Here is one of the pictures we took while visiting Chicago last Christmas (2011). It was pretty interesting to cross the bridge as you could see the river below your feet at times, especially when you were entering or exiting the bridge.
Whenever I see this photo I think of St. Patrick’s Day in Chicago, as they traditionally dye at least one of the rivers green.
I never had the guts to go on this ferris wheel. It’s taller in person than it looks.
Navy Pier ferris wheel in Chicago, December 2011
Height: 150 feet
Seats: 40 gondulas seating up to 6 each
Time: 7 minutes
Navy Pier information (Wikipedia)
It’s hard to believe that it has already been 11 months since Marco, Roger and I visited Chicago for Christmas 2011. One of the places we visited was Wrigley Field.
I actually did go to one game back in the day during college (I forget the team the Cubs were playing) although traffic and parking was horrendous enough that we didn’t get into the stadium until the 5th inning.
We also found a pretty decent sporting goods store (Sports World) nearby where Marco and Roger bought some sporting items — one I remember was a Cubs ball cap.
names of Cubs fans carved into the bricks outside of Wrigley Field
This past Christmas, Marco and Roger came with me to meet my parents in Chicago for the first time. The very first night we were there, we ordered pizza.
It’s a family sized pizza, since we wanted leftovers the next day (of which there were plenty!). And the pizza made Marco drool. He was reminiscing about it a week or two ago, specifically that the pizza was cut into squares not slices.. If you look closely, you can see the square cuts.
Of course, I had no idea that about 36 hours later (give or take a few) I would be engaged. The proposal happened while unwrapping gifts Christmas morning. I really had no idea. Even when someone at church accidentally almost gave it away at the Christmas Eve service… I was totally clueless and said “No…? We’re not getting engaged until later in 2012.” Oh how little I knew.
As Marco mentioned, there was a lot of scheming going on. He actually called my parents a month or so prior about the upcoming engagement, and my parents actually wrapped up the ring box in a stocking for the dog. They knew I’d help unwrap the dogs present. And then of course there was also the scheming being done for my mom’s Christmas gift – a new netbook. It was very hard to concentrate on her unwrapping her gift, since I was spending too much time staring at my new ring!
During our most recent trip to New York City, Marco and I decided to try out Five Guys, a hamburger joint. We had heard about it a few years before but we never made it around to visiting one (even though there was one on a bus route we take to the Palisades Center). They also sell hot dogs and a few sandwiches – see their menu. We visited the one in Times Square right next to door to Roger’s favorite restaurant, Chevy’s.
It’s slightly pricey, but when you consider that their default hamburger is a double it works out. Also, all toppings are free. I was holding down the fort and securing us a table to sit at so I just told Marco to go on ahead and order me a hamburger. He did great, choosing “mustard and jalapenos” for me. (Occasionally I like a tiny bit of ketchup, but it’s not required at all and I’d prefer no ketchup to letting someone else choose how much to put on there.) The only crazy thing was that it seems to come with barbecue sauce even if you don’t ask for it… but it was pretty good as well. I think they put the barbecue sauce on the other side of the patty so it wasn’t completely combined.
The biggest tip I have is that unless you love lots of french fries, if you go with two people just get one order. They give you a lot for your money. (Marco got the cajun style fries… so good and spicy! He said they were a bit too salty, but I tend to love salt.)
The other thing that they have (which we did not try out) was a freestyle coke machine, as referenced in the front sign of the restaurant photo above, and as shown in this internet picture. You choose what flavor you want based on touching the screen and then (at least at Five Guys) it asks you another question and then dispenses it. It was a fully electronic screen, not just one screen with the flavors displayed.
This particular location had a bulletin board and colored pencils for you to write a message. You can see our message on the left side of it (hanging off the edge).
Continuing the December theme of my last post, one of the places that Roger, Marco and I visited this previous December was Water Tower Place in Chicago. It is an upscale shopping area with eight floors (although each floor is pretty small).
We fell in love with the entrance to the mall:
The three “glass” objects you see on each level are actually formed by cascading water. You can see the pool of water above each of the levels.
Life in the Hague 