And Finally, Downtown Chicago!

On Tuesday, the day before we were to leave, Ann-Marie so thoughtfully volunteered to take Claire for the day while Jordan and I went downtown. So we went on the train with my brother, who works at the Willis (formerly known as Sears) Tower, and arrived early in the morning! My SUPER nice husband chose to forgo the Science and Technology museum for my preference, the Art Institute! How sweet. It was amazing!! However, that doesn't open until 10! So, we went to a farmer's market and I got an apple from my home state (MICHIGAN!)...apples are SO much better fresh, don't you agree?? And then Jordan and I played with his SLR for an hour, taking pictures of each other in the gardens by the Art Inst. We're cheesy, I know, but for posterity, I'm posting them (the OK ones, not the ones that totally portray that I am in dire need of going on a diet AGAIN and losing at least 10 more pounds...)



My husband is very sexy, I have to say...

A dorky expression for Jordan, but turned out kinda good bc my face doesn't look so...chubby :)

And then 10am rolled around and we went to the museum. It was AWESOME. It reminded me of a mixture between the British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum (my FAVE) in London. This painting by my favorite artist, Renoir, is something I copied in my oil painting class when I was about 14... I was just starting to learn how to do portraits and my teacher wanted me to find a "person..." very odd I picked this little boy (yes, it's a boy, not a girl--a boy in PINK!) but anyway, so when I saw this at the Art Inst. I was like "OMIGOSH! It's the original!!)

I also ALWAYS enjoy a little ancient jewelry. Check out these INDIAN PRINCESS ones!!! Awesome. Natalie, do you think they'd sell these at Tar-jay?? :)

There was also this lame "I-could've-painted-that-with-my-eyes-closed-and-then-opened-them-up-and-hated-it" paintings and "things" in the modern art section that aren't even worthy of a picture....

But the BEST part was.....drum roll.......

THE THORNE MINIATURE ROOMS.

Our FAVORITE part of the museum (besides the Impressionist gallery with Renoir!) This was an afterthought, and we visited this gallery last, the whole time wishing we would've had more time! But don't worry, I'm planning on getting this book someday when I feel like I have money to burn: (ok maybe before that. would make an awesome coffee table book)

A library some year....don't remember...but I thought the little books were sooooo cute....

And here's a miniature entryway. Sooooo amazing. I wish I could post ALL of the pictures. Basically it was a corridor-type exhibit where you'd walk down a hallway, and there were picture frames on either side, and basically the picture frames just framed out a glass enclosure that you looked inside to see the room....it was awesome.

Then we went to eat lunch at the Hancock Tower, but we were late (DANG miniature rooms!!) by like 10 min. and they wouldn't seat us :( But we totally saw the view anyway, and that's all that matters.... But ANOTHER reason we were late was that there was a HUGE crowd on the Magnificent Mile for Oprah's 24th show! Ok, WHY 24 years...don't people usually celebrate 25? I mean really. Ok, so we were walking down the sidewalk toward the tower and I look to the left of me and there is a small trailer type vehicle and there on top, interviewing someone was OPRAH. I was so close to her I could've thrown her a chicken... (Jordan's analogy...anyway...) We were walking on this bridge...there's Oprah's "Arena."

I obviously didn't take this picture.

So we ate at Giordanos again... (we'd eated this Chicago-style pizza--our first time, with Ann-Marie and Nathan. YUMMM-O.) And if you don't know what Chicago style pizza is--besides a WHOLE lot of delicious fat and calories in a single food item...this is a picture:

I obviously took this picture. We read the paper while we ate. Not. Jk.

As you can see, the sauce is on TOP, cheese and toppings in the middle, and the crust is more....pie-crust-ie...

Random pic...

And here is Navy Pier. This was our LAST stop. Seriously, there was so much to see it was so hard to pick!! We did hit Crate & Barrell and that was fun...on the way to Navy Pier.

By the end of it all, we were pooped. As you can see from the expression on my honey's face.

Very fun. Now I'M pooped from writing this blog post!