Well I am back from my long weekend in Wisconsin/Chicago, and I am exhausted. This post is probably going to be a pretty picture heavy recap, only because my brain isn’t functioning on a high enough level right now. I had a fantastic time, it was a great trip, and Chicago just might be my new favorite city.
So let’s see, the trip got off to somewhat of a rough start due to the ridiculous weather here on Thursday night. From the start my flight was delayed by about an hour, so I hung out at the airport bar and had two beers. Then, once the plane actually arrived, they rushed to get us boarded and in the air, only to then have the airport shut down because of storms rolling in. I sat on the airplane, not going anywhere, until 9 pm. It was awful, but we finally did take off 3 hours late, and I made it to Milwaukee around 9:30. Upon leaving the airport, I immediately requested a giant glass of wine, and after I finished that, Darren and I headed to his mom’s house to spend the night before leaving for Chicago in the morning.
We arrived in Chicago around 2 pm on Friday, and spent the afternoon walking around and shopping. Dar was a good sport, and sat playing Angry Birds while I tried on 37 pairs of jeans and actually helped me pick out a pair. After a few hours of shopping, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. Darren’s 27th birthday was Friday, so I was treating him to dinner, and he decided on N9NE Steakhouse.

Dar's 27th B-day Dinner
I’m not a big red meat eater, but I figured when in a steak house order steak, and I am so glad I did because it was seriously one of the best things I’ve ever tasted. Amazing food, a cool atmosphere, but not cheap, so save it for a special occasion. Saturday morning I did not wake up to run, but instead slept in, and then got up to do some more shopping, and meet Amy for lunch! Saturday was Chicago’s St. Patrick’s Day parade and celebrations, and the mass amounts of drunk people wandering the city were hysterical.

In front of the green river

Both of us

Chicagoooo

reflections in the bean
We finally managed to find our way to Miller’s Pub to meet up with Amy, and after a few minutes in line and a short wait inside the bar (green beers were enjoyed of course) we sat down to have lunch. Amy was one of the first people to comment on my blog way back when, and keep coming back, so I was very excited to finally meet her in person.
Dar was once again a good sport and took pictures for us, and put up with our conversations about other bloggers and internet friends. He barely uses Facebook, so the blogging and tweeting thing is pretty bizarro to him. Amy already wrote about this, but the funniest part of the day came right after Darren finished talking about how funny drunk people are because you never know what they’re going to do. A drunk guy stumbles over to our table, starts to lean towards Dar’s head with his mouth open, and pretends to blow on it and polish it with his arm. Amy and I lost it, she was laughing so hard she was crying, and I couldn’t pull it together either. Luckily Dar was in a good mood, otherwise that guy could have very well ended up with an elbow to the face :). After lunch the three of us did some more walking around and shopping, well Amy and I shopped, Dar sat on a couch playing more Angry Birds.
Then it was time to say goodbye to Amy, who hopefully I will get to hang out with again when I’m back in Chicago for work in June. Saturday night Darren and I decided on a more low-key dinner, and all I wanted was traditional Chicago Deep Dish so off to Giordano’s we went.
Seriously the best pizza ever. I loved it, and am pretty sad I had to leave the remaining four slices in Wisconsin with Darren. Yesterday we packed up and left Chicago to head back to Wisconsin to hang out before my 7 pm flight home. I was very tempted to offer to stay behind when they announced the flight was overbooked, and needed three people to stay until today. Here I am back in VA and at work today though. Darren is flying out here in 6 weeks to visit, so it will be fun to have him in VA and show him around my town. I’m off to get more coffee.
Filed under: Daily | Tagged: blogger, chicago, flying, meet up, st. patty's, travel, wisconsin | 17 Comments »