Chicago Photo Album
Chicago - The City
For our first anniversary in October, 2006, we visited Chicago. Why Chicago? Lots of reasons (Matt used to live there, Becky had never really been to the city; it's an easy flight from Austin; it's a nice time of year to travel to the midwest; etc.) -- but mostly because it was there and we wanted to get out of town for a long weekend!
We flew into O'Hare airport, checked into a hotel in Schaumburg, and went up to New Community at Willow Creek Community Church. Willow had been Matt's church when he lived in Chicago, and Becky had wanted to visit for years (several of her coworkers came from there). We arrived on a cold, wet midwestern Wednesday, and were able to attend New Community, their mid-week worship and teaching service. It was a baptism service, which might have made it strange, but instead, it was such a joy to be part of. The music, teaching, and even baptisms were excellent. That was months ago (I'm writing this paragraph in May, 2007) but I can still remember almost all of the service! It was nice for Matt to go back to familiar territory, and for Becky to have a glimpse of his life when he'd lived in Chicago.
We spend that night in Schaumburg, which gave us two opportunities to go to Portillo's for Italian Beef. Oh, it was excellent! We also drove by Matt's old apartment. I'm sure glad he decided to move to Austin!
Thursday we moved into the city, staying at the Sheraton Hotel & Tower, which is located pretty much where the river meets Lake Michigan.
Here's a view toward Lake Michigan and Navy Pier from our hotel:
Our agenda for Chicago included having good food and seeing sites. We got started by touring near our hotel. This bull art and statue of Jack Brickhouse were not far from the hotel.
OUr hotel was on the river -- which has a nice park alongside in many places.
The Magnificient Mile
It was just a few blocks up to the Water Tower (a remnant of the great Chicago fire)
We had to have pizza, and that meant Unos (or actually Due's around the corner, which is the same thing, just in a bigger building). Deep-dish Chicago style -- it was excellent. I think we may still prefer Pepe's in New Haven or even John's in New York, but as far as deep dish goes, Uno's/Due's wins.
It was past baseball season, but that didn't stop us from going to see Wrigley Field. We took the train, of course!
And a 1, a 2, a 3...
In front of the stadium. Matt fondly recalls going to games here when he lived in Chicago. We've got to make it back in baseball season sometime.
"1060 West Addison? That's Wrigley Field."
Our hotel was just a few blocks from Navy Pier, so we visited there a few times. This sign shows the distance to Dublin, which of course is in Ireland, location of our last trip.
Becky at the Pier. It was a fairly nice day, but got chilly in the evenings.
A sailboat at Navy Pier
