The Windy City.  I’d always wanted to experience it, but never knew when the right time to make the trip would be.  When I stumbled across a $75 round trip direct flight, I figured it was the right time.

Historic Wrigley – unfortunately under tons of construction at the time.

The trip consisted mostly of the big tourist-y things to do in the city.  Navy Pier, Wrigley Field, United Center (I saw the Bulls and the Blackhawks play!), the Sears Tower, the Bean, and museums. I was busy…! Also, there was no way I was going to miss the opportunity to have authentic Deep-dish Chicago Pizza – a trip to Lou Malnati’s took care of that. It was every bit as good as I expected.

Picked the “best” day to do the SkyDeck #snow

I met up with an old friend of mine (Facebook is actually good for something) who just so happens to work part time at the John Hancock Center. The view from the top made up for the fail at the Sears/Willis Tower. 

With some time to waste before the Bulls game, I discovered that Lagunitas (only one of my favorite craft brewers) has a HUGE brewery in Chicago. With no hesitation, I hopped on the “L” and made my way to experience a (free!) tour of their mammoth facility. Such a great time. The tour was awesome and the enormous taproom had fresh Lagunitas beer of every type (even some exclusive to Chicago) ready to be enjoyed straight from the source.

Here are some of the best photos from the trip:

@Art Institute of Chicago. You could spend days here seeing everything.

Another shot from Navy Pier.

The view from Navy Pier.

Epic shot of downtown skyscrapers from a River Architecture tour.

It was snowing heavily but I had to see the Bean.

Snow.

It was smaller than I expected – still an impressive stadium though.

Snow right outside of my Airbnb in the suburbs. I’m a Floridian, this is a big deal to me.

One of Trump’s many towers.

These were everywhere. If only I’d gone a few weeks earlier…

Mmm mmm good.

@Art Institute of Chicago

Modern “Art”

I’d love to go back to Chicago – there truly is so much to see and do that a weekend is not enough to experience it all. Nevertheless, I did a lot and feel that I got to experience the city and its people. Until next time Chi-town!