July 6th

On Friday we headed downtown. When we got off the Metra train we caught the free trolley (great idea, Mom!) and took it up to our hotel, The Allerton. I had made reservations via priceline (last time I do that) and they gave us tiny, smoking rooms with one double bed. Which would be less than desirable but ok for us, but we were meeting friends there who have three girls! When we got the hotel the check-in person was terribly gracious and upgraded both of our rooms to non-smoking, as well as upgrading our friends' room to two double beds. Still cozy, but at least the girls didn't have to sleep on the floor.


Anyway, we took the trolley around the loop...


...past the former Marshall Fields, which a lady on the train said may return to Marshall Fields instead of Macy's. Apparently angry Chicagoans haven't forgiven Macy's for changing the name and the stores aren't doing well, so Macy's is considering a deal of some sort.


The quintessential Chicago picture of the Fields clock...


... and the Chicago theater, where we saw a Peanuts Christmas show for Brad's birthday one year. It was an odd show, with David Benoit on the piano (fantastic), Al Jarreau singing jazzy-style (decent, but why was he there...?), and Melissa Manchester singing as well (also decent, but why...?). The show was cute but also a source of an ongoing joke in our family. At one point Melissa Manchester introduced the next song this way: "Here's one that's special to this time of year (late November) and special for the kids." And then she proceeded to sing a song whose chorus goes, "Don't cry out loud, just keep it inside. Learn how to hide your feelings..." Well, Melissa, we certainly get a picture of what your dysfunctional family Christmases must be like, but in our family we don't encourage the bottling up of emotions. Anyway, it's a joke to us now.


The trolley stopped at the water tower, just south of the Hancock Center.


We walked the two blocks south to the hotel (which happened to be across the street from the Apple Store), checked in, and then went out for some Garrett's Popcorn.


I got a mixed bag of cheese and caramel corn. Delish.


And Brad got a caramel cashew mix. We stopped in the shade and sat on a curb to eat for a bit.


By this time Brandon and Lori and kids were within an hour, so we went to get some lunch at Bandera, our little downtown secret place. It's on the second floor so it doesn't have an obvious entrance. Lucky us, that keeps it relatively quiet and the lines not too long. Plus, the food is great-- homestyle with a sophisticated touch. I had my usual-- rotisserie chicken sandwich with grassy mashed potatoes. I call them grassy as they have chopped up green stuff (parsley?) and it makes them look grassy. Brad had a burger. Yum.


We stopped on the way out for a pic in front of the rotisserie chickens, just like the pic we took on the day we got engaged. Brad proposed at Marshall Fields and then we got some dinner at Bandera and had our picture taken in front of the chickens. Sorry for the blur.


Soon after lunch the gang got into town. Brandon and Brad went to go park the car while the girlies and I got them checked in and got the luggage delivered. Then we went out for a little look-see before meeting up with the guys. B & L have three girls ages 7, 8, and 11 (is that right, B?), so they bee-lined it to the American Girl place, "just to look in the window" as they had brunch reservations the next day.


The guys met up with us soon after and we went up to the lounge on the 96th floor of the Hancock to get a view of the whole city. (Insider's tip: forget paying big bucks for the Sears Tower or Hancock observatories. Head to the lounge and see it all for free. If you're of the female persuasion, the best view is from the ladies' room.)

Then it was time for the big event. See, what brought us to Chicago at this particular date in the first place was the Police concert at Wrigley Field. Brad spent most of his high school years listening to The Police and often said, "Man, it would be so great to see them in concert with Brandon." So for our anniversary I bought tickets to the concert and invited B to come and bring the fam. What I also did was buy six tickets, thinking I could sell them at a little profit and offset the cost of the tickets. But so did every other Chicagoan, and by the time the concert rolled around the brokers were saying that there were 600 tickets for sale. Eek. I lost a bit of sleep worrying that I had wasted a ton of money, and finally gave up the worry to God. He gave me peace that all would be ok whether or not I sold the tix, and it was an opportunity for me to learn about the incredible grace God and my husband both have for me.

Anyway, so the guys and I went up to Wrigley on the red line El. I made a little sign out of the paper bag from Garrett's with the intention to walk up and down the street until the tix were sold. I was warned by our hotel concierge, though, that it was a dangerous undertaking as the real police (not the band) would arrest me and tear up my tickets since I was not a licensed broker. Eek. But heck, I had my AAA card with me as a bond card so I decided to take my chances.


With 45 minutes to spare, I sold one ticket at face value to a drunk guy (had he not been drunk he would not have paid full price) and the three others to a broker at a slight loss. But thank God, they were sold. I headed back down to Michigan Avenue to meet the girls at the American Girl place where window shopping had turned into full-fledged shopping.


The three little girls were SO much fun, and just a joy to be around. They were also learning how to budget their spending money, which is hard to do at the LGMKATAGP (Little Girl Mecca Known As The American Girl Place).

We walked around a bit more on Michigan Ave. I spotted this R2D2 mailbox.


We also went into the Gap before heading home to the hotel. I crashed in our room, finished off my bag of popcorn for dinner, chatted with family, and watched some tv before Brad returned from the concert. This was the view from our window.