Johnny and I graduated from Wheaton College outside of Chicago over five years ago. And aside from a short jaunt back to Wheaton for his sister's graduation, we haven't been back to Chicago since we packed up the Uhaul and skee-daddled to Philadelphia. We wanted to get away for a weekend this winter, so we decided to revisit the town of our glory days. We dropped off the kiddos at my parents', hopped on a plane, and arrived to this:
Ahhh beautiful. Just as I remember it. Freezing cold, wet feet, wind-burned face...the place I could not get out of fast enough. It all came back to me. Time seems to smooth over the truth. I exaggerate. The weather actually wasn't as horrible as it could have been. The snow stopped right after we got there, and the temp stayed in the 30s and 40s. Lovely.
One thing I love about Johnny that you might not know about him is that he is really good at planning vacations. Exceptionally good. He does all the research and finds great activities and restaurants that you might not normally come across. This is good for me because even after living in Philadelphia for two years, I'm completely terrified of and stressed out by public transportation and I also tend to just want to eat at Chili's all the time. He's the ying to my stay-in-the-hotel-and-watch-TLC-yang.
So one of the first things that we did upon arrival was go to The Driehaus Museum downtown. It's an old mansion that has been turned into a museum. It was gorgeous, and the tour was really interesting.
Instead of refurnishing the upstairs bedrooms, they made them into exhibit spaces. Right now they have an exhibit on Louis Comfort Tiffany's stained glass. All of his famous lamps and such. It was really impressive. I definitely recommend this museum especially if you've already done the Art Institute and the Field Museum. You should also join the Army because they give you free admission if you do.
After the museum we scurried on over to Lou Malnati's, one of our favorite deep dish pizza places. Just delicious.
After pizza we made the first of THREE attempts to go to the Christkindlmarkt (yes I spelled that correctly). We went here every year in college and never had a problem getting in or walking around. I don't know if the cat's out of the bag or what, but it was so extremely crowded that we couldn't even elbow our way into the "open air" much less buy anything. It was insane. I'm all about traditions until they're a pain in the butt, so we took a bad selfie and called it a day.
Ok so this day is going to seem really long because it was. We took the 6:30 am flight, which gave us a large amount of time to fill. So after attempt number one at the Christmas market, we hopped on the train to the suburbs and reunited with WHEATON! I threatened Johnny that I was going to say hi to all the students we passed in order to help us look like we still fit in.
We visited the student center, said hi to one of my old professors, bought some Wheaton paraphernalia for the bebbies, explored the fancy shmancy new science building, and then realized that we had nothing else to do on campus. We were going to meet one of my old high school students and his roommates for dinner, but we had something like two hours to kill. So we decided to do something we could have never done in college: drink alcohol in downtown Wheaton! The mulled wine was delicious.
We decided to have a bit more relaxing day on Saturday. We ate breakfast at a place called Pittsfield's, tucked inside of an old Gilded Age high rise. The mimosas were a good start to the day. In college, I had always wanted to go to Shedd Aquarium, but never did (ie I was waaay too cheap back then), so we Ubered on over there. It was great! Definitely a must see if you're heading to Chicago. They have Baluga whales and those sharks that look like they have a saw for a nose and jelly fish and 4D movies and cute penguins. The only thing I don't recommend is the live show. They had people playing violins in the water and whales swimming and Frosty the Snowman and it was just a total mess.
That night we ate at Farmhouse, THE best restaurant I have been to in a long time. They had a fabulously fun drink selection and the most delicious cheese curds in existence. I would seriously have eaten them until I died right there...which wouldn't have taken very long I'm sure.
Sunday morning we woke up and had cappuccinos and croissants at one of our favorite Philly-based coffee shops, La Colombe. We were then thirty minutes late to a church service at a tiny little PCA church called Cityview. It was nice to be back in a city-based church that had such a heart for the people around it. I definitely miss that aspect of our lives in Philadelphia.
After a tasty brunch at Yolk (did you know you can make quinoa just like oatmeal?) and another attempt at the Christkindlmarkt (I'm sure the girls will forget about our promise to bring back an ornament) and a nap at the hotel, we ventured out to the Chicago Cultural Center which used to be the Chicago Public Library. I remember accidentally wandering in here in college looking for the library. They have more amazing Tiffany stained glass, particularly this huge Tiffany glass dome. Johnny and I have already figured out where we're going to have our next wedding.
That night we had tickets to go see a comedy show at Second City, so we stopped for an early dinner at The Purple Pig. They don't take reservations, and we were lucky to sneak in at the bar. They bill themselves as "cheese, swine, and wine," so basically all things that are good. We got some wine and a charcuterie platter and all was well in the world.
Second City was super fun. We got to see a lot of talented people perform, and we're saving our programs so that in ten years when they're on SNL we can say that we helped them get there, You're welcome, comedians.
Aside from the 6:20am flight we had Monday morning to leave Chicago, we had a wonderful time. I absolutely recommend everything we did, save the violin/dolphin show. The only thing that has really changed about Chicago is that it's easier to navigate now that we have these new fangled smart phones. Using the Uber app to get rides was amazingly easy and cheap, and we never had to wander around hoping we would find a coffee shop other than Starbucks. There are seriously 17 of them within walking distance of each other.
I will say that coming home from vacations is a lot easier when you have this waiting for you.
