Magnificent Mile

I had an opportunity of a lifetime to go to Chicago last weekend with my fabulous baby sister and phenomenal cousin for almost free! Can you believe I have lived in the Minneapolis/St Paul, MN area my whole life and never been to Chicago? It's such a close destination. It's a pity I had never visited before, and now I TOTALLY HOOKED!!! It is such a gorgeous city. Granted, we were only in the downtown area (The Loop on the Magnificent Mile?), but still simply splendid.

Below are a few pics from our adventures...

This first picture is taken from 90-some stories in the air from the Observation Deck at the John Hancock Center. The views were breath takingly gorgeous! On your ride to the Observation area, you go up 94 floors in under 40 seconds. The pressure on your ears is immense. My ears popped 4 times in that brief time frame. Lake Michigan overlooking Navy Pier.

Below is the rock star / musician that my cousin Sara had us stalk the first night we were in town. Molly and Sara had tickets to see the Lovehammer concert that features Marty Casey as the lead singer. We went to the pre-concert party at the Rock-it Bar, where the band never showed up for their meet & greet. Next we went to the actual concert at the House of Blues (which was AWESOME!!! -- not the concert, but the actual House of Blues.) After the concert we went to our third bar of the evening, whose name I cannot remember. In any case, we staked out the joint until Sara spotted the infamous Marty Casey and we were able to get out picture taken with me. Yeah us!