Chicago, Illinois

Chicago was one of our first city stops at the beginning of this summer when my sister visited from Hungary…Chicago is a must see and we really wanted to make sure that she spends a couple days there with us.

Even though we thought 3 days would be a good amount of time to spend in the Windy City, we unfortunately ran out of time towards the end.

We didn’t get the best weather, it was rainy and yucky kind of the whole time but we rolled up the bottom of our pants and went to discover Chicago. Nothing could stop us.

See those friendly clouds?

We stayed at a hostel which was about 20-30 minutes away from downtown area. The hostel itself was adorable, the people that we met were from all around the world. During breakfast time it was fun to meet all the different people with different ethnicity and background. It was fun to hear everyone’s experiences in the United States. The breakfast room was quiet cozy so we all sat very nice and close to each other, which seemed a little awkward at the beginning but it gave us some incentive to engage in conversations with others.

This is a picture of the backyard at the hostel, isn’t it cute?

DAY 1: We visited The Millennium Park, The Navy Pier, and the John Hancock Tower.

Look at me being all artsy and stuff

Another very extremely trying to be super artsy picture…I was practicing my panorama photo taking skills.

Look at them flowers

Navy Pier

Ferris wheel and the empty Navy Pier after rain

The view from the John Hancock Tower is just wonderful…we had a drink, my sister ordered a Bloody Mary, my husband had an ice-tea, and I had somekindofanothercocktail I think…not sure, don’t remember…must have been a great cocktail…

What a gorgeous view

Women’s bathroom view

So these pictures were taken in the women’s bathroom, because: I didn’t feel like sitting on people’s lap in the restaurant to be by the window and get a good view, nor I wanted to stand up on their table, hoping they would understand the awkward tourist’s (me) motivation of the need to take that darn picture for the 100th time so I can send it home and people can see I am discovering the world or post it on Facebook, saying: no, I can’t afford that $25 glass of water here up in the John Hancock building…plus the women’s bathroom has glass walls (the stalls have non-see-through doors for those who got worried for a second) which makes us spend a ridiculous amount of time in there, giving our men some concern about our well-being. Also apparently the men’s bathroom doesn’t have glass walls and such a beautiful view and right here, right now I would like to apologize in the name of all the ladies to all the disappointed gentlemen. My husband and I have been comparing bathrooms based on experience and apparently men’s bathrooms are just always a little worse than women’s…sorry about that.

DAY 2: We visited the Willis (Sears) Tower and went to visit the dinosaurs in the Field Museum, and in the afternoon we met with one of my friends from Hungary, who went to school in Chicago…

I really really wanted to try and take a picture while doing a hand-stand up in the Willis Tower in one of those little glass cabins but I was way too big of a chicken…everyone was watching, waiting in line for their pictures and I did not trust my hand-standing skills that much…Let’s be honest I could have injured myself in front of tens of people … or I could have injured others probably too. So we chose the safe, standing-up and sitting down picture version, which is the less ballsy version of that hand-stand I was talking about…

Just like this

The Dino Museum was plenty of fun…my sister loves dinosaurs and we literally had to stop by every foot print and bone sample along the way…but I loved every second of it for multiple reasons…it was nice to see her enjoy it so much and it was also very interesting to read and learn more about these wonderful creatures…

I was always worried because I have big feet…it could be worse.

At the end of the day we were exhausted and went back to the hostel…stopped on the way to get some veggies and fruits that we were craving oh so much in the past couple of days. We just sat in our room, snacked on the delicious stuff we got and then eventually fell asleep.

DAY 3: In the morning I had to stay in the hotel, to send off some job applications and because I have already been into the Art Institute of Chicago, my sister went alone…The lack of sending out my job applications to places put a little stress on me in the past couple of days so we decided to be apart for these couple of hours. In the afternoon we visited family and friends who threw a wonderful bridal shower for me. Ben’s mom picked us up and drove us to Ben’s aunt’s place…In Hungary we don’t have bridal showers so I didn’t really know what to expect from them but I was so fortunate that I got to celebrate two different ones in the States, the other one with my wonderful Wisconsin family. I feel very lucky and loved by many people and so honored that they took couple hours out of their day to spend it with me. We had delicious snacks, cookies, drinks, even a chocolate fountain and wonderful company. Ben and I received so much love and plenty useful gifts for our kitchen…moving out from a dorm room I didn’t really have many things and he also shared a house with someone, so he never had to buy any kitchen aid either…we are very thankful to all of our families and friends..

DAY4: Headed to the airport to travel to Arizona…our next must see sight on the list: The Grand Canyon…

Here is one more picture about Chicago:

And this one from the Field Museum:

Have a wonderful day everyone!