Chicago

I recently was complaining to Mark about him missing my family vacations this summer while his mother was in the room and Voila! Two weeks later we have been able to spend the past few days in Chicago visiting my parents who are on a mission here. Even though Mark really didn't want to take Launa on an airplane he made the sacrifice of a few hellish hours traveling with our baby so my parents could spend some time with her. Thus far, it has been great! My Dad called Launa a "delight" and told me her "spunkiness" was a good thing. For those of you who don't see me often, my Launa is a delight.... sometimes. My sister refers to her as "Jeckel & Hyde" and my brother dares people to stick their face close enough for her to get a swipe at them. With that said, she gives the best tight hugs, yaps my ear off, loves animals, and is the center of my world so it's always encouraging for other people to see her sweet side. My Mom has been treating me to all of her homemade cooking, we've been doing some shopping, and seeing all the awesome sites in Chicago. Have I mentioned I miss my parents? Chicago has such beautiful parks and amazing architecture here, there's just not enough time to see everything. We did do the Sears tower tour and the city boat tour and saw all their parks. I love history and reading so I loved it! Here are the top 5 best things I got to see & do while I was in Chicago (seeing my parents was of course the highlight)

1. Sear's Tower -- They have a ton of history and influential people through Chicago history that I found fascinating and the view was amazing

2. Boat Tour -- Here you tour through the city and they point out all the buildings and where they came from.

3. Streeterville -- A man started collecting the garbage from developers and basically built an additional 148 acres in Chicago, how amazing!

4. Fat Johnny's -- Not so much my favorite food per say, but Mark loved it. It was like this lean-to shack in the middle of not a great part of Chicago. I'll post a picture, but when the cop strolled up wearing the bullet protector and his badge, I was feeling slightly uncomfortable and ready to run for the car!

5. "Naperville Walk" -- Naperville was really a quaint suburb of Chicago that had a really neat running path that was just beautiful

If I ever come back there are some other things I still have to see. Chicago is definitely a must-see city however! I'm sad to leave tomorrow. Back to reality...