Chicago With Cathy

Last month I took a trip up to Chicago with Cathy to visit her family and be tourists extraordinaire. We managed to see every single family member, explore a ton of sites and had the best time ever! Here's a summary of all of our fun adventures.

Thursday, 8/13: We arrived in the afternoon and were picked up by Cathy's brother, Craig. We headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's (where we were staying) and then headed out to meet my cousin Jamie and her boyfriend Tim for dinner before she ran back off to vet school for the year.

Friday, 8/14: We woke up early to meet up with Cathy's sister Nancy and her two kids, Sofia and Damon. Friday was a downtown day, and on our list were the Willis (Sears) Tower, Millennium Park and Buckingham Fountain. We lucked out big time because Friday ended up being the most beautiful, clear day and perfect for going to the top of the Tower. Also, they had just installed the new glass boxes to step out onto and they were the coolest things ever! Millennium Park was awesome too - I really l wanted to see the Cloud Gate sculpture, aka "the bean" and it didn't disappoint, it was really freaking awesome. The coolest part was going underneath, inside it and looking up - there were so many reflections, you can't even tell what the shape of it is. Buckingham Fountain was absolutely gorgeous as well so I'm glad we had time to walk over there too. Once we were done with our downtown adventures for the day, we met up with Uncle Paul and had dinner at their favorite Tapas restaurant in Lincoln Park, Ba Ba Reeba. To say the meal was amazing would be a total understatement - I don't think I've ever been so stuffed full of food in my life!

The new glass boxes at the Willis Tower


The bean


Buckingham Fountain


Dinner at Ba Ba Reeba

Saturday, 8/15: Another early morning, we woke up and met with another of Cathy's sisters, Becky and her two kids Lauren and Nick (my other cousin Phil and Becky's husband, Uncle Paul, couldn't hang out with us for the day, but we did get to see them that morning). We headed down to the waterfront to watch the Chicago Air & Water Show. It was such a beautiful, warm day and we found a great spot under a tree before it got too crowded, so we had a great view of all the planes. After the show was over, we headed back to Aunt Becky's house and cooked dinner and played with their two adorable puppies - Sarge, a mastiff and Roman, a mastiff/doberman mix. Even though they're still puppies, they are huge! I can't wait to see them all grown up :)


With Nick, Aunt Becky, Cathy and Lauren at the Air & Water Show

Sunday, 8/16: After a HUGE family breakfast, we spent the day with Cathy's brother, Craig and his wife and sons, Darlene, Henry and Matthew at the Brookfield Zoo. I love going to zoos and aquariums whenever I travel so I was really excited about this day. Also, having the two boys with us was so much fun, they are the perfect age to have fun at the zoo with! Thanks to Buck, my old Assistant Supervisor from Discovery Cove, we got set up with the people over at The Seven Seas and got to check out the dolphins and Pinnipeds behind the scenes. The boys thought this was really cool and even got splashed by the dolphins, which they got a pretty big kick out of. After the zoo, we met up with Grandma and Grandpa for some Chicago style deep dish pizza and beer (which was on the top of my must-do list). Everyone knows how much I love NYC, however Chicago pizza will always win over NYC pizza for me! Sorry New-Yorkers...


Brookfield Zoo with Matthew & Henry


Pizza and beer, YUMM!

Monday, 8/17: Cathy & I decided to head back downtown on our own to visit The Art Institute of Chicago and do a Chicago River/lake boat tour. The main thing I wanted to see at the art exhibit was Georges Seurat's "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte" and it didn't disappoint! It was so huge and gorgeous. They also had a pretty cool special exhibit about wine drinking/making throughout the years and I've decided that they just don't make pimp cups like they used to... After the art institute, we headed over to catch our boat tour. The morning fog that we thought might ruin this for us ended up burning off for the most part and it ended up being really cool. We got great views of all the cool buildings and some really awesome skyline views. After the boat tour, we headed back to the house to get ready for dinner over at my cousin David's house. Grandma and Grandpa went with us, as well as David's parents and Cathy's sister and brother-in-law, Aunt Janis and Uncle Don. It was so great to get to see them. David ended up being a really good cook and Debbie Dell got a check-up from her favorite computer expert ;)


Georges Seurat's "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte"


river/lake boat tour


Uncle Don~Cathy~Melissa~Aunt Janis~David

Tuesday, 8/18: Our last day in Chicago, boo! We spent the day with Aunt Nancy, Sofia and Damon again and headed over to the Museum of Science and Industry. Our main reason for going there was to see the Harry Potter exhibit (yes, all 5 of us are that big of nerds...). It was pretty cool to see so many props/costumes/etc. that were used in the movies. The only thing that sucked was they didn't let you take pictures, but I still managed to sneak a few when the employees weren't watching, ha ha (of course, I couldn't use the flash, but oh well). The other really cool thing we saw was the German sub, the U-505. I didn't realize that was there and it was a little overwhelming to be there. It's kind of scary to think of the amount of evil and ignorance that once lived inside it. After the museum, we went back to Grandma/Grandpa's and had dinner and spent some time with them, and the last of Cathy's siblings, Uncle Frank, who brought with him his adorable Pomeranian, Princess.


Museum of Science & Industry


U-505


Grandpa~Melissa~Grandma

Wednesday we pretty much woke up, cleaned up all our stuff, said our goodbyes and headed to the airport. I could have probably stayed another week to finish doing all the stuff we had on our list, but we had such a great time and I guess we now have an excuse to try to get back up there soon :)

Chicago Pics