Chicago Aussie Reunion

Chicago has been treating us well. We left off on Friday night when our reunion began to form as Sandra arrived at 2am at our hotel in downtown Chicago. She had quite an adventure braving the "el" from the airport but we are glad she finally made it!

Saturday: We rested Saturday morning and caught lunch at a bakery right underneath the train tracks (quaint, sort of). We wondered the city a little until Char arrived around 1:30pm and we met her on Michigan Ave. It was so great to officially begin our reunion. After getting settled in took the girls through Millennium Park and toured around "the bean" and water fountains. We walked up Michigan Avenue and decided to go up into the Hancock Building to get a great view of the city. Great views (especially from the bathrooms!) and we relaxed on the 96th floor for a while.

View from the Hancock Tower

Then we walked over the Gino's East for their famous Deep-Dish Pizza. Who knew you could have pizza with a cornbread crust? We still aren't too sure about that meal.

Our Gino's East pizza.

We tried to make it to the Navy Pier fireworks show but wound up catching the finale from the park on the way there (we're really good at timing things, ha).

The one firework captured.

Afterwards we had a night on the town hanging out at a dive bar we happened upon called Rossi's.

Sunday: After wondering around the city a bit, we had lunch at the infamous Billy Goat's Tavern. Those wonderful SNL lines were then quoted for the next 48 hours. "No Fries Chips" "No Pepsi Coke"... and we ate some great double cheezborgers. yum!

Our awesome Cheezborgers.

It was a gorgeous day so we walked down to Navy Pier and mingled amongst the crowds. We all loved the ambiance and views of the city as we relaxed at the tip of the pier for an hour or so. View of the city from Navy Pier.

The gang at Navy Pier.

Eventually we took a bus back into the city where we sat at ESPNzone long enough to realize the note on our table saying "because of the excitement of today's game there will be a minimum charge of $10 per person, per hour." So it didn't take us long to finish a beer and get to Harry Caray's before the start of the Lakers game. We hungout there for the basketball game and then headed on home... we wanted to get an early nights rest because of the Cubs game on Monday...

Monday: Well, there was no Cubs game. After traveling up to Wrigleyville and noticing the lack of additional Cubs fans, we figured out that we had the schedule wrong. We asked around though and found a great sports bar called Murphy's right beside the stadium that had awesome burgers and tots.

After a while, we took the "el" back towards the city where we stopped in Lincoln Park for some shopping and relaxing. Then we made several stops at fun parts of town and eventually stopped back by the hotel to change for our last dinner together :(

By 10pm we arrived at Giordano's for another dinner of Deep-Dish (luck for us this time the crust was not made of cornbread). We had a fabulous time reminiscing and eating lots of pizza. By lots of pizza we mean 1 slice, because it is seriously soooo filling, but delicious. We went back to our favorite bar Rossi's and explored a couple new places around Michigan Ave before heading back to the Hilton.
*Stay tuned for updated pictures from this day: we're having some technical difficulties.

Tuesday: We had to check out today by noon, so we all had a bunch of packing to do. Then we had a short excursion to Buckingham Fountain after a breakfast at Jamba Juice and Baci's. We made our way back to the hotel to rest for a bit in the gorgeous lobby before having to say goodbye to Sandra, and then Char.

The sad conclusion to our reunion.

It was so sad to see them go- best reunion ever (thanks for coming Scott). We've just been hanging out, running some last minute errands for the trip and saying our goodbyes to Chicago. We cannnnnnot believe we leave for CHINA tomorrow! Our flight is Wednesday at 10:30am (hopefully), so keep us in your thoughts.

Email this picture to CNN if you haven't heard from us in a week.

We will update again once we're in Asia! Cannot wait!

Cubs v. Braves, & Chicago Adventures

We are officially in Chicago! We arrived yesterday morning (Thursday) and checked into the best hotel ever... the Palmerhouse Hilton in downtown Chicago (thank you hotwire.com).

The Atrium of our Hotel.

And we have already gotten the hang of the "el," riding it wherever our hearts desire. The first step of our adventure was braving Wrigleyville in the madness of Cubs fans. Even though the Braves lost in the 11th inning (heartbreak) we still got to enjoy a 4-hour game in Wrigley Field for only $15 stand-room-only seats and we managed to sit for the whole game in awesome seats off of 1st base (thank you people who don't show up to games).

Rivals, but we remained civil.

Our awesome seats... or someone's awesome seats that we sat in :)

We made it back to the hotel through the sea of cheering Cubs fans and met up with Chris's cousin Lauren. After an Italian dinner at Exchequers, she showed us around the city a little bit as dusk, which made for some great photos. We crashed early after a long day of travel and site-seeing.

Night views around Chicago River.

Chris and Lauren in Millennium Park.

Today we left the hotel today (Friday) by 11am to do a bit of exploring. First stop was Millennium Park where we saw "the bean" and overheard an orchestra practicing for a concert in the outdoor amphitheater.

"The Bean" in Millennium Park.

We mossied into the Chicago Cultural Center for a 20-min gander around the impressive architecture and art exhibitions. Next was the trek up Michigan Ave. where we sat outside with our classic Starbucks drinks and people-watched the busy street. After some discussion we decided it would be culturally appropriate to take the "el" down to Chinatown for a look into our near future. We decided we really like the signs which include English translations under the Chinese characters... umm, we don't that will be custom when abroad. We also decided to save our appetite as we passed on preserved egg danishes and sea eel entrees (can't wait for local delicacies).

Chinatown!

Chris isn't so sure about the eel...

Then we hopped back on the "el" and stopped near Museum of Contemporary Photography which was closed for repair until July (thank you hotel tour map). So to begin our impromptu walking tour we headed to the nearby Buckingham Fountain for some photo opps and great views at the city.

Jenn and Chris in front of Buckingham Fountain.

Then we took the walking path along Lake Shore Drive (with great views of Lake Michigan) up to Navy Pier where we cut back into the city to make a must-needed stop for internet at the Apple store and explored the Garmin store on the Magnificent Mile of Michigan Avenue. Our handy hotel map recommended the Ghirardelli cafe and Hershey's store where we again sat outside for some people-watching beside the Historic Water Tower. We wandered into the Borders next door and happened upon the Asian Travel Book section. After both (separately) being told that it was a fire hazard to sit on the floor and read books (oops), we relaxed for an hour in the Borders cafe reading up on our future travel plans. Jennifer successfully researched all train tickets along our Malaysia and Thailand path, while Chris checked updates on the US Open scores on his Blackberry.
After looking for two separate piano bars and realizing our tourist attire was probably not appropriate, we wandered into the Embassy Suites and low and behold their door to the internet/computer room was open! So here we are sketchily hanging out in this hotel...

Free Internet!!

Tonight we gain a new face to our Chicago reunion and tomorrow morning even one more! We cannot wait for Sandra and Char to join!!