June Wrap up 2: Chicago and Cheri.....

I love love love Chicago!!

Having really late lunch after taking in the sights!!

I had the BEST time there- and of course a good part of that enjoyment came from spending that time with some great friends.

I realize how fortunate I am to find and make friends with amazing people. I have a lot of different people in my life that are involved with different facets of my day, week and year.  Some of my "best" friends are people I have never met in person- they are my loseit friends- fitness and health friends who I interact with on loseit, on FaceBook, through texting and email.  There is something about this group of people that transcends the miles. 

Grant Park 

Again, fortunately, I have summers to myself and I have been able to meet some of my online friends!! I have, without exception, enjoyed these encounters SO much and look forward to meeting each of these people again.

At Caribou Coffee

This particular trip was a double win for me, as I spent time with 2 of my loseit friends..... Cheri and Randy.  Without going into a lot of detail, Cheri and I have been fast friends since we added each other to our friends list!  We decided last winter (since we are apparently long lost twin sisters) that a trip to Chicago to meet and get to know each other was the thing to do, and I am thrilled to say we DID!!  Other than the 5 or so hours that we slept each night, we never stopped talking the whole time.  We had a glorious, active, awesome time together.

The first day we were fortunate enough to have our own special tour guide, another loseit user who has been one of my friends almost from the beginning- Randy.  Randy lives in Chicago and has for a while, and has the MOST incredible knowledge of that city and it's buildings.  We were treated to a 3 plus hour walking tour, complete with color commentary and as a fellow photographer, he walked us over to a great camera shop when my 35 mm was not working.  Fortunately, the camera only glitched and of course WORKED when I was showing it to the camera guy.....  or else he has really good karma!  I can not begin to thank Randy enough for the tour and I wish we could have seen him the next day, but it unfortunately didn't work out.... NEXT TIME!!!  And so because of that little detail, I don't have a pic of Randy and I together and I find that greatly distressing.  :(

Randy: this is the pic that happened when I clicked the shutter at the camera store- never expecting it to work!  

Sunday found us all over the downtown area: Saw the Picasso sculptures and lots of other ones, went over bridges and across the Chicago River, past the Hancock building, over and around and we ended up over by Navy Pier and down by the lake front where both Cheri and I in separate incidences ended up on the ground: surprised and laughing. We passed through Millennium Park, saw Cloud Gate and just had a fantastic time!  We walked 7.1 miles that afternoon!

Picasso sculpture

This thingsprays water across the river every hour!

yet another Picasso

Miro Sculpture

Water tower

Hey, I think I know that guy!

After Randy took his tired self home, Cheri and I continued on our quest for exploring the city and went over to Grant Park and saw that amazing Fountain!!!  We also found a great place for walking/running in the morning- right along the lake front.  

Instead of a blow by blow account of our days, here is a synopsis:

• We walked and ran each morning by the lake.  It was gorgeous and fun.  

Cheri running along the lake

Tired Debi snapping pix and run/walking

• We drank a LOT of coffee!
• I took a ton of pix- it had to happen

night!

• We went to the Art Institute and that will have a separate post.  I was in heaven........ 

• The only money we spent, besides food, was for a coffee cup!!  :)  We walked the Magnificent mile, stopped at Garrett's Popcorn shop, got stuck under a building during a scattered thunderstorm and walked and walked and walked.  

Cloud gate

• We tried to get to a Crossfit gym, but it was closed, so we went to Trader Joe's instead!!!
• We found an awesome sculpture installation that looked like something from the Walking Dead! It was a wonderful piece that commemorates the victims of the holocaust.  In fact there are so many wonderful sculptures in the downtown area I could have spent an entire day exploring only that.

• Our hotel- the Congress Hotel- was right across from Grant Park and we were thrilled to be able to walk everywhere.  It was in a perfect location for our purposes. 

our make shift door lock for a sketchy deadbolt- we crack me up!!

• We ate some FANTASTIC food- mostly in little places, but included the Walnut Room in Macy's.  There is vegetarian food EVERYWHERE there!!!  YES!

Portabella burger

• We drove our lil selves in and out of the city with little problem.  THAT was huge to me, I was worried to death about driving in Chicago.  

Lots of pictures--- lots and lots

sailboats along the lakeshore

Close, yet so far apart: at the Art Institute

Along the lake shore

People watching

More people watching

Grant park

The skies looked like this a lot!

Gardens in Millenium Park along the bridge

Cone flowers

Hard and soft, angles and curves

Window washer hanging above us at Caribou coffee

So many great memories with 2 wonderful friends.  What a wonderful way to finish off June!