Chicago Fun

Doug and I arrived in Chicago this morning close to noon.  We had planned on taking Cal and Maggie to the Art Institute, but Cal was afraid that the traffic from the Bears game would make the trip from his apartment to downtown a nightmare.  At first I was worried about what we would do with them as it had rained all morning and was in the low 50s.  I knew that walking around Lincoln Park would be out of the question in that type of weather.  God must have heard my concern, because as soon as we arrived the rain stopped and not too much later the sun peaked out from the clouds.

After enjoying the views from Cal’s 43rd from apartment, the four of us took advantage of the change in weather and walked to a nearby pizza place for lunch.  Cal had come in to a little bit extra money this weekend and wanted to buy our meals.  We really appreciated that and enjoyed the restaurant very much.  I no longer eat pizza, but the three of them were able to find a honey sriracha pepperoni pizza one that they all loved.  I tried the chicken tenders as Maggie said that they were the best that she had ever eaten.  They were very good and so incredibly big that I could only eat two of the five.  

Our next stop of the day was the Lincoln Park Conservatory.  In all of the times that we had been to the area, we had never visited the conservatory even when Doug worked in Chicago in the early 1990s.  He and I were both impressed with the amount of plants that they had growing.  It had dozens of ones natural to Florida that we saw on our walks through Kanapaha Botanical Gardens in Gainesville.  It was absolutely beautiful.  On our way back to Cal and Maggie’s apartment, they took us through the new Red Wolf exhibit at the zoo.  It was amazing.  It felt just like we were walking through the wolves habitat.  I took pictures so that I could show Phil when we got back home as the wolf is his favorite animal.  

Tonight, we drove to Maggiano’s in Oakbrook to meet Dan and Kim for dinner.  We were happy that Morgan and Isaac were able to join us as well.  We had a lot of fun catching up on everyone’s lives and talking about Dancing with the Stars as well.  It was a wonderful evening and a great way to finish our first day in the Windy City.