The Schuerman Family: Chicago!!

If you've never visited Chicago, I highly recommend the trip! From Columbus, the flight was less than an hour. We spent most of the July 4th weekend there -- just the two of us. We had initially planned to go to NYC for our 10th wedding anniversary, but Danny surprised me with this trip due to changes in our work schedules. We already can't wait to go back and would love to take the kids. It's a beautiful city with lots to do. Everyone was very nice and the crowds were tolerable.

We arrived in Chicago early on Friday morning and started the day with a 90 minute boat tour with Wendella Boats (but there are a ton of companies that offer tours as well). The tour we selected took us down the Chicago River and into Lake Michigan. The tour guide a cool dude. The weather was ideal for a boat tour -- we really lucked out!

Trump Tower was impressive!

The American Flag on the Wrigley building was beautiful.

The Marina City buildings looked so odd! They reminded me of something out of the Cars movies since you could see cars parked in the sides.

The Merchandise Mart once had its own zip code -- really

This building was built so close to the river and train tracks that the bottom is narrower than the top.

Willis/Sears Tower

The buildings were breathtaking.

Navy Pier

Our first real stop for food (I don't count a breakfast sandwich from Dunkin' Donuts as a "real stop") was for lunch #1 at Portillo's. This place was crazy busy, but they have the ordering system down to a science so we didn't have to wait for long. We both had Chicago dogs and some onion rings and fries. Delish.

Later that day, we spent time shopping on the "Magnificent Mile" and had lunch #2 at a place called the Velvet Taco. I didn't get any pics, but the food was awesome! Velvet Taco

The Burberry building was really cool looking.

Here's the view from our hotel room

On Saturday, we started out with breakfast at the Grand Luxe Cafe and headed to Navy Pier.

Ferris wheel at Navy Pier

We rented some city bikes and rode along the beach.

It was amazing to me how much the lake was like the ocean -- I've never been to such a big lake!

"The Bean"

We took a rickshaw down to Buckingham Fountain.

Later that day, we went to the John Hancock Observatory/360 Chicago. We waited in a really long line to take the elevator to the 94th floor to check out the sites of the city. It was a great way to see the city. Danny was too chicken to do Tilt, so I didn't bother standing in another line. Basically, you face a window with handles, and it tilts you so you're facing the ground, 1,000 feet up.

Don't the other buildings seem so little from so high up?

Our day ended at Lou Malnati's for some authentic Chicago-Style deep dish pizza. We had stopped by earlier in the evening and the wait was super long, so we went back after visiting Hancock Tower. It was worth the wait! We liked it so much that we ordered some pizzas for Mom and Dad -- they ship them frozen to you. Lou Malnati's

Beside the obnoxious drunk guy sitting at the table near us on the patio, dinner was great!

Before we headed to the airport on Sunday, we had breakfast at West Egg Cafe, but knew we had to try some doughnuts from Do-Rite Donuts before leaving Chicago. OMG. I was already so stuffed from breakfast, but these doughnuts were delicious. Danny swears they're the best doughnuts he's ever had. I'm not sure I can say that, but they were so tasty and they had awesome flavors!

Seriously -- check out their site and be ready to drool...

Do-Rite Donuts

We had a great trip and walked/biked probably 30 miles and consumed what felt like 50,000 calories. We're looking forward to going back!

My parents watched the kids for us while we were gone (thanks, Mom and Dad!) and we sent texts back and forth and were able to FaceTime. We really missed them while we were gone, so being able to keep in touch so easily was great!

Here they are having a tea party and snacks