Chicago Architecture Tour

Me & Christy on the bow of the "First Lady"

Marina City

My Office Building!! 600 West Chicago

The Architecture River Tour was an amazing way to see the city and all of it's different types of architecture. The tour guides explained all the architecture styles and they told stories about the brilliant people who designed and built the City of Chicago.

SkyDeck Chicago: The Ledge

The Ledge is 103 floors over Wacker Drive and the Chicago River in Willis Tower (AKA Sears Tower). Still the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere!  The Ledge has 4 boxes which are comprised of three layers of half-inch thick glass laminated into one seamless unit.

The most amazing view of the city!!

The Field Museum

Everything from Dinosaurs to Hippos to Birds and even an underground exhibit that "shrinks" you to the size of a bug!!Christy and I had a blast discovering the world around us and looking at ALOT of really old crap!! hahaha We both really loved the Egypt Exhibit!!

Chicago Style Pizza

Chicago style pizza is like eating an entire gourmet pizza meal in one slice. From what I have heard the 4 main places to get Chicago style(stuffed pizza, deep dish, etc)  is Gino's East, Uno, Lou Malnati's and Giodanos. So far I have only made it to three out of the four but all of them have been really good! Above is a picture of my Mom, Pat, Johnny and I at Gino's East December 2009.

There are some conflicting stories about who originated the "stuffed pizza". Some say it was the Ike Sewell, the founder of Uno and others say it was Rudy Malnati,a chef at Uno (whose son later opened up Lou Malnati's) Who knows??? Either way its all good and you have to try it when you visit Chicago!

North Ave. Beach on Lake Michigan

So apparently beautiful beaches aren't just in Florida and California. North Ave. Beach, which is in the heart of Chicago in Lincoln Park, is such a gorgeous beach. There are two piers on either side that shape the beach & behind you is the skyline of Chicago. It felt a little strange to be laying at the beach on a lake in such a big city but what a great experience. The beach house is shaped like a huge ocean liner and has this great little restaurant called Castaways. The breeze was blowing & the view was fantastic.

Chicago Blues Festival- June 11, 2011

Since Chicago is named the "Blues Capitol of the World", you know that their Blues Festival is going to be awesome!! The weather was rainy but we had such a great time jamming out to Billy Branch & the Sons of Blues!! We brought some blankets, some refreshments and just kicked back and relaxed!

Chinatown-March 2011

One weekend in March, Johnny and I met Carrie and Joaquin down in the city and we went to Chinatown for lunch and some exploring. I am pretty sure Joaquin's favorite part was the bus ride to and from Chinatown. He was so excited the minute he heard we were going on the bus! Such a little city boy, I love it!!

We ate some of the best Chinese food that I have ever had in my life, Chinese takeout will never be the same!! All of the shops were really interesting. They had a bunch of Chinese medicine shops with all of these dried sea creatures and plants. I have no idea what those are used for but I am not sure if I want to know.
We did enjoy the Chinese candy store and picked out some awesome candy.

There was this plaza that had statues of Chinese zodiac symbols. Carrie was the rabbit, Johnny was the monkey, Joaquin was the bull and of course I was the rat. The statues also had personality descriptions and traits of each zodiac and they were pretty accurate for the most part.

We had a really fun day checking out the 2nd largest Chinatown in the US. We will definitely be going back for some of that amazing Chinese food!!!