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we decided we were up for one more trip before the little one came. so, we packed our bags and flew out to chicago to visit sarah and zach. they have a really nice apartment right in wrigleyville, with convenient access to not one, but two little shops that sell expensive things for babies. one of them was in the bottom floor of their building, allowing us to ensure that our flights were not the most expensive part of our trip.

here’s lillis thinking about some things she might buy.

here she and i are at lincoln park. in all my trips to chicago (including working there for 6 months) and all the times i’d been in lincoln park (the area), i’d never actually seen lincoln park zoon. we went there, though, to do a photo shoot with s and z’s kid amelia and her buddy eleanor. i actually didn’t go inside the zoo, but lillis did. she said their restrooms were very nice.

saturday day, we walked all over wrigleyville. past the stadium, down to the lake. we watched the sail boats and the water crashing against the retaining wall. the little pregnant girl was a trooper. we probably covered 4 or 5 miles but she still turned down the offer of a cab for the ride home. on saturday night we “just” went out to uncommon ground for dinner. they grow a lot of their own produce on the roof and do things organic. it was very good. just as fun for lillis, was our trip to dairy queen after.

on sunday we did a bit of baby shopping after we had eaten breakfast. then, we decided to go take the frank lloyd wright tour (something else that had been on my “list” for quite some time). the area in between downtown and Oak Park is probably not as nice as it was in frank’s day. you know you’re not in the best area when places are advertising that they have “human” hair.

here’s amelia out in front of frank’s place.

and dancing!

one more of the flw houses

and here are a couple of the pics from our photo shoot.

we had a great time visiting with good friends……and had just enough time at the tail end to get some deep dish pizza at Giordano’s near the airport. good times!

lil and i headed out west, er midwest for her christmas party in chicago. it’s an interesting affair. my personal highlight from the party, someone saying “i thought he should be a good guy. i met him at a meeting of chicago supporters of the republican party.” that had followups that i am unwilling to print online, but needless to say, it got pretty surreal. anyway, we had a good time at the party and then set out to enjoy the weekend. now is a good time to mention that i got to eat at potbelly’s. i love potbelly’s. i did not, however, get to eat at either Giordano’s or Geno’s East.

anyway, back to the posting. so we stopped by the building formerly known as the sears tower. i knew sears wasn’t selling as many kenmores as they once did, and that they old sears catalogue building is a delapidated gov’t building on ponce, but i hadn’t realized they had pawned the tallest building in america.

when we went by the building, it was on our way to lou mitchell’s. FABULOUS breakfast place. light fluffy pancakes and omelets and fresh squeezed oj that reminded me of spain. good stuff. it’s out just a bit south of the river if anyone cares.

i refuse to call a national landmark the “willis tower”, as the only willis i’ve ever known was related to arnold and mr drummond. so, i decided to make it the lillis tower…..see below.

here’s what salvador dali would think chicago looks like.

here lillis looks at one of the window displays in the marshall fields building – yes, i know they’ve changed the name, but i refuse to acknowledge it. they had a great big tree and some giant dangly ornaments inside.

we went up to the Windy City (lil’s first real trip there) to go to her Christmas party, and enjoy a weekend of frigid temperatures and high winds – less than 5 days after returning from St. Lucia. the party was nice…..but growing up at andersen consulting, you get you to the Christmas party being a lavish event where new hire puke in the restrooms and some partners wife is dancing a little too close with a consultant…so anything less than that always feels like, “eh, it was a nice dinner.” : )

it’s good to know you can find the comforts of home wherever you go….even at this little establishment that seems somewhat curiously placed right off of rush st.

we walked in a loop around wrigley looking for a bama bar…..we knew there was one nearby.

jackpot – the houdstooth. now, that’s what i’m talking about – comforts of home!! a welcoming place to watch us take on the gators and urban meyer, and tim tebow, and all the little leper kids that tim tebow has healed.

here are lil and i before kickoff in front of a faux deer horn chandelier.

the game didn’t work out well for us in the end, but we had a good time regardless (as evidenced by the videos).

here’s a view from the window of our room at the sheraton.

here’s lillis in front of the famous lion (or one of the two famous lions) that greet visitors to the art institute of chicago – probably my favorite museum in the world. they have one particular room (the helen birch bartlett) that is hands down my favorite anywhere. monets, the famous seurat, van gogh’s bedroom and picasso’s guitarista. solid stuff. unfortunatlely, all of those things (except the seurat) were not showing whilest we were there due to construction : (

we did get to see this, however….i’ve always liked the positioning of the oldenberg statue an the lichtenstein.

and their stellar collection of remingtons

not pictured are the fabulous winslow homers and georgia o’keefes, or any of the 1,000 times i checked my nose to see if it was running…..did i mention it was cold….i mean COLD!