Chicago

As is no surprise, many of my work trips are part work and part vacation. I was fortunate to travel to Chicago in early August for a work conference and there were plenty of "vacation" aspects to this trip. I am most certainly not a city girl but I really love visiting Chi-town.

Because this was my 5th trip to Chicago, I have seen and done many of the city's highlights. There were only two things that I had hoped to experience this go round that I hadn't yet been able to do. The first was to take an architecture tour of the city by boat on the Chicago River. To maximize my time, this was the first thing that I planned and did when I arrived on the first day. Bonus - the company I went with included both a tour on the river AND on Lake Michigan. 

Trump is right on the river. I ate brunch here on my last visit to Chicago.

I have always been intrigued by this interesting shaped building. One of the craziest parts is imagining parking my car (on the lower 15 or so decks) and backing up to the edge right over the river. Yikes.

The hotel where I stayed and where my work conference was held is the last one below on the right. I did not mind the view of the river from the hotel at all. It was definitely an ideal place to be staying in the city for a few days.

View of Chicago as we were exiting the Chicago River

Going through the locks to enter Lake Michigan

The locks closing behind us as we entered the lake...

You leave the Chicago River and enter Lake Michigan right beside Navy Pier. The restaurant pictured below on the pier called Riva was where our group held a dinner one evening there for about 80 people. This was the only "planning" I was responsible for on this trip.

Looking at the end of Navy Pier from Lake Michigan

More of the city skyline

I love how the clouds were so low that they were covering some of the Hancock building (building with 2 towers on top barely peeking through the clouds). I can't imagine eating in The Signature Room on the 95th floor (where I've dined or had drinks a few times) and being among the clouds!

The beautiful weather yielded beautiful flowers that lined the streets. The city is so clean and nice to walk around. I especially enjoyed stopping now and again to take pictures of the landscaping.

My 2nd day in Chicago was mostly free until the first opening reception that night. I started out with a great brunch spot within walking distance from the hotel.

Then I took a long walk along the lake for a few hours, which was super close and convenient to the hotel.

Then I headed inland to see a few sights as I walked back towards the hotel...

Buckingham Fountain

Millennium Park

There's me on the right...

After a full day and half of meetings, I took a break one afternoon and walked along the Chicago River.

Then I found a small grassy area right beside the river where I relaxed and read for a bit. It felt so good to get some fresh air (and tackle my 650+ book club book)!

And then dinner (with a VIEW!) later that evening at Cite. It was quite the table to be able to enjoy the city from the 70th floor and see all the way up the coast.

A front row seat for the sunset

The conference wrapped up midday on Saturday but I did not attend any of the sessions this day. Instead, I planned to meet my cousin for brunch at Tweet. But first, I walked along the Magnificent Mile, which again like everything else, was super close to the hotel. After browsing a bit, I grabbed a taxi to head north to see my cousin.

The weather was perfect (warm!) and we snagged a great little table out front under an umbrella. We sat and chatted for hours and enjoyed a delicious brunch. They had an awesome gluten free menu that made me wish I could go back many times so that I could sample all of their yummy dishes.

The GF french toast was tempting but I opted for the quiche, salad, and fruit option.

Ashley is a cousin who is my age on my Dad's side (our Dad's are brothers). I really do not get to see her very frequently, maybe once a year, so it was great that it worked for both of us to catch up.

My 2nd goal on this trip was to go to a Cubs game, which is something that I have never done. After brunch, I made my way to Wrigley Field to enjoy an afternoon of baseball. The weather couldn't have been better. Locals were saying that the week I was there was seriously the best week of the year weather-wise. I suppose the work meeting couldn't have been planned any better then.

Moments/events like these are when I really appreciate my nicer camera and it seems worth it to lug it around with me everywhere. It didn't hurt to have pretty decent seats as well.

How cool to have stadium seating on buildings/homes right outside the park! At first glance, I thought those seats were part of the park. I heard people rent these locations out to groups for parties. 

An old fashioned scoreboard

It's not baseball without Take Me Out to the Ball Game

That night after the game was the last work event. These events are typically at neat venues where we have dinner and dancing. I always enjoy the great band but dancing doesn't seem appropriate in this type of environment. The event was held in the building on the end of Navy Pier. 

This is such a random picture but it's the only one I have from the evening. (I actually snagged it from the professional photographer who was hired.) This was a very small portion of some of our group.  

We capped off the night with fireworks right off of the pier. It was pretty awesome watching the fireworks with the city in the background.