Almost Middle Aged Friends + Musicals + Segways + the Windy City = Good Times

(Chicago at night from our hotel room window.  Lovely, no?)

So I spent my Mother's Day weekend in Chicago . . . and not in the bosom of my loving family (felt a little guilty about that, but got over it, and now wonder if I ought to feel guilty about getting over it?).  Instead, my family gave me the gift of taking off with Sally and Michelle--dearest of dear friends from way back in my mom-of-little-kids days in Minnesota.  In the past we've gone to Vegas (how many years ago was that?  Sally would know.  She has a filing cabinet for a brain.  I think it was 8 years ago??), to Los Angeles (that was in 2004?), and twice now, Michelle has come from Minnesota to Utah to visit me and Sally, since Sally's living in Zion again as well.

But I've got to say, I think Chicago was our best trip yet.  Vegas is so Vegas-y.  Didn't help that when we went we stayed at the IMPERIAL PALACE (why was no one advising us of such things?).  L.A. was fun, but it's a sprawling city, and we spent a lot of time running from place to place.  I felt like we had a great pace in Chicago, though--the right amount of stuff to do to keep us entertained, but leisurely enough that we could kick back and watch movies in our hotel room all night if we wanted.  Which we did do, Sunday night.

But I'm getting ahead of myself!  Let me begin at the beginning:

First, photos, to remind you of the players in this narrative:

Michelle and Sally

Michelle and Me

Sally and Me.  The yellow vests will be explained shortly.  Just you wait!

On Friday I woke up early, drove to the airport, nervously used the off-site parking Forrest uses all the time but managed to make it through the process myself without looking like a noob. I think. Met Sally at the gate, then proceeded to talk talk talk the entire way to Chicago.  It was a small commuter plane and I think we were the only people talking the whole entire flight.  We tried to keep our voices at a low conversational murmur, though. Tried.

Went to the hotel--Embassy Suites near Navy Pier.  Really nice place, hilarious check in lady who noticed that we had one king bed then debated whether or not it would be offensive to ask us if we would prefer two doubles, then decided that we "looked like the kinds of girls who would prefer two doubles. Ha, ha, ha!!!"  What, was it our wedding rings that looked to have been purchased in the early 90s even though we're both in our mid-to-late 30s?  My poofy Utah hair?  (I try not to have poofy Utah hair, but can't seem to help it.  Especially in Chicago.  I kept saying that I had Lion Hair.  I think it was the humidity. Oh, and my hair's not dark anymore.  Went blonde again.  Anyway.)  

Michelle finally joined us--she'd been driving from MN--and we decided to embark on our first culinary adventure.  Now, we'd intended to eat GREAT in Chicago.  I mean, if you can't find good restaurants in Chicago then you're a sorry fan of Bravo's Top Chef indeed.  So the first recommendation was for a place that makes the "best" deep dish Chicago style pizza around.  Gino's East "the Original" it was called.  So Michelle googled it and we traipsed off to find a taxi.  When we told the driver the address he looked at us like we were mildly bonkers, but then took off anyway.  After a while, it became clear that the Gino's East location was not all that close to our hotel, and after a $20 cab ride he deposited us in front of a tiny little hole in the wall with maybe six or seven tables.  Salad was iceberg lettuce with a plastic container full of ranch dressing.  The Diet Coke was delivered warm, in the can, with a styrofoam cup full of ice.  And the pizza was kinda ick.  Too gloppy.  Although I've got to say that I probably wouldn't like Chicago style pizza much no matter where I got it: I'm more a thin crust, sun-dried-tomatoes-and-artichokes kind of girl.  So we finished our meal, took our $20 cab ride home, and had a good laugh in the mean time, especially once we learned that Michelle had received the recommendation from her son's 13-year-old Facebook friend and that there were scads of Original Gino's East the Originals all over Chicago.

We also went and saw a really good movie.  City Island.  None of us had heard anything about it, but it had a pretty good score on Rotten Tomatoes so we thought we'd give it a chance.  And it was so good!  Nothing like walking into a movie with low expectations and being pleasantly surprised.  Juliana Margeulise (how the heck do you spell that???/), Andy Garcia, some hottie young actor guy (forget his name, but Michelle googled him when we got home, so I'm sure she remembers :-).  Michelle was our resident googler.)

For Saturday night, our plan was to go to Rick Bayless's restaurant Frontera Grill.  As any big fan of Top Chef knows, Bayless is AWESOME, so I really really really wanted to go to his restaurant.  It has weird hours, though, and very limited reservations.  I tried about a month out but they were already taken.  So since it opened at 5:00 for dinner, we got there right at 5 on the spot, but by the time we got to the front of the line, the wait time was already two and a half hours! So, with great sadness, we left Frontera Grill and went searching for another restaurant that was near the Oriental Theater, since we had tickets to see the musical Billy Elliot.

