Last night we went to a fundraiser for a local shelter with our friend Jess. She doesn't have a dog (YET!!) but has volunteered at various shelters and supports our furry friends just the same. It was held at Schuba's, which I had actually been wanting to check out because we used to drive by it all the time on the way home from work (recently we started taking a different way home). It was fun to actually get out and do something on a week night! It reminded me of when we lived in Philly and would actually go out and do stuff (my couch is just sooooo inviting these days I can't seem to pass it up)! And by "these days" I really mean "the last 5 years."
First stop? The Bean! Of course we had to take a family pic in the Bean.
The Gold Coast Art Fair happened to be going on in Grant Park a few blocks away so we walked over to check that out. We enjoyed a cool beverage and some live music while we relaxed for a few minutes in the shade.
Mom stayed at the art fair while the rest of us walked down to see Buckingham Fountain. Next we walked along Michigan Ave and made our way down to the River Walk. After all of this walking, we were all getting quite hungry, so we hearded the troops and thought we would check out Navy Pier real quick on the way to get some Deep Dish. Navy Pier was of course PACKED (and annoying) so we decided we had seen enough just trying to drive past the front of it, and we didn't even bother to get out of the car. We drove back up Lakeshore Drive and found 2 parking spots literally right in front of Giordano's.
The pizza was awesome and this is definitely our new favorite deep dish pizza place!! After pizza we all went back to our place and had a little birthday celebration for my Aunt Shirley (who is turning 60 in a couple weeks) complete with Middle Sister wine (since she is the middle sister)!
We just hung out and enjoyed spending time together while watching the Pirates/Cubs game on TV...which was kind of ironic considering my entire family that was visiting are Pittsburgh fans and Wrigley Field is about 3 miles from us on the same street (the game was in Pittsburgh). Sunday we drove down to my cousin Laurel's house for a final family breakfast and said our Goodbye's. What a great weekend!
She was a little unsure of the water at first, so we took her over to a "corner" of the beach so she could explore the water on her own terms. It didn't take long until she was frolicking in the lake, drinking the lake water, and trying to do the Basenji 500 twenty yards out from the sand. 
Okay, I think that's it! It doesn't sound like much now that I listed it all out....but now all I have to do is sit back and relax for the rest of the evening (and "supervise" Tom while he grills our burgers).
Saturday we slept in, enjoyed coffee, and wished real hard that the sun would come out so we could take Bailey to the beach. Well, we didn't wish hard enough, because the weather was absolutely miserable! You can't even see the lake, can you?!
It was cold, misty, and foggy. We went to the beach anyways, and couldn't even see 100 yards in either direction.
Bailey wasn't too sure of the water. Tom tried to take her in, but she kept running away whenever the waves would crash. She did like the sand, however, and kept trying to bury her nose in it apparently thinking she would find something. After about 15 minutes we had all had enough (or at least I had), so we headed back to the house to warm up with some hot tea.
Saturday evening my cousin Laurel (who lives in Indiana) drove out to have dinner with us and spend a few hours catching up. It was so good to see her! There happened to be a convenient little wood-fired pizzeria down the road so we ordered a delicious meal (complete with prosciutto, rosemary, and pistachio pizza and various flavors of gelato).
With grease filled bellies we walked to the train station and made it downtown and to Navy Pier in enough time for what we thought would be a peaceful, relaxing, arhitectural boat tour (like the one Tom and I took a few years ago when we came to visit Chicago with friends). Wrong. I bought the tickets through Groupon a month or so ago and figured that all architectural boat tours were pretty much the same. Wrong again. We were on a "speed boat" that decided to take us on not one but TWO speeding adventures up and down Lake Michigan in 55 degree rainy weather before heading to the river for the architecture tour. And our tourguide was one of those kids that tried real hard to be funny, but was just bad. We bundled up and went along for the ride and were just thankful to grab some hot chocolate as soon as we got off the boat!
We had originally planned to check out a Polish Festival that was going on in Millenium Park, but it was misting and FREEZING and we all decided we should head somewhere indoors for a little bit. So what better thing to do then go enjoy some deep dish pizza?! We decided on the Original Pizzeria UNO, because Tom and I have recently had Lou Malnati's and Gino's East, plus we couldn't really remember what Pizzeria UNO tasted like...because the last time we were there we were enjoying quite a few pre-dinner drinks with friends while we waited for a table. 
After stuffing ourselves again, we tried to walk around on Michigan Ave, but again, it was just too cold and rainy, so we headed back to the apartment. Our friend Jess came over and we spent Saturday night reminiscing and laughing until we practically cried (let's just say we're thankful that we didn't have digital cameras and facebook when we were in college). Sunday morning we went to Bakin' and Eggs for breakfast. There are seriously so many brunch places in Chicago! And so far they all seem to be really, really good!
Bailey loved having her new friends here, and it was so great to catch up with them again! 
