Almost 2 weeks ago, Chris and I took the opportunity to make a get-away to Chicago. The main reason for this trip was to go to a David Crowder Band concert (as part of their last tour - The 7 Tour)! I've always kind of wanted to see them in concert because I knew it would be nothing short of amazing and I love their music. When I found out they were breaking up, I really really wanted to make it to their concert. So we bought the tickets and off we went!
We decided to take the Megabus up to Chicago from Bloomington, which left around lunchtime. Before we knew it we were pulling into Union Station in Chicago. We left straight from Union Station to head to our hotel to check in. We were happy to get to this place right at check-in time :)
When your husband does as much international travelling as Chris does, then the frequent flyer miles tend to add up pretty quickly! So we took the opportunity to use some of those miles for a one-night stay at the Westin Chicago River North. This was a great hotel to stay at - beautiful inside and out, right on the river, and only a few blocks from Michigan Avenue. And it was only my second time to stay downtown (first time with Chris), so I was excited! Here's our room...
kind of fun to peek in on people's offices next door :)
Chris testing out the bed
great (but limited) views of the river
I was pretty excited when I found out the hotel was right next to these 2 circular buildings. I don't remember the name of them but I think they're pretty awesome!
...and right next door to House of Blues!
...and right down the street from the new Trump building.
Chris had to have a cup of coffee before we headed out to the concert - it was gonna be a long night :)
We made our way to the place we decided we were going to have dinner - DMK Burger Bar! Dan and Cara Crumrine were also going to the concert, so this is where we decided to meet up for dinner before we headed to the concert. DMK's was on Drivers, Dine-ins, and Dives list of restaurants, so we wanted to check it out. (This episode had actually just aired on tv earlier in the week, but none of us got to watch it.)
This place was sooooo good! I had one of their homemade vanilla and ginger sodas along side my bison burger topped with red onions, blueberry sauce, and some kind of cheese (I think). And Chris and I split their yummy sweet potato fries. It was all delicious and I would definitely go there again! Not only was their food really good, but the restaurant just had a fun vibe to it and you felt like you were part of the local neighborhood.
(in the background you can also see Dan and Cara's amazing blue cheese fries!)
With full bellies and smiles, we walked just down the street to the Vic Theater to stand in line for the DCB Concert! The doors opened at 6 but we got there a half hour early so we could get a good spot for the sold-out concert.
i was really surprised at how close we were to the stage. and the inside of the theater was very cool with so many intricate details of an old theater.
killing an hour before the concert started and excited at being probably 15 to 20 feet from the stage :)
John Mark McMillan up first
then Gungor. they were new to me but i really liked them! they even had a beat-box cellist! (apparently this guy was on the tv show The Sing-off.)
Mrs. Gungor played what looked like a modified accordian...
...and a set of bells! :)
And then, Chris August (rocking the suspenders)! He was playing an acoustic set all by his lonesome, but he was great. He has such a good voice!
Then it was finally time for the David Crowder Band!
Seeing DCB live was amazing! It was like one huge worship time :)
they even did a few "southern" songs - songs that they haven't released before
John and the rest of the crew came back on stage to sing "How He Loves Us"
(you can even see Jack's sign off to the right - there were some fans that made a sign for each DCB band member. they had their names and a pretty detailed character drawing for each :)
Soon after this song, the concert was over. Or at least it was supposed to be. Everyone just kept clapping. And they came back on stage a minute or two later and did four or five more songs! It was great! It was about 10:45 before the concert was over! I couldn't believe how many songs they played. I guess that happens when you've been around for 11 years. With sore feet, tiredness, and happy hearts, we made our way back to our hotel to sleep really well!
After a pretty late night, we took the opportunity to sleep in on Saturday morning. When we got up, we got ready, checked out of our hotel, and headed to find some breakfast. The concierge at the hotel had suggested a place called Fox and Obel's for breakfast. This was actually a little restaurant attached to a little grocery store. It ended up being the perfect place for us to go!
