Chicago!

I officially have the best boyfriend in the entire world. 
Since I was in South Carolina visiting my parents on Christmas and the surrounding days, we waited until January 1st to exchange gifts, which is conveniently our 1 year anniversary. We spent the day at church, roaming the many aisles of IKEA and worshiping with friends. But in the midst of all that, we spent a few moments at my apartment exchanging gifts. He got me a wonderful scarf and A TRIP TO CHICAGO. A few weeks ago I mentioned that I have never been and would really like to go. So he cleared my schedule for the third, two days later, and off we went!

Our flight left at 9:30, and we landed in Chicago at 9:35. (Thank goodness they're an hour behind). Then we took a train into the city. Our first stop was the Lincoln Park Zoo! When Dan told me we were going to the zoo, I was a little skeptical. We're minutes away from the Cincinnati Zoo and go all the time. And it was freezing outside so I assumed none of the animals would be out. But I was wrong! IT WAS THE BEST ZOO EVER! Waaay better than Cincinnati. And thankfully, a lot of the exhibits were inside, in the heat!
I didn't know flamingos went outside in the snow. Woah!


I am in love with this guy.



After the zoo, we begun to venture downtown. We stopped at a thai food place for lunch, because thai is my favorite. It was yummy buy I ate waaay too much.




Then we strolled down Michigan Avenue and stopped in a few of the shops.  Like...


Going to the American Girl Place has been my dream ever since I was a little girl. I finally got to go! This may have been my favorite part of the trip.




And look at this Forever 21! It's huge! You know the girls at the mall that go shopping for hours and drag their boyfriend's along with them and their boyfriend just follows behind the girl and looks extremely bored? I hate those girls. Well, for a brief 10 minutes, I was that girl. But I had to just get it out of my system. And it was wonderful.





Then we made our way to Navy Pier. We got to see the Ferris wheel and stroll up and down along the pier. It was beautiful!

Pretty lighthouse on Lake Michigan!







Then we went to Millennium Park to see the bean! It was awesome! We went right before it got dark, so we still got to see all the cool reflections in it. And we watched some merry ice skaters and viewed the city.




Our reflection in the bean!!







Then finally, we went to Gino's Pizza to have some real Chicago pizza for dinner! I lovelovelove New York style pizza and would it eat it everyday if I could. But this pizza was yummmmy and it contributed the true Chicago experience.
Dan at Gino's!

Dan then decided to take a few pictures of me.


Embarrassing.





After all of that, we made our way back to the train station and went back to the airport. Our flight left at 9 (Chicago time) so we got to spend a whole 12 hours there! It was freezing but because we walked so much it was never really that bad. But let me tell you, we walked SO MUCH. My butt and legs are still sore and it's two days later. But it was worth it and so so much fun!!






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