The Windy City

For Labor Day weekend, we went to Chicago! Interesting, so many things did not go as planned, but we still managed to make it to the things we paid for. And to the temple!

So Saturday morning(ish) we went to the temple. We stopped at Wendy's before the session and actually saw a couple groups of people in Sunday dress. We didn't have our phones with us at the temple but here's a picture from the last time we went:

I love how the Chicago temple looks just like the Boise temple before the outside was redone. It looks like the temple from my childhood.

Then we headed into ACTUAL CHICAGO! We'd only gone to the temple before, which is in the suburbs outside Chicago, so we were really excited to experience more of the city. Tygan bought some Go City Passes for us online; we decided to focus on Navy Pier, so our passes included four rides each and an architecture-themed lake cruise.

Navy Pier is basically one long pier with a bunch of attractions, restaurants, a theater, etc. First we rode the ferris wheel, and we loved seeing the legit Chicago skyline.

We bought some frozen chocolate-covered bananas (I was this close choosing the funnel cake, but we were going to do the spinning ride at some point...). We had planned on doing the architecture cruise earlier but were only able to get registered for the last run of the day; this turned out to be AWESOME because we were basically out on the lake during sunset, and we got to see a lot of the buildings both in daylight and at night with their lights on. The cruise lasted a little over an hour.

Our tour guide was hilarious and really knowledgeable about the buildings and their history. Although I've never been much into architecture, the tour was fascinating and it was a great way to learn about Chicago as a whole too. Also I have a bajillion photos of random buildings on my phone now.

For dinner, we went to Bubba Gump's! I had seen Forrest Gump just a few days before. I loved all the themed stuff, like the "Run Forrest Run" signs at each of the tables, and the shrimp was really good, but the rest of the food was kind of meh. I had the shrimp scampi and Tygan got shrimp and vegetable skewers. Parts of my pasta were kind of dry and tough, like it had been left out too long after preparation, but it still felt fancy.

We went on the carousel and a ride that had swings that spun around. We skipped the ride that drops you from a great(ish) height and opted for the ferris wheel again to get a nice starlit view of the city. (Just kidding--there are no stars above Chicago. Not visible ones, anyway. But the skyscrapers looked nice.)

Finally we drove to the hotel (after driving to the wrong hotel and trying to check in there...whoops) and immediately fell asleep.

There were grand plans at one point to wake up early, swim at the hotel's pool, maybe walk around Millennial Park and see that famous Bean statue, but it wasn't meant to be. Instead, we woke up eventually, then drove really fast efficiently home to get ready and be EARLY TO CHURCH BOOYAH! Last week the bishopric challenged everyone to be early to church. Unfortunately, Tygand and I are almost always late. I have no idea why. But this time, we MADE IT!

So yeah. We didn't stay in Chicago for the whole weekend, but it was nice to have all Monday to chill at home, go swimming, and play games with friends. We learned how to play Castle Panic! and Fluxx.

The trip was exhausting, and the running late, hotel mix-up, getting lost, traffic/parking situations were yucky, but I'm glad we went. I get cranky when travel plans get crazy, but Tygan was a good sport and I love these final summer memories. Kind of wish I had gotten the funnel cake though...