I had fresh orange juice (possibly the best I've ever had) and the biggest granola parfait (berry style)! It was so yummy and definitely hit the spot. Chris had a more typical breakfast consisting of an omelet, lots of potatoes, and a few other things. We felt like locals at Fox and Obel's because that's mostly who was in the restaurant. It was perfect - pretty quiet atmosphere even though they were busy, cute and sophisticated style, delicious food, and a view of the sun coming up over the river.
...and it was just down the street from where we had to go for our bike tour.
But we had a few other things to do first. I had to make yet another visit to the Apple store since I was having problems with my ipod (again) and I wanted to get it fixed while still under warranty. Leaving there with an operable ipod that also had the new operating system on it, we headed to a couple stores right next door.
Since we weren't really in the mood to do any shopping besides window shopping and it was an absolutely gorgeous October day out, we decided to take the opportunity to take a leisurely walk along the river. It was wonderful and has such great views!
Before we knew it, it was time to head to our bike tour! We met Hank (our tour guide), got our helmets, listened to a short run-down on operating bikes and the tour, got our bikes (Chris' was named Lulu2 and mine was Homer), and walked our bikes to the first stop on the tour.
There was this group of foreign men who also had a cameraman in tow. They wouldn't leave our bike group alone and wanted us to tell the camera that this certain tennis player was "#1". I forget where they said they were from and I didn't recognize the tennis player's name. They seriously would not leave so our tour guide had us humor them and we gave them a very lame and non-enthusiastic "#1". Meanwhile, there was a building about a block away that had probably 7 to 10 fire trucks surrounding it (with the truck sirens going off on the way to the building). Needless to say, there were a lot of distractions before our tour hardly even started! It was pretty crazy. But Hank eventually got to talk a little bit and then we were off and riding through the streets of downtown Chicago!
our first stop was the Museum of Contemporary Art.
and right next door to the museum is the Water Tower Palace, which is also the home of Oprah on the top floor!
Our next stop was in the Golden City. This is apparently a mansion where Hugh Hefner used to live before they moved out to California.
there's Hank!
another stop - admiring the statue of Lincoln in Lincoln Park.
in Old Town - this yellow house is actually made out of wood from the Great Chicago Fire.
We also stopped at St. Michael's in Old Town. It was kind of crazy because there was a wedding there that afternoon and guests were starting to arrive since the wedding was in a half hour. But Hank said we should go take a look anyway! It was so weird. I felt kind of bad that we were basically crashing the wedding even though it hadn't started yet. But I'm glad we got to look inside since it is such a beautiful church!
we also made a visit to Lincoln Park Zoo. Chris was "admiring" this view...
such a great view of downtown! i think everyone else agreed since we saw 3 to 4 couples/parties taking wedding pictures in this area :)
But we ended with the best view of the day from just off Lake Shore Drive, looking right down Michigan Avenue.
and our silly group picture that our tour guide took :)I would recommend our bike tour to anyone who is wanting to see a different side of Chicago. It was a great way to see multiple parts of the city and it really was a pretty easy bike ride - very leisurely. Go to bobbysbikehike.com and check out the Lakefront Neighborhoods tour.
And our last stop while in Chicago would be to eat dinner. We decided to have Gino's East Pizza! Chris had eaten there a couple times before and I had actually had some of his leftovers once, but it was my first time eating there.
i didn't know about the tradition of writing on their walls, but I thought it was kind of neat. it definitely adds character to the building :)
big pizza man right by our booth!
(i had to join in on the fun and wrote on the back of my bench)
our supreme pizza with sausage finally came! it was delicious! the cornbread-type crust was definitely better fresh ;)
Gino's East was just what we needed to end our Chicago trip. We had just enough time after eating to make it to Union Station in time to catch our train and hop right in line to board! (Chris was really nervous when we went into Gino's that we wouldn't have enough time.)
all set for my first train ride! it was time to head back home and try our hardest to stay awake, even though it would be late when we got home. the train was really nice and is as good as people claim it to be. i look forward to the next time we get to take it!
This really was a great and quick trip to Chicago. I feel like we crammed a lot into one day and we had so much fun getting to see the city again together!
