We drove 1 1/2 hours north to a little town called Dyer, Indiana. We took a train into Chicago so we didn't have to worry about paying for parking and then took the subway and bus or walked everywhere we needed to go.
This is the view from outside our hotel. That tall building in the background is the Trump building.
We walked around Navy Pier--
--and admired the pretty flowers.
Since Chicago is known for it's architecture, we took an architectural boat tour. This hour long boat ride allowed us to see all of the beautiful buildings.
The Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower)Check out the clear boxes up on the sky deck. These boxes jutted out a few feet from the building, enabling people to step into the boxes and look directly below them. Our boat tour guide told us they had only been in place a few weeks--and that he was going to wait a few more months before trying it out. We though that was sound advice.
Pretty buildings downtown
Willis Tower from farther away
We ate dinner at Giordano's--the famous Chicago pizzeria known for it's stuffed crust pizza.
Neither of us had ever tasted anything so delicious!
The following day we went to the Museum of Science and Industry for the Harry Potter Exhibit. The exhibit holds many of the original items from the Harry Potter movies. (Sorry but they wouldn't let us take pictures inside). It was way fun, though! 
Here's the Anglia driven by Ron and Harry to Hogwarts!
We wandered through the rest of the exhibits at the museum.The above picture is for the Nishida family =)
A replica of downtown Chicago
The actual German U-505 submarine captured by the US
It was massive.
"It's a woman's war too!"
We ate dinner that evening in Greektown at a place called "The Parthenon." The gyros were incredible.
This is for all of my social work buddies. Jane Addams was the founding mother of social work.
She created the first ever settlement houses. The University of Chicago has since turned them into a museum.
We saw the Blue Man Group that night. These guys were crazy! I am not quite sure how to describe their show, but it is definitely worth seeing.
The lobby at the theater.
A Blue Man
The next day we rode a tandem bike for a few hours. We rode along the beach--
--to the Bean--
(that's us in the Bean)
and to the Lincoln Park Zoo. We were pretty sore by the end of the day, but it was a great way to see the city.
We followed up our four hour long bike ride in Chinatown.
And enjoyed the most delicious Chinese food! (Apparently this restaurant is on some list of the top 100 Chinese restaurants in the US -- and it definitely measured up.)
I love living in the Midwest for many reasons, one of them being our close proximity to so many fun places! Chicago is such a beautiful city, with so much to offer to anyone and everyone. I'm not gonna lie, we spent hours daydreaming about what it would be like to live there and how we could make it work. Maybe one day.
Happy anniversary to us!
