Chicago Ten

This blog will return to its regularly scheduled program of "lots of pictures of my kids" in a few short days...

For now, Nat and I have traveled back in time and we are living the dream in the big city-- a 4 day trip to Chicago to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary.

Ten years???  How in gods name has it been 10 years since this day??

These 10 years have been quite the ride!  I've love the adventured with this wonderful man, and the life we have created for ourselves and our growing family.  The majority of this first decade of our marriage has been focused almost entirely on these little ones...

...and all the work/joy involved in helping them to grow into the humans they are meant to be.

But this week?  It's been just about us.

Thanks to Nat's mom, who kept our kiddos at the lake for the week, my husband and I got to travel and explore and adventure, just the two of us.  A trip back in time!  And I have to say it was pretty amazing.  Responsible for and accountable to no one but ourselves, we walked and discovered and talked and enjoyed the heck out of Chicago.

The approach.  We had a smooth, quick drive west, on a beautiful bright Tuesday...

 Settled in to the charming 3rd floor walk-up we'd rented from AirBnB (which totally felt like home as our host has very similar tastes in music and books to our own) and then walked around the Edgewater neighborhood, discovering that we were about 5 blocks from the beach.

Also, only a short block to "Patio Beef" (Chicago appears to have a thing for Vienna Beef...)

... and about 1000 steps to the "L" station, which we then took downtown.

Bought ourselves each a 3 day pass and we had a grand time using our "magic wands" to ride the trains and buses all over the city.  I have a tremendous, nigh irrational love for rail transit.  I imagine if I lived in a huge city and relied on transit every day, my ardor might cool a bit.  But as a traveler-- the transit rides are a big part of the fun...

 Downtown, night one:  Sunset at the Signature lounge on the 96th floor of the Hancock building.

Totally worth the overpriced drinks.   Plus we met some very nice drunk people (a mother in town visiting her son and his fiance) who were highly entertaining as the gave us the MOST enthusiastic recommendations for all the things...

Morning!  Day 2!  Up bright and early to plan a transit route and see the city.

 Millennium Park...

 Hello City!

 A few hops over on the "L" and we were in the South Loop, heading to explore the Museum Campus waterfront.

The crosswalks and sidewalks were covered in these action verbs.  We spent  a bit of time trying to perform each action as we passed it.  Hilarity ensued.  Crazy tourists!

So yeah. The view of the city from the Museum district?
Wow. Totally worth the hike out there.

 I must confess that we did not visit a single one of the iconic museums during our time in Chicago.  We admired the outsides!  But we were stingy with both our money and our time and prioritized architecture, parks, and vistas on this trip.

Awesome little breakwall/walkway that wound all the way around the museum area, right on the water (literally.  The waves broke right onto the path...)

Here we have coffee, Nat, and Amandaa mugging for the camera in front of the magical city backdrop, Could've stayed there all day.

But-- we'd set our sights on visiting the Prairie Avenue historic district and touring a couple of houses on "free Wednesday."  So off we marched.  A good mile, snaking our way past Soldier field, more parks, through underpasses and over pedestrian walkways.

We had a fascinating tour of the Glessner house ...

.. and the Clarke house (1837, oldest house in Chicago)

 ...and snacked on the lawn in this pretty park before walking BACK over to the Museum campus, because we had a little time and we HAD to get back to that water.

Lake Michigan is this impossible, tropical blue... I kind of thought all great lakes were the same-- but this one had much more of an ocean feel than Lake Erie does... 

 We spent a delightful respite having some ice cream and a Lime-a-Rita on the 12th street Beach, which we christened "Sea Glass Beach" due to the heaps of sea glass we found there.  Seriously, so much it almost wasn't fun to look.  Then, we took a nap on the grass behind the Adler Planetarium.
A perfect afternoon,

To finish the day: Slow moving boats!
Water Taxi from the Museum to Navy Pier:

A bit of time wandering the Pier.  Opted not to ride the Centennial wheel due to lines, cost, and plenty of great views without it.

We did have hot dogs and beer, which seemed like the best option around here...

The sun is setting behind the buildings.... magical effect.

Next boat:  River Architecture Cruise.

A fascinating historical tour of the skyscrapers of Chicago. Some of them, anyways, because there are SO many...

Our necks hurt from looking up at all the awesomeness.

We took the "fireworks tour" so we stayed out on the boat til dark to see the show.  Then, we proceeded to leave Navy Pier RIGHT when everyone else in the world did.  Had to wait for a while for the 66 bus back to the Red Line.  In the soft night air with no one to look after but ourselves.  Poor us...

We walked over 10 miles on day 2.  We barely made it back to our Thorndale stop, trudging the 1000 steps and 3 flights to our home away from home before crashing...

Day 3:  FLW architecture and city wanderings...

Opted to take the van instead of the train to get to Oak Park, in order to save 45 minutes of travel time. Turns out Oak Park is easy to get to (through a very UN scenic route), easy to park in, and absolutely wonderful,

We started with coffee and a sublime vanilla scone at a local patisserie, then toured Wright's first home and studio.  What a fantastic place, and a truly informative tour.  SO much to see and take in when visiting these masterpieces.  Wright was, it turns out, a manipulative and egotistical man, who hid entrances behind complex "Paths of Discovery" to be sure visitors were paying attention to HIS architecture, and purposefully drawing your eyes from one feature to another when you enter a room.  But-- such a genius!  you love the manipulation the whole time it is happening.

 After our tour, we did a "FLW hunt" in the surrounding neighborhood and discovered 10 of his houses.  It was a blast.

 Tudored this one up, didn't he?

 This one was one of our favorites.  Could picture myself living here, for sure.

Lunch and shopping around in the adorable town center....

... then a short drive to visit the planned community of Riverside.  Which was just as adorable as you might expect,

 And, back to the city!  Drove home, parked the van, and took the train into town to search out one more Wright masterpiece-- the atrium and staircase of The Rookery.

 We were too late to join a scheduled tour, and there were signs on every stairway instructing visitors to not go beyond that point.   But there were no signs on the elevators!  So Nat just jumped on one and up we went to the 8th floor, then we took these stairs to the 10th...

An amazing building and kind of fun sneaking around... I was almost too nervous to enjoy it, the rule-follower that I am...

By this time it was about 5:30.  The streets were swarming with the people of Chicago heading home from work.  We joined them for a short walk across town to find the Chicago Cultural Center, home of the world's largest Tiffany glass dome.

 And these awesome stairs.

 And this huge empty room.

And random galleries full of contemporary art, including an installation of macrame plant holders.

And a lounge full of Herman Miller furniture, there when you need a rest.

It was awesome. 

Then, just for fun, we thought we'd check out a rooftop bar that had been recommended to us.  It was way too hip for us... but the view was pretty incredible.

 We contented ourselves with a happy-hour priced burger and beer meal and a walk along the river before calling it a night.

Here's a view of our cute little apartment-for-the-week...

 And of course, our big gift-- a marathon IKEA trip on the way home, starting with breakfast in the nearly empty store (I LOVE Ikea breakfast, it turns out!) and ending with the purchase of a new sleeper-sofa for the point.

A fantastic trip, and fantastic way to celebrate 10 years of marriage to my best friend and ultimate travel companion.  We had fun together the whole darn time, enjoying every view and every experience, free to go where our feet wanted to take us. The weather couldn't have been better and Chicago really knocked our socks off with all of its beauty and water and parks and excitement.  We'll be coming back for sure.