Chicago Rendezvous

Over Labor Day weekend I had the distinct pleasure of finally uniting with the stunning Emily and the amazing Brittany. In short, it was awesome.

Friday:
I finally united with Brittany at the luxurious Hotel Blake on Printer's Row in Chicago. From the moment our eyes locked, it was magical.
By the time we met up, we had to act fast in order to 1) make Emily's WELCOME sign (We had to coerce Ian into lending us scissors. And then we had to cross our hearts and hope to die that we would bring them back in one hour, because they belonged to his manager)

Ian. Lovely Ian on our last night.

and 2) take the train to the airport...which neither of us had done before.

By the time we finished our sign, we hauled ass to catch the train that would take us to O'Hare. As we neared the station, the train stopped. And we waited, and waited and waited. All the while exchanging texts with Emily who had already landed. We were getting more and more panicky, because nothing says "WELCOME!" like leaving an out-of-town guest stranded at the airport, amiright?

We wandered O'Hare, unable to find Emily, and then? AND THEN? We saw her, we clumsily held up our sign, and we grabbed her and had a wonderfully creepy three way hug at the United baggage claim.

The rest of that evening was talking and laughing and asking questions and stating opinions and chatting about the things we already knew about each other thanks to blogging.

Friday night dinner

Saturday:
We woke up early with the tentative plan to show Emily the city. We visited "The Bean" (which is actually called Cloud Gate), Jay Pritzker Pavilion, and we walked and walked and walked. And then? We walked some more.

The Bean a.k.a Cloud Gate

We were tourists to the EXTREME. Taking pictures of anything and everything. Emily and I even got to pose in front of the GLEE window! Ahhhh-mazing.

Glee window!

We then tried, at around 5ish, to go to Skydeck, and The Ledge at the top of the Sears Tower. Mistake. The line wound around the block, and would take approximately 60 hours to get to the top, so we resolved to come back the next morning.
The rest of our night? Spent trying to recover from our WALK-A-THON.

Sunday:
We got up BRIGHT and early to make it to Skydeck at 8:30am, right when it opened. And word to the wise - THIS WAS THE BEST IDEA EVER. We were among 30 people who also had this idea. We didn't wait, we were able to leisurely look around and take pictures.
***If you ever visit Chicago, and have any desire to go to the Skydeck, GO WHEN IT OPENS.**

The Ledge

After this, we met up with Nate and headed to Myopic Books, and then I died and realized I was in Heaven. Floors and FLOORS of books. Used books. Small aisles. Sweet lord, it was GLORIOUS.

By this time, we needed to figure out WHERE Goose Island Brewery was, and with the combined efforts of Brittany, Nate and myself we FOUND it, and it was a huge team victory. We waited with bated breath for Phamasaurus and Jen to arrive and for our brewery tour to start. The tour was short and sweet, but the tasting - shit, that was fun. Some beers were DELIGHTFUL, but one, as Brittany said, smelled like straight up cat pee.

The dinner crew, minus Chad, Jen's darling husband!

And yes, Pham, Brittany and I composed Team Lightweight, and I paid for it the next day.

Team Lightweight.

After a delicious dinner, the ladies and Pham grabbed a nightcap at a little bar near the hotel, and we rounded out the night with a disappointing "Lobster" shot.

Disappointing.

Monday:
The saddest of all days. Again, we were up bright and early and I went to go grab my car in order to drive Miss Emily to the airport. We said our sad goodbyes to Brittany in front of the hotel, and Emily and I jammed to her Glee mix in the car. A good ending to a very cool weekend.