And All That Jazz

L and I decided a few weeks ago that since Valentine's Day also fell on a 3-day weekend this year that it might be fun to forgo Valentine gifts for each other and take a trip instead.  Since we're so close to so many places that we've never been, we plan to do this pretty frequently.  This was our first opportunity since we had so many visitors in January, and it couldn't have come at a better time.  After spending a full week completely housebound (after I'd worked already a full week at the house), we were both ready to be out of the house and away from snow.  So off we went... to Chicago.

Yeah, Chicago in the middle of the winter.  In case you were wondering, it's definitely cold there.  And windy.  It's not for the faint at heart.  But the weather was decent while we were there (ie, no snow or precipitation and even sunny!) and we got to do a lot of fun things. 

I could bore you with the minute-by-minute retelling of our trip, but instead I'll hit the highlights:

Day 1
Check in to hotel, which was AWESOME (Palmer Hotel -see pic below)
Puppet Bike
Lunch at Giordanna's
Lots of walking
Food coma/ nap - plan for drinks at the Empire Room at the top of Hancock Tower and dinner in Chinatown (it was Chinese New Year - seemed like a cool idea)
Nap ran long; not hungry anyway.  Get sucked into Olympics.
9:00 - finally decide to move and do something.  I decide to start the showering/ dressing process.  Slow-going process due to Olympics.
10:00 - Still in bathroom.  At this point I'd gotten sucked into the amazing magnifying mirror in the bathroom.  My eyebrows now look better than they have in years.
10:30 - Forgo original plans and just go get drinks in the hotel lounge.  We shut the place down.

Day 2
Brunch at the hotel
Art Institute of Chicago
Puppet Bike
Shopping on Michigan Ave.
Snack
Back to hotel to change for dinner and evening activities
Drinks at Empire Lounge
Dinner - originally planned for Chicago Pizza Oven Grinders but had to change plans on the fly.  No idea what the name of the place is that we ate at but it's a charming, little Italian place next door to CPOG.
Second City Show
Late night drinks at Miller's Pub (or something like that)

Day 3
Extremely late start.  Someone "ate something bad" but might actually be hungover.
Pepto obtained, and lunch for me.
Art Institute of Chicago - Round 2
Brief shopping stint for L.
Head home.

I now have experience using the "El", which apparently smelled like the packaging to a new Barbie doll or a perm (both according to the family sitting a few seats back in our car on the way into the city).  L and I just kind of thought it smelled like pee.  I much prefer the Metro in DC to the El.  Cleaner, bigger cars, and the stations are all less creepy and Phantom of the Opera-like. 

I forgot to take pics of the hotel (and most of the trip, as you'll soon see) but here's a pic of the lobby, courtesy of preservationnation.org:

You might be wondering what Puppet Bike is and why two adults "did" that two days in a row.  Friends, Puppet Bike is magical and heartwarming.  When we first came upon it, we didn't understand what was going on; we just saw a crowd of people standing around staring at something.  As we got closer, we could hear music (Baby Elephant Walk) and then L said he could see two cats fighting (I thought he meant real ones) and then I realized we were looking at a puppet show. 

And it might have been one of the cutest things I've ever seen.  I wish we'd stood around and watched longer but I was STARVING and we figured we'd catch more of the show after lunch (we didn't.  Puppet Bike Room was closed when we walked back by).  Consequently, we both really wanted to try and see another show on Sunday or Monday.  This is what we were able to catch on Sunday:



I do recommend catching a Second City show if you ever have the opportunity.  Very funny.  Maybe one of the cast members we saw will end up on SNL some day, as so many other alums of SC have.  If you go, don't fall victim to the "souvenir glass deal", because it's the easiest way to end up spending $60 on 4 beverages, which is ridiculous.