Chicago: A recap

I just wrapped up a great weekend trip to Chicago to visit the Williams Family. We packed a lot of fun into a short time and I apparently came home exhausted because I totally slept for about 11 hours last night. Here's a quick recap of all the fun...

Thursday morning Payton and I headed to the airport at about 5:30 am. It was EARLY!! We arrived at the airport and everything was going quite smoothly. Our plane was supposed to take off at about 8, we would have a brief layover in St. Louis and then be on our way to Chicago. Unfortunately, due to a maintenance issue, we didn't take off until after 9. We missed our flight in St. Louis and got to Chicago a little later than planned. I have never "missed" a flight before so I was little concerned about how all that would go down, but it turned out to be quite a pleasant experience. I sort of feel like a real adult now that I've dealt with something like that.

Once we made it to Chicago we headed south to Herscher, IL where we were able to catch Meagan's basketball game. I've always enjoyed watching Meagan play, she's got such natural talent and catching a game was one of the main reasons for the timing of this trip. This isn't a great picture at all, but here's Meagan and her team stretching before the game (notice that the team she was playing against has a green and yellow gym-how appropriate):


Friday morning we got up and went and toured Beecher. We saw Meagan and Lexie's schools, the Illinois/Indiana State Line, and LOTS of corn! In the afternoon we loaded up on the train and rode into the big city. Chicago is a really neat city and it had tons of cool buildings. We ate dinner at a cool restaurant where you can write on anything. We also visited several really cool stores on Michigan avenue.












One of the highlights, for sure, was visiting The Bean. This is a giant bean-shaped sculpture that is made of shiny metal that reflects the city and anything else close to it. The memorable part was using the iPhone to locate The Bean in Millennium Park. The iPhone did great, but apparently I am unable to read maps and led us about 4 blocks totally out of the way. Keep in mind that it is FREEZING and we had already walked for awhile, so it made it all the more exciting to actually find the bean!




Saturday we spent some more time in Beecher and even got to experience Lexie's favorite place, Plum Creek Nature Center. It was a really cool place that you could easily spend hours enjoying. Chicago actually has fall so all the trees were different colors, it was really pretty.






A little while later, Payton and I headed back to the airport and we arrived home safely late last night. It was a great trip and it was especially great to see some great friends! I think I may miss them more now, but it was good to see their new world and hang out for a little while! Thanks Williams family for showing us the sights and taking such good care of us!