We finally agreed on a seafood restaurant (can't remember the name), and it was okay, nothing great.  Harumph.  But then!  Then we got to go see Billy Elliot!

Outside the theater, looking a little bit gussified.  The guy who we asked to this picture looked completely discombobulated.  It was like we'd asked him to name the capitols of a bunch of Eastern European countries. No stress, dude!  Just point and click!  The photo turned out pretty good, actually, so I suppose I'm glad for his intense concern over the process. 

Sally and Michelle inside the theater.  Isn't it purdy?  And aren't they purdy too?

Billy Elliot is a new-ish musical based on the movie of the same name that came out a few years ago.  Elton John wrote the music.  I didn't know much about the plot, other than it involved a working class British boy who just "wanted to dance!!!"--and I knew that Chicago's production had received strong reviews. So I went in without knowing quite what to expect--but it was fabulous.  The story was strong, the acting was top-notch, but best of all, there was DANCING.  And I love dancing.  Even better, there was dancing by adolescent dancing prodigies, and it's always fun to watch kids who are amazingly talented, isn't it?  It reaffirms your faith in the world, the potential of the individual human being.  Or something.  The kid who played Billy was the original Billy on Broadway, and it showed.  Loved every minute of it.

So the next morning, after another leisurely bout of sleeping in (ah, bliss), we had our Embassy Suites Cooked to Order Breakfast then headed out for Navy Pier.  We'd decided on the spur of the moment to book a Segway tour of the city, even though we KNEW we were paying good money to look like total dorks.  But if three almost-middle-aged mothers of teenagers can't look like dorks, then who can?  So, we rose to the occasion.  Here's some photographic proof:

 Helmeted up, ready to go.  Lovely, aren't we?

Our first big photo op.  The Segway itself took a little getting used to, and we were all a tiny bit nervous at first.  Don't want to topple into Lake Michigan, after all.  And isn't Lake Michigan lovely? The color of the water isn't even photoshopped.

After a while I got the hang of operating the Segway and started doing dare-devilish things like taking pictures WHILE I was driving (probably a no no, but I count it as evidence of my athletic skill.)

Yes, here we are, Segwaying through million dollar neighborhoods

And again, Segwaying in the midst of Chicago traffic.  I'm sure everybody was honking at us because we were so good looking and athletic-seeming.  Anyway, it was a blast, and I'm glad we put our pride aside and did it.  It will certainly be one of the more memorable aspects of the trip.

Our last day of the trip, Michelle had to scoot out of there early so she could go see an old friend and get on the road back home.  We were sad to see her go.  But then Sally and I had a few hours to kill before heading back on the L (you know, the elevated train?) to the airport, so we went to the newish Millennium Park and took a nice stroll along Michigan Ave.  Talk about beautiful.  I love, love, love cities, and the architecture in Chicago is so varied and interesting.  Here are some pics of the morning:

Me in front of the famous Bean sculpture in the park.

Sally and me taking pictures of ourselves in the reflective surface of the famous Bean statue.  Note the guy with the "what are those two doing?" expression.

Sally and me standing in front of the Bean sculpture.  Note that the guy who was wondering what in the world we were up to in the previous photo is the same one taking our picture.  He offered.  Very nice.

Here are a few other shots of cool things in the city:

Sally in front of the amphitheater in Millennium park.  There's a nice wide lawn behind it.  I'm sure it's an amazing place to see a concert. 

Pretty tulips in the garden

Pretty Sally in the garden.

The short building is the library.  Isn't it gorgeous?  And we're pretty sure the tall building with the slanty ceiling is the one the kids slid down in the masterpiece of 80s film making, Adventures in Babysitting.

The Chicago Tribune building.  Just because it's really cool looking.  And because I tried to imagine just for a minute what it would be like to work there every day.  (Not that I would really want to be a journalist.  But it was still fun to think about.)

Me in front of the river, looking Lion Hair-ish.

It was a wonderful trip.  I feel so blessed to have such good friends.  No matter how much time we're apart, whenever we get together it's like no time has passed.  I hope we'll still be going on trips like these twenty years from now.

And thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to my wonderful husband and amazing kids for being so great while I was gone.  I came home to done laundry, clean rooms, and lots of hugs and smiles.  And belated Mother's Day cards.  Knowing I have all of you to come home to makes trips like this even sweeter.