Mini Chicago Vacay!

Over the 4th of July weekend, Chris and I went with his parents for a long weekend to Chicago!  Chris' sister is working there this summer, so it was a great excuse to go and enjoy Chicago.  I've been to Chicago plenty of times and I feel like all I ever do there is shop shop shop.  As enjoyable as that is, I just didn't want to do that this trip.  I wanted to do things I had never really done in Chicago... so that's what we did.

When we got there on Saturday, we immediately went out for lunch.  On the next block over from our hotel was Gino's East for some Chicago style deep dish pizza.  Now I am not huge on the saucy deep dish pizza.... I usually prefer thin crust.  But wow, this was delicious.  Maybe I was starving?  But we all scarfed down on chopped salad and pizza.

Afterwards, we decided to take advantage of the fact that Andrea's apartment has a pool and lounged around.  That night, we went to another restaurant that Chicago is known for... The Billy Goat Tavern.  Anyone know the SNL ski?  "Cheezeborger, Cheezeborger, Chips, No fries!"  HA, anyway.  It was probably the cheepest meal EVER offered on Navy Pier.  Not even kidding... $2.95 for a single cheeseberger.  Delicious.  Then we wandered around the Pier and then headed over towards a beach to watch the fireworks.  I was pretty excited for these over Navy Pier and they were fine, but they lasted 10 MINUTES!  I mean, there are THOUSANDS of people wandering around the pier and along the lakeshore for a 10 minute show?  Com'on...

On Sunday, we enjoyed our morning at the Oak Street Beach.  Yes, yes I could've enjoyed a beach in Iowa.  This beach was so cool though with the water one direction and huge buildings in the other directions.  Call me a nerd, but I thought it was awesome.

For lunch, we ate at another delicious Chicago restaurant: Pot Bellies Sandwiches.  I mean, it's another sandwich place, but it's a Chicago thing I guess.  Chris talked it up so much that I thought it was going to be amazing...  After that Chris and I look a nice walk along Michigan Avenue and got to walk along the River Walk.  We sat and had a drink.  Here are a few pictures from our walk:

After our walk, we went with Chris' family to the Signature Room Lounge in the John Hancock building... It was a perfectly clear day.. :)

We ended Sunday with dinner at Carmine's.  We ate there in October the night before Christie and Chris ran the Chicago marathon... it didn't disappoint.  That's for sure.  Delish. 

One nice surprise was the MONICA AND BERTO were in Chicago too!  So we got to see them :) 

Oh yeah, AND we saw Sienna Miller at Starbucks on Monday before we drove back to DSM.  Only my second celebrity sighting in my life.  Oh the little things...  Overall it was a great weekend, and it was nice to do things we don't usually do when we go to Chicago for a weekend.