friday afternoon i drove up to chicago & picked her up at the airport. it was frigid & the forecast for the weekend was sleet & snow. simultaneously we said, "why again did we pick chicago? why not some place warm like charlotte, nc?!".
but despite the cold, chicago turned out to be a great choice to satisfy our craving for exploration & good food! and when BOTH of our families drove into town on saturday to surprise us at navy pier for our birthday, we knew we had made a good choice:)
we survived st. patty's day chicago style, got to see the alvin ailey dance company, spent some late nights talking all things italy with my cousin & her fiance, explored wicker park, became semi-pros in using the bus/metro system, ate at some amazing restaurants & power walked through the bitter wind like nobody's business! the long weekend couldn't have been more perfect & i'm SO glad our families allowed us to skip town on such monumental birthdays! i'll let the pictures fill in the details:)
*always* dreamed of going to american girl place when i was litte- and it finally happened!!!
happy st. patricks day!!
Downtown restaurants were all overflowing due to the festivities of the holiday so we had to head a ways out of the city to find a bite to eat. LuluBelle's was delicious though & so worth it!
as alvin ailey was wrapping up, i got a text from chrissi, "grab a taxi & meet us at navy pier". aunt laura and i didn't really have set plans for the rest of the day so we just went with that. when we met up with them, they started leading us through all the shops & restaurants. we were talking and not really paying attention to where we were going when all of a sudden, half of the food court errupted in singing "happy birthday"!! we looked over and there stood BOTH of our families holding signs & singing!!! ahhhh!! we couldn't believe it! they had driven a combined 9 hours, one way, just to surprise us!! so special!
our awesome surprise crew!!
and this is what makes memories: almost 20 gluntzes standing outside of a bar catching the end of the OSU game on tv & rooting loudly for the buckeyes!!
then we wrapped up the day with a long, laid back dinner at a family owned italian restuarant before our families went back to their hotel.
part two coming next!!
ahh, how fun! this makes me so excited for the retreat and seattle!! :D so glad you had such a fabulous birthday!
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