Trip to Chicago

Trip to Chicago has been great.

Flew out on Friday afternoon - I met a really nice girl on the plane, and we talked the entire way from NY to Chicago. We were also sitting next to this hilarious middle aged man who was very friendly, and on his way home from doing a security job for a week in New York.

I arrived here around 3pm. Kevin met me at the airport and it was so good to see him. We took a cab from O'Hare out to the Near South Side neighborhood of Chicago where our hotel was.

The hotel we stayed in was an old house that was deemed a Chicago landmark, and is now run as a bed and breakfast. Very pretty Queen Anne style architecture. Because it's a bed and breakfast, there isn't much of a hotel staff; two women that I know of were the only people in charge of the guests while we stayed.

We went to dinner the first night at Dao Thai, in the Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago. It was nice, as usual whenever we get any sort of asian cuisine, Kevin orders too much! His eyes are always bigger than his stomach when it comes to Thai and Japanese.

Walked around downtown on Michigan Ave, passed the river, saw the city lit up at night. Kevin pointed out different buildings like the Chicago Tribune building, which he explained was built to include stones and bricks from other historically important sites. It's a gorgeous building.

We took a cab back to the mansion; it was an odd feeling walking into that house every night - so empty and quiet, it felt like we had the entire place to ourselves.

The second day we woke up relatively early, well, Kevin woke me up with tons of kisses earlier than I would have liked, but it was nice. We ate breakfast downstairs in the dining room - only ones there. They brought us pancakes made from scratch topped with strawberries and powdered sugar. After breakfast we walked downtown.

We took our time getting to Michigan Ave to do a little shopping; stopping in parks to take pictures, and kiss and hold hands. It was so hot that day, and on top of that my feet were killing me - I turn into a huge brat but Kev always puts up with me :).

We had dinner the second night at Geja's - it was an amazing experience and I suggest that anyone who is in Chicago and wants to have a really great/interesting meal checks it out. It's a fondue restaurant, very dimly lit with exposed brick walls. Extremely romantic. Our waitress was terrific. We started off with a cheese fondue, and the house salad. The cheese fondue was a combination of cherry brandy, and gruyere cheese and white pepper - they provided different breads, grapes, and apple slices to dip into the cheese fondue. The second course (main course) was shrimp, beef, chicken, scallops, lobster, and an array of vegetables. I'm a fondue virgin, and assumed that we would just be dipping things in cheese and chocolate all night, I was very wrong. The main course is cooked (by YOU!) in soybean oil on the skewer and they provided about 8 different dipping sauces for the food once it was cooked. The scallops were incredible. Dessert was melted chocolate with an orange liqueur on top that the waitress lit so that we could toast the marshmallows over the flame, and once the alcohol burned off we were able to dip the marshmallows, pound cake, strawberries, melon, and pineapple into the melted chocolate.

I was extremely full after that meal to say the least. It was incredibly romantic, they had a man who played spanish and classical guitar while we ate. It gave Kevin and I a chance to talk, and relax and enjoy one another's company. After we finished everything, we decided to go to a cute supermarket in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago to pick up a bottle of wine to bring back to the hotel.

Sunday we woke up a little bit later, had breakfast at the hotel, and walked downtown to the Old Navy so that we could get flip flops. About a half a mile from the Old Navy I couldn't take it anymore and we hailed a cab. I have so many blisters and cuts on my feet from walking around Chicago over the past 4 days. We ate lunch/dinner at Gino's East pizzeria. Had my first real slice of Chicago style deep-dish pizza, since I don't think Uno's truly counts. It was pretty good, I think I just enjoyed sitting in the sun on the terrace of the building overlooking the streets and talking with Kevin more than I enjoyed the food.

We walked down to Navy Pier after the pizza and laid in the grass for an hour or so talking about our pasts, the future, and everything we could think of more or less. After a while we decided we should get started on the trek back to the hotel. It's about a 3 and a half mile walk. We stopped and took pictures every now and then, enjoying the sun and the beautiful views of the lake with all of the sail boats sitting in the water. We got into a water fight, and continued to tease each other for the rest of the hour or so walk back to South Calumet Ave. He makes me laugh so hard, I love it and him.

Made it back to the hotel in one piece (just about) and stayed in for the rest of the night. I'm such a cranky brat when I everything isn't the way I want it to be, or especially if I'm hungry, or tired, or hot or uncomfortable in any way really. Since we had eaten so early, we were getting pretty hungry by the time 11pm rolled around, but we couldn't figure out any 24 hour places that delivered. Kevin ended up sneaking down to the basement and finding food that they keep for breakfast/the live in care-takers. He's so good to me

We woke up early the next morning, on my last day (or what was supposed to be my last day) in Chicago. We packed our things, went downstairs and ate breakfast, and took a walk around the neighborhood in search of an ATM. It was an extremely windy, cloudy day here in Chicago on Monday. We found a bank with an ATM, and made it back to The Wheeler Mansion just in time to avoid the heavy rainstorm. We checked out and thanked the woman, and caught our cab at 12pm to head back to O'Hare airport. My flight was scheduled to leave at 2:30 that afternoon. Kevin kissed me goodbye while I was standing online to go through security, and I waved goodbye until he disappeared through the doors to catch a cab to the train and head back to base.

It was a wonderful vacation, and a chance for Kevin and I to spend some time together without having to worry about any one else. We needed that. I love him so much, it surprises me. I didn't expect to find someone this perfect, someone who cared this deeply about me, and wanted to do everything in his power to take care of me and make me the happiest girl in the world. He's doing a very good job.