Anniversary: Chicago, Cookout

Wow...has it really been that long since I posted? Terribly sorry, really. Where to begin? I guess I'll hit the highlights of the past few weeks.

For the Fourth of July weekend, Megan and I headed up to Chicago for our Anniversary. Driving into the city is a hell of an experience. We stayed at the Omni--the same hotel Oprah puts her guests up in--so we were right down on the Magnificent Mile. The closer you got to downtown, the worse the traffic got. People would simply walk out in front of you if you didn't block their paths, and for the most part, taxi drivers/native Chicagoans are very impatient if you get in their way. We finally arrived at the hotel valet stand and that was the last we saw of the car until we left; traffic was simply too hard to deal with. In addition, it was the biggest summer holiday weekend, so there were many more people in the area than usual. I took the subway/train to a Cubs game (against the Washington Nationals) while we were there, which I rather enjoyed. The game went into extra innings, and the Nationals won the game, so that was pretty cool. Later that evening, we walked down to the Navy Pier. That place was entirely too packed (well over a million people just in that little area, I believe I heard on the news), and the lines for the bathrooms were awfully long. We ended up leaving soon after we got there, long before the fireworks and caught a movie just a couple blocks up. What did we watch? Err...Cinderella Man--a good movie, but it seemed to be a bit longer to stuff all of the story in. We ate at the Rainforest Cafe one evening, and the hotel's internal restaurant (Cielo) the other evening. I'm sure you can guess which one was more expensive. Here are a couple of hints: one of them was fully 80 dollars including tip, and it wasn't the one that had animatronic gorillas. Oh, and it starts with a "c". I took some pictures...I'll upload a few here in a bit for the end of the post.

The following Sunday, my parents threw an Anniversary cookout for us. We had your typical cookout food, lots of pop, and lots of alcohol. Of course, I don't drink, but it was there if I wanted to. My brother and his friend made a cornhole set--a pretty nice one, in fact--and that was the hit of the party. The party started around 4 and people were still playing it well on toward midnight, even though it was a Sunday night. With all the alcohol, everyone playing kept getting louder and louder as the night progressed. We also roasted some marshmallows, but the fire was far too hot to stay near it for long. Again, pictures to come below.

Finally, where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?

Pictures

Our hotel room had a dedicated bedroom


Rainforest Cafe...Those gorillas in the background move and stuff. Actually, I just put this picture up because of the kid's Dunn jersey.


The Omni Hotel


Wrigley Field--Yeah, everyone who goes to Wrigley has a picture of this entrance, I know.


The Navy Pier--as you can tell, my camera sucks when the sun goes down. Actually, my camera sucks when the sun is up...


This is a picture I took of our families (blurred-out, obviously), but just today I realized that my wonderful brother Josh was flipping me off. Smartass.


Here's my brother again (on the right), standing by the cornhole set he made with his friend Adam. They've been getting orders from people to make cornhole sets. The boy on the left is my cousin Patrick.