Trent planned a trip to Chicago to stay at his friend Dave’s condo. I started studying the map to see where it was located, I knew it was on Michigan Ave. Well, it was in an awesome location!
T had to work on Saturday, so we didn’t arrive until 1:30pm.
At this point in the trip Ethan was most excited about the flat screen tv. The condo was a one bedroom, and I knew to expect a lot of Ikea stuff and it did not disappoint.
The view from the balcony, I love that you can see the Sears Tower, I know it isn’t called that anymore but idontcare. We parked across the street in the lot next to the dunkin donuts. Dave even gave us his opener for the gate so we could park in their spot. Trent had been to the condo a couple of times when he went to Bears games with him. Soldier Field is just a couple of blocks away to the right in the picture.
We ended up catching a cab right by that dunkin donuts. Ethan was excited about his first cab right (that he remembers). I think he thought it was neat to have both parents riding in the back seat with him.
We stood in line for 30 minutes, but it wasn’t that bad. I’m glad we brought our gloves.
All the graffiti in there is really overwhelming. I think E was a little cautious about writing his name, he is such a good kid. I meant to bring a white marker. I thought it would be great marketing for Gino’s to see markers with their logo on it. I even saw our waiter hand a marker to another family so they could sign their name. I noticed it had their logo on it!
He thought it was too cool to write on the seats.
We then had to wait 45 min for the deep dish pizza, so we ordered breadsticks that were really good.
see they even write on the lampshade way up on the ceiling 
E got his kids pizza within 20 min and look how big it was 
finally we get our cheese and sausage(patty) deep dish pizza. We just ordered the small 4 slice, since we didnt want to deal with leftovers walking around. I knew I wouldn’t finish 2 slices, it was really good and filling.
after we ate i realized this was signed on the seat between E and me… 
then we walked a couple blocks down Michigan
to go to the John Hancock Building 
I used to work on the 31st floor way back in 96, still can’t believe I commuted out to there. 
E posing for me as we wait in line for tickets to go up to the observatory. We got in the wrong line at first, which was super long and just for the lounge.
the elevator ride was really fast up to the 94th floor 
E wasn’t scared being up that high at all. I think all our ears felt funny here.
We were up at the top at such an ideal time around 5pm, so we saw daylight, sunset, and nighttime views. I love seeing nighttime lights – it was my fav as a child to go up and see all the lights. 
Then Ethan got to wash the windows up there…
What a great photo op, right? He had fun with it.
cool sunset pic
love that E stopped to look out in the triangle cross beam
wasn’t sure what the open air walkway was going to, but it was just an enclosed area with screen windows! So it was cold in there and neat to hear the city sounds. 
I had read prior that they had a multi-media tour that was free included with admission. I asked a couple of people about it and they said a big group had just been up there and they were all charging! I knew that E would love it so was bummed not to get them right away. They said to check back in 20 min. then they were ready for us. 
I know my kid and knew he would LOVE it! It really helped him look for buildings and he learned new things about Chicago. He loved the little stylus and caught on immediately to select the Kids number according to the set of windows we were standing in front of.
The adults version was the same as the kids, but kids had easier langauge I think. The narrator was David Schwimmer. It was great, I highly endorse it. 
Navy Pier at night 
then back down in the lobby checking out the Christmas train display 
All our ears are really sensitive to the change in elevation and they were still plugged up at this point.
We went to the gift shop and E got a snow globe souvenir and T got a Blackhawks shirt. We made E try this on…he looks like his red headed cousins.
Next we walked a couple of blocks to a place I really wanted to go and try…
SPRINKLES CUPCAKES!
We had wait about 7 min in line, but they had these little tvs outside showing clips from Food Network.
I knew I wanted 4 cupcakes total and I decided on the flavors ahead of time. We didn’t get there until 6:45pm and I guess that late in the day they don’t really replenish the flavors. They had just ran out of the ‘milk chocolate’ so I had to sub it for Black & White, which worked out better for the variety I got. It was choc cake with white frosting. 
They were packaged in this cute little box, how cute are they? They are too cute to eat! But, I couldn’t wait! 
We got Black & White, White Milk Chocolate, Pumpkin, Red Velvet.
I loved them! They were sooo good. Ethan thought they were too rich and only had a couple of bites of the white milk choc one.
We walked a bit down Michigan, got drinks at Walgreens – where I used to go when I worked downtown.
Went into Disney Store, T wanted to walk down to the river but my feet were burning and Ethan was really complaining about his feet and was tired. We caught a cab and headed home. 
Nighttime view and I thought it was neat to see a train going by. One went by around 9 and midnight and it went so slow so it wasn’t noisy at all.
The top of the Sears Tower and some other buildings had purple lights right now in honor of something. I like to think they are purple for November in honor of my birthday. Ha, just joking!
Ethan didn’t realize there was a second flat screen in the bedroom until this point. So, I shared the bed with E and T slept on the couch.
Tomorrow’s plans are to visit the bean, the river, Navy Pier, maybe a boat ride and eat at Billy Goat.
