Chicago

Never would I have thought that Chicago would make such an impression on me.  I arrived and quickly realized how wonderful this city is (at least downtown Chicago).  Hopefully, the pictures can do it justice.

Arrival at Midway Airport, which is just south of Downtown Chicago.  Following the ladies to the subway station.

Ticket to freedom!  

The subways remind me a lot of Hong Kong... the crowd, smell, humidity... ahh...

Arrival!  Our hotel.

Checked in and now just resting a bit before we head out and explore.

First encounter with Mr. Weird.  Oddly enough... through the entire stay in Chicago, this was the only oddity we encountered.

It's a shoe decorated refrigerator.  I think one of my shoes was used there..

Reminds me of Wall-E's shoe with the plant growing inside it.

Lunch at Gino's East.  Very interesting decor...

Alinea Restaurant. Spring roll wrapper which the restaurant used as a center piece until the food came out.

The Spring Roll

Crab pudding.  This was GOOOOOD... despite the fact that I was the only one who liked it.

A very unique presentation of bacon.

An even MORE unique presentation of dessert... the head chief actually came out and prepared the dessert in front of us.  The rock looking things in the middle I believe was frozen chocolate mousse

Head Chief with Dar and Ronnie.

Beautiful day.  Neither hot nor cold, humid nor dry.  

One the best Reuben Sandwiches.

A German based tea shop

Lots of tea.  LOTS.

Smelled very much like ripe fruit.  

Homemade spices and herbs.

I almost fainted when I walked into this store... kind'a like if I snorted curry powder.

Sarah.  =)

My favorite shop of the day.  An insane variety of balsamic vinegars and oils

All the different type of vinegars and oils

So to enjoy oil and vinegar properly, we were told by the experts to "knock one back" and take it like you would a shot...  YUM.

Navy Pier.

This place was a MADHOUSE.  It's like a crazy food court of oil, grease and saturated fat.

Let's just say at the end of the meal...NOBODY was feeling all that great.

Going UP!

View from the 96th floor.

Architecture boat tour!

There's our boat!

Segway Tour!  Yeahhh... we looked dorky, but it was SOO much fun!

The Bean!

The Bean again!

Harris Theater.

The Bean revisited (in the afternoon)

The last meal at Rick Bayless' restaurant.

OMG.  GOAT CHEESE VANILLA ICE CREAM.  I only took a small spoonful...otherwise, I think my ass would have exploded into a million pieces... (okay...TMI)

Interesting piece from the art exhibit.

AND LASTLY...

We stumbled upon the filming of Transformers 3 !!!!

The film set.

Some of their props.  Do you see the "anti-autobot" sign on the blue newspaper dispenser??