Our Trip to Chicago

Whenever Jacob and I take trips, it is quite the adventure. All too often, things do not go as planned. I honestly think you could make a romantic comedy out of our vacations. Take for example our trip to Chicago....

Our little escapade began when Chicago received around 18 inches of snow a few days before we were to fly out from Minneapolis. Fortunately, that didn't set us back as it stopped snowing by the time we flew out. However, it did make driving around town difficult as there were countless cars stuck on the sides of the roads buried in mountains of snow (compliments of the city snow plow). What Jacob and I still do not understand is why some people abandoned their cars during the snow storm while leaving both car doors open. For these unforunate people, snow not only piled ON TOP of their cars but undoubtedly, IN their cars. We'll get back to the streets of Chicago shortly. The plane ride was also quite thrilling. We were in a larger plane which was flown by what seemed like, either a new pilot or a fighter pilot. His rapid changes in altitude made me grab the barf bag more than once (nothing came up luckily) and when he rapidly turned or circled the plane to change directions Jacob and I thought he might even add in a barrel roll. However, we eventually reached land safely and headed off to buy our new car. Once the purchase of the car was finalized, we drove off and used the car's navigation system to direct our site-seeing path to go see the Bulls Arena and Science and Industry Museum. We drove around for what seemed like hours, as the car kept taking us on the weirdest routes through the ghetto of downtown Chicago. Now,... just to clarify... when I say "ghetto" I'm not talking South Park of Twin Falls or downtown Filer. I'm talking GHETTO, where people walk in the streets (literally) and you have to be careful for fear of hitting someone with your car, teens stand on street corners looking like drug dealers, and there are sleeping bags and pillows on the sidewalk. For the longest time we couldn't figure out why the navigation was taking us on these routes. Finally, we realized the navigation from the previous owner was set to "shortest route" not "fastest route" (which would take us on the highways and main roads). We quickly switched it and found our way to the museum. We pulled into the parking garage to park (which by the way cost $18.00 all on its own). After getting our ticket from the automated machine, the woman manning the booth told us the museum closed in 20 minutes. (Of course it does I thought) because naturally,... this is something that would happen to us. Luckily, she let us return the ticket free of charge. Oh well,...we had missed the museum. By then, it was getting dark and we still hadn't eaten lunch. We decided to go the hotel and get settled before going to eat. Jacob's boss had booked us a really nice room in the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Chicago. Jacob found a Hyatt Hotel on the navigation system, we drove to it, and he dropped me off. Since parking was $50.00 for the hotel, Jacob insisted on parking a few blocks down for only $20.00. After dropping me at the door and walking to the hotel, we went up to the front desk to check in. And I bet you can only guess what they said.... We're sorry, you're reservations are actually for the OTHER Hyatt hotel, the one in downtown Chicago. So alas, we had to go back to the parking garage and beg for our $20.00 back. To add to the drama of the situation, Jacob had to walk into what appeared to be a dark storage room where the parking employees were sitting around a table, smoking, and playing poker. Does this cry mafia or what? To sum up this long and probably over dramatized story, we finally made it to the hotel and checked into our room. The first thing I noticed and thought was strange however, was the fact that the ironing board and iron was out, the pillows were messed up, and the toiletries provided by the hotel appeared to be used. Jacob and I debated for several minutes on whether or not our room had been cleaned. The final clincher, was the big soapy handprint in the shower and someone's used, green, Irish Spring soap bar on the shower shelf. In a nutshell....we were moved to another room, slept soundly, and made it home safely the next  day........... but not before our car's check engine light came on and the man from the car dealership avoided our phone calls. The end.

Enough talking..here are some fun pics!

United Center with Michael Jordan Statue

“At that moment I knew, surely and clearly, that I was witnessing perfection. He stood before us, suspended above the earth, free from all its laws like a work of art, and I knew, just as surely and clearly, that life is not a work of art, and that the moment could not last.”

-A River Runs Through It

"The best there ever was. The best there ever will be."

Our new car is an Infiniti G35.

We absolutely love it!

My favorite things:

-push start button (no key required)

-unlock/lock button on door (also no key or keypad required)

-dual temperature control

-hardrive to download CDs

-3.5 liter V6 306 horsepower allwheel drive

-memory seat and mirrors

There are a bunch of other features that we love, but these are just a few of my favorites.

Oh...did I mention that it goes 0-60 mph in 5.3 seconds?

We had to try the Chicago-style pizza while we were there. It was really good and oh so cheeeesssyy!

We got a little over ambitious and ordered a pizza that was far to large to be eaten by two! 
Unfortunately, our hotel room didn't have a refrigerator. So we had to toss the rest of it.