of where to go and in what order. Our view from our hotel room was seriously amazing. We could see all the towers and buildings being up so high.
We did some shopping and lots of exploring. We hit up the Architectural museum, the Chicago theater and multiple restaurants, buildings and views we had to see.
We met up with Benjamin's teammate Kai and his dad at the Ice cream museum. It was unlimited ice cream! They gave us ice cream sandwiches, cups of ice cream, shakes, ice cream cones and even a Ice cream Chicago dog with ice cream in a pink hot dog bun. Each room would have games or activities. Mini golf, arcade games, guess the scent, thousands of bananas, interactive space travel room, animal cookie rides, and ended with a giant pool of sprinkles. Each room would also have different ice cream you could try. We were there for a couple hours and were entertained the whole time.
We did more exploring and shopping. We tried the top three Chicago Pizza places that kept getting recommend to us. I have decided I am a New york pizza girl.... but Chicago popcorn straight from the source was divine! We could have brought bags home it was so delicious. We went to Alice and Wonder and made a souvenir hat with hundreds of patches to pick from. We did the Nutella store and the four store Starbucks reserve factory. We explored the American Girl doll store while face timing Navy. We went into Rolex and they let Benjamin try on a watch, those are some crazy prices, but he got the full experience which was fun.
Our only experience with some danger was after 8:30 one night, outside the Chicago theater a girl was by us screaming and crying that she was lost and wanted to go home, we were trying to help and another local stepped in to guide her to the train. In the mean time a couple guys wearing masks surround us, so we hurried and went into a store by the security guard. We had Benjamin and Brandon with us that are 6' 3" and 6' 5" and that didn't deter them at all. Then as soon as our Uber arrived a guy completed out of it tried to come with us. We were all fine, but decided Chicago after 8 in the dark was a different place we did not need to explore. 
One night we were walking around and turned the corner and Macy's had a whole side of their building with their Christmas display windows and giant trumpets over the entire building. I absolutely loved it all. Each night more and more Christmas decor would be displayed around downtown. Benjamin and his team played great and ended up losing in the semi finals of their bracket. Chicago was a dream. I would love to go back one day and am grateful I got the experience with Benjamin. The city and being able to walk and explore with a chill in the air and holidays and lights all over made for a spectacular weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment