chicago, illinois lds temple

since it was sunday the temple was closed but my dad and i wanted to check out the outside at least while we were in that neck of the woods. confession: i have lived in madison over 2 years now and haven't been to this temple yet...oops. all you utah folks be grateful you have a temple just down the street from you! i have to drive about 3 hours to get to my closest temple! when we pulled into the temple's property the gate was closed so we couldn't even pull into the parking lot.(boooo) it was going to be really lame driving all that way and only seeing what you can see of the temple from the side of the road. my dad and i started to explore to see if i could hop the fence somewhere. we struck gold and found a gap in the fence by the maintenance shed and had the whole temple grounds to ourselves! the temple is of course gorgeous. not my favorite temple but it's a nice one. the salt lake city temple will always be my temple.

mad dash magnolia

i love big cities. i love the architecture, people watching, shopping (duh), and amazing food EVERYWHERE. i love eating the local fare at cool trendy places and little bakeries. magnolia bakery has been a place i have wanted to go to for a long time and now there is one in chi town! my dad and i wanted to get back up to wisconsin at a decent hour so we didn't leave much time to check out magnolia.

we were on state street (the one with the famous chicago sign) which is really busy approaching magnolia bakery. of course there is no street parking on this street so my dad pulls over fumbles through his wallet, throws me a $100 bill, i jump out of the car with my camera and dash in to absorb the whole experience of this famous bakery while my dad  drives around the block...yeah it was probably a funny site to see.

while waiting in line i am wildly snapping pictures while deciding what i am getting. i picked out a few cupcakes, cookies, some bar thing, snagged a cook book and a jar their famously cute sprinkles...in my favorite color, mint :)

I paid while snapping more pictures, dashed out the door with a bag full of goodies. snapping pictures. this place was adorable all decorated for halloween and i wish i could have spent more time there. i walked outside snapped some pictures while i waited for my dad to pull around the corner, jumped in the car and we booked it out of chi town!

next stop? the lds temple!

navy pier

more late photos to blog about :)

I love llamas

after waking up late sunday morning dad and i grabbed some breakfast at a little dive called mary's cafe. it was a lovely day so we thought navy pier would be the perfect spot to be before we headed back up to sconnieland. we lucked out they were having a halloween bash for kids so we saw cute decorations, performers and a petting zoo! i love halloween. i love navy pier. gosh darn it I LOVE CHICAGO

rainy night in chicago

Friday after class my dad and I hit the road for good old chi town. It was drizzling a little bit when we got there but that didn't stop us from exploring before the night was over. That drizzle turned into a downpour. We fought through the rain on Michigan Ave and finally gave in going into a store for an umbrella. We walked out of the store and of course the rain stopped. The city lights reflecting on the clouds gave the sky a purplish hue. The streets were clean and shiny from the shower. Thanks rain for making Chicago so beautiful for us tonight.

Happy National Pretzel Day!

I forgot to post about my trip to chicago last weekend...probably because I forgot to take any pictures. I was too busy following my professor around and having my own personal tour guide! It was AMAZING. Best way to go through an art museum if you ask me.

The UW Art History Department usually takes a bus down to Chicago's art institute once a semester for a "field trip". It is basically a free bus ride to Chicago though. Once you get there you are on your own, you don't even have to go to the museum if you don't want to, but I'm a nerd and that was all I wanted to do. I am embarrassed to say this, but I even turned down going to Zara with a bunch of girls...NERD ALERT.

I stayed with my modern art professor who was with a couple older ladies and a girl in high school. The older ladies spoke french (one from Belgium and the other from France) and they were so tiny and adorable! The younger girl was a foreign exchange student from Italy and her name was Francesca. She became my bestie for the day. The five of us trekked all of the modern galleries, had duck confit for lunch, and toured the Millennium park gardens before getting back on the bus to get back to Madison. Easy to say I had a cultural feast last week.

Our reflection in the bean with Francesa and Professor Buenger

Middle of the bean.

It was such a perfect day for a wedding in the city! So gorgeous!

The trip was great fun, and We were exhausted after walking ALL DAY LONG. Francesca and I slept the whole way back, became FB buddies and now I have a little Italian friend! I am glad I found her to hang out with because my other friend ended up getting food poisoning so I wasn't going to have any buddies on the trip, since Joey didn't want to go either (party poopers).

 To celebrate National Pretzel Day Joey and I went to the mall to have an Auntie Anne's pretzel. I got the garlic, and he got cinnamon sugar. Joey couldn't finish his because it was "too sweet". I didn't know such words could come out of his mouth haha. No pics of the pretzels tonight though I forgot my camera, and I have a bunch of zits on my face right now so don't really feel like sharing that (thanks stress).

My Kind of Town Chicago Is

One of the best parts of living in the Midwest is living within driving distance to Chicago. Chicago is an incredible city that I fall more in love with every time I go. My friend Caci has a relative that lives in an amazing condo in the city so we went down for the weekend.

You can't get to Chicago with out paying about $10 in tolls which sucks but you also can't get to Chicago without passing IKEA...which is always a treat. Caci had never been so we trekked around ikea for a couple hours with her baby Charlotte. Isn't she adorable?!

I don't know how it happened, but we didn't buy anything! I was as shocked as you guys are. Caci has a lot of self control when it comes to frugality, but I was there too and didn't even buy meatballs or a cute mason jar?!

I was super close to getting a few picture frames for my postcards from the MFAH but resisted. Joey and I need to get rid of things not buy new stuff. He is off to school in August, and I am moving into a much smaller/cheaper living space. Just gotta keep reminding myself that I can get whatever I want when we finally "settle down". Hello all matching dishes!

After IKEA we were starving. As much as I wanted the Lingonberry sauce and meatballs from ikea's cafe, I was pretty sure that anything we got in downtown Chicago was going to be a tinsy bit better....just a tinsy bit ;)

We got to the condo which was adorable. Nancy (Caci's dad's cousin...but we'll just say Caci's aunt) has a great decorator. I scored by having the whole basement to myself which I was not expecting to have when staying with someone who lives in the city! We freshened up and walked to a new pizza joint that Nancy said was pretty popular in her hood. -warning- there was A LOT of unhealthy eating. consider this blog post as an ad for Lipitor lol. We stuffed our faces with delicious pizza and garlic monkey bread that will send you to heaven... and the couch with sweat pants.

Thankfully we did a lot of walking to work off that pizza. We got on a bus to take us to the heart of downtown so I could see "the bean". It was so cool and freezing outside. I want to go back to take a million picks with a better camera than an ipod touch, and in some daylight too....and some summer warmth. Millennium park was awesome, so many cool things all in one place.

I love how the skyline is all lit up in these pictures. Obviously the touch doesn't do it justice Curses not remembering my real camera ever.

I love the feeling of being surrounded by skyscrapers. I could totally get used to living in a huge city.

The "fountains" have random people's faces on them, and in the summer it is a fun place for kids to play around in their swim suits. There is a spout at the mouth and water comes out of it. In this pic though I was able to capture a group of Asian tourists flashing the peace sign. I think I can call my life complete now.

The sides of the fountain towers change color which made some fun pictures.
We went walking around some more while Nancy gave us the tour. We ran into this building which name I don't remember, but it is super old and famous I guess. The interesting thing about it is that the whole thing is turning into a Target! It is sad that such a beautiful building is becoming a big corporate facility, but still I would flip out if this was my Target! They aren't changing anything on the facade since it is a historical building, so I am pretty sure that this is going to be the coolest target ever.

We checked out some other touristy spots like the Macy's-which was ginormous, Chicago Theater, Marilyn Monroe statue, the river/ trump tower etcWe ended up heading back to the condo after our travels around town, and ordering delivery. Did you know you can order delivery from hundreds of restaurants on one website in Chicago? Amazing.The next morning was wonderful. I woke up when my body felt like it. I can't remember the last time that happened. Such a luxury those days were. You know you have become an adult when "sleeping in" is 8:00 am. Nancy had a "race" thing where she climbed all 95(?) floors of the John Hancock building. After she got back from that we bundled up and walked to the Bleeding Heart Bakery for brunch. OMG this place is A. effing delicious and B. effing soo bad for a girl with a sweet tooth.
I decided to go big since it isn't everyday that we go here. I got their doughnut sandwich. Don't judge! It was a small sized portion lol. Basically it was like a mc griddle but in between a doughnut. Disgustingly delicious right? I felt amazing after eating it. Not. But hey its part of the experience, and I will not be ashamed lol. After getting some goodies from their pastry window to take home to joey we headed back to the condo to get ready to go back home.

Chicago trip well done. Next time let's just find a really good salad joint ;)