Chi-Town, Our Kind of Town! Part I

The Holland Clan managed to eek out some funds to have a fun getaway to Chicago over our Fall Break - it was actually the first fall break (& Karen's birthday weekend) that I've ever had off from football, school, or otherwise. PLUS, one of Karen's best friends, Carole Kenney, had moved back stateside from years in the mission field in Austria and China, and is in the Chicagoland area. So, we loaded up the bus (er um...van) and drove to Chicago for several days!

We christened our first evening there with some Chicago-style pizza at Giardino's...wow...that was awesome...

On our first full day, we parked at Navy Pier and trolleyed & trekked our way to the American Girl Doll store, where we promptly were relieved of a great deal of savings! The children had been doing odd jobs around the house to earn extra money, and we also boosted their piggy banks when we arrived. Caroline got a doll, some outfits for her, and took her Mia doll for a special hairdo and the Doll Salon there at the store. My goodness...

We then sought out some lunch, and settled on a food court in a shopping area...I know, lame! Karen actually wanted to eat the ESPN-Zone, but the wait was 45 minutes, and I didn't think she wanted to wait that long. Silly me! We passed by this crazy dude, who was actually very entertaining while searching for food...
After our food court Chicago hot dogs, Chinese, and whatever else, we found a special cupcake bakery that Karen had read about on some blogs. We celebrated her special day with birthday cupcakes from "More", and it was one of the most amazing cupcakes I've ever eaten. I had a pumpkin spice cupcake, and Karen had a salted caramel cupcake. It made my toes wiggle...mmm mmm mmm...We crashed at a Starbucks next to More for a while, and then made off for the ESPN-Zone for dinner. The kids played some video games, and we had some game-day food while we watched several screens each with different college football games on...nearly Heaven! What made that even more special is that Karen's other best friend Liz and her hubby Tony were in town for a wedding, and they met us at ESPN for dinner and a special visit. How awesome is that?














After dinner, we made our way back to the Navy Pier. We hung out around there, took some pictures of the skyline, played catch with a football, and watched a USO Service Awards banquet through the windows. There was a parade of all the state flags and a medley of music from each of the branches (including the Coast Guard, Yes!). Very cool moment - here is the presentation of the colors for the National Anthem.

Finally, we were treated to "Halloween Fireworks" that night. Wow, I said. That's just about all I could say...Wow!

Here are some highlights from the first day: