Chicago girls' weekend

I just spent a wonderful girls' weekend in Chicago with my Mom, Aunt Joye (Mom's sister), Aunt Nancy (Mom's sister-in-law) and Emily, my brother Bob's wife. We had such an incredible time together, and we're all in love with this gorgeous city!

We loved the river tour we took with the Chicago Architecture Foundation. The docent was fun, and the views from the river were great. And the architecture was fascinating. 

view to the north from the top of the Hancock building

At the top of the Hancock building, they have the Tilt. It was just a little more intense than I thought it would be. But fun. I'm glad I did it. :)

a late-night bus ride 

my 4 wonderful travel companions - I love them all!

We got a bit carried away with our photo shoot at the bean (Cloud Gate). It was fun taking photos with these fabulous ladies.

We made it to the top of the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower)--the tallest of the tall. The views were beautiful!

On our last morning we rode the ferris wheel at Navy Pier, which was fun and provided great views of the skyline.

Chicago

My brother Mike has a conference in Chicago this week, which was just the excuse we needed to take a road trip and spend the weekend there. I loved the city more than I expected to. It's beautiful, and we had a great time!

at Navy Pier

We started our Chicago trip with a visit to Wrigley Field for a Cubs game, which was lots of fun. Gavin made it to the 7th-inning stretch, which was more baseball than we expected him to take in.

At one point while walking through the city we happened upon a fire station. One worker (a dispatcher, I think) saw Gavin eyeing the engines and cheerfully invited him to climb into the one he liked best. He was in heaven!

Mike and I escaped for a couple of hours to the Chicago Art Institute, a fantastic place to which I hope to someday return. We saw so many masterpieces, including these:

"Two Sisters" by Renoir; "American Gothic" by Grant Wood; "At the Moulin Rouge" by Toulouse-Lautrec; "Wheatstacks (End of Summer)" by Monet; "Self-portrait" by Van Gogh; and "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" by Seurat

Mike (and a painting by Jackson Pollock)

some funky statues outside the museum

Just a few more photos from our fun Chicago weekend...

(part of the) view from our hotel room

(more of the) view from our hotel room

Gavin was such a great traveler. The chocolate helped...

with Uncle Mike

(If, while reading this post, you've wondered what's up with Gavin's ear, I have answers for you. It swelled pretty big (reaction to a bug bite? infected bug bite? We're not sure), and we treated it using recommendations from 2 pharmacists. It's much better now.)