Europe 2012: Day 5 - Budapest

We stayed on the Pest side of Budapest because it was closer to most of the things we were doing and had more affordable restaurants and places to stay. Our hotel was near the main square and the room was huge. It was actually probably bigger than most American hotel rooms. It had a mini-fridge which we mostly just used to put milk and juice in. We also had free wireless internet and breakfast included in our stay.

I planned a late start for our first day in Budapest because I knew we would be getting in really late and would probably be exhausted. When we woke up, we got dressed and went down to breakfast, which was full of options. There were several hot options and lots of fruit, cold cuts, cheeses, yogurt, etc.

Of course, it was raining, so on our way out, we stopped at a souvenir shop and got a little poncho for Anya to wear.

We did a Pest Town Center walk (courtesy of Rick Steves). It went through a lot of smaller sites in the middle of the Pest area and was able to help us get our bearings in the city. We walked along the Danube for a bit and saw the first McDonald's built on the other side of the Iron Curtain. It opened in Budapest several years before the curtain was lifted so it was a huge deal for an American restaurant to be opened there. We were told that when it first opened, people were afraid to eat there because they thought the secret police were watching, and when they finally did eat there, they dressed up to go because they thought it was a "nice" American restaurant.

The walk ended at the Great Market Hall, which was awesome. There is a whole floor of nothing but food: meats, wines, cheeses, paprika, streudels, etc. We perused the food and got a piece of apple streudel for the equivalent of an American dollar.

The second floor has restaurants and souvenir booths. We stopped and got Langos to split. Eric and I decided that Langos should be the next big Fall Festival food. It is basically an elephant ear (without the sugar) with sour cream, a white cheese, and garlic. You can add other toppings, like meat, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, etc., but the sour cream, cheese, and garlic are the basic toppings. I know it sounds super wierd, but it was so good. Hopefully someone will decide to use this in October!

Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to rest for a bit. Then, we headed back out for a free Communist tour. This was probably one of the best  parts of our visit to Budapest. The tour was led by two people who were around 40 years old, so they had lived half their lives under communism and half their lives under a democracy, so they were able to give a very objective view of how things were. We got to hear a lot of personal stories about what it was like during communism, what it was like when the Soviets left Hungary, and what it is like now. We were told that a lot of people in the country are angry. They expected a better life under democracy, but things were much harder than they expected, because they did not know how to make decisions on their own and did not have the means to make much money. So while they are free (and happy about it), things are still very much in transition. There are also people who were part of the secret police during communism that are still working within the government. The names of these people have never been released, so some Hungarians are a little leary of trusting the government, knowing that some of them could have been the same people who worked under the old communist system. There were also a lot of financial issues with communism. At one point, the government could no longer afford to provide the people with everything it promised.

Another interesting thing we saw on the tour was the monument the Soviets erected when they freed Hungary from the Nazi's. After they left, it was decided that the monument would stay, but now the US Embassy faces the monument, so it is somewhat ironic that those working at the embassy have to pass the monument every day to get to work and there is a nice view of it from the windows. The best part of this is that there is a larger-than-life statue of Ronald Reagan on the other side of the monument that faces both the monument and the embassy.

All in all, the tour was wonderful, and not just because it was free. It would have been worth a lot!

After the tour, we went to the train station to buy our tickets to Vienna. We had been told on the tripadvisor forums that it was better to just wait to buy them once we got to Budapest. We stopped at the grocery store for some snacks and headed back to the hotel before dinner.

We had dinner at Lugas Etterin. For approximately $30, we got wine, an appetizer (asparagus wrapped in bacon and covered in cheese sauce), a dish that consisted of chicken cooked in yogurt (which was actually pretty amazing) and parsley potatoes, chicken in mushroom sauce and noodles, bread, and sponge cake. The food was fairly cheap and was absolutely amazing. Hungarian food is apparently very savory and rich.

Despite the rain and being tired, we actually had a good first day in Budapest:)

Europe 2012: Day 4 - Madrid/Budapest

The morning of our last day in Madrid, we got up a little early to finish packing up everything and officially checked out of the hotel, though they allowed us to keep our bags there since our flight to Budapest wasn't until very late in the evening. The original plan was to find somewhere for a quick breakfast before going to Mass. However, there was nothing open in the area we were walking around in. It was so wierd, because even at 9 in the morning, everything was dead. We had brought some food for Ani, so we ended up feeding her breakfast outside the church.

We attended mass at the Basilica de San Francisco, which is absolutely beautiful - way more beautiful than Cathedral de Almudena. Of course, the mass was all in Spanish but we were able to participate in some of it.

After mass, we went to the El Rastro flea market, which is supposed to be really famous. It was crazy! There are streets upon streets of booths where people are selling anything and everything (except food, unforunately - Eric and I were starving because we hadn't had much breakfast). There was one whole street of nothing but paintings. Another street was nothing but shops selling birds and booths selling accessories for pet birds.

Next, we had lunch at Cafe de Milan, which wasn't too far away from El Rastro. We had another calamari sandwich, a tortilla espanola sandwich (a sandwich with a potato cake-type "thing" on it), garlic mushrooms, wine, beer, and a salami sandwich for Ani that she didn't eat much of.

After lunch, we headed to Retiro Park where Anya got a balloon from Minnie Mouse. Here's a picture of Anya and I...

We also stopped for ice cream on our way to another art museum, the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum. It was a good museum that had a lot of different kinds of art, including a few impressionist paintings, which is what we enjoy the most. We spent about an hour and a half there. Anya slept through some of the museum which made things a little easier.

We stopped for coffee on the way back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and then took a taxi to the airport. We ended up having dinner at the airport, which was highly overpriced and not that great, of course.

I was really nervous about our flight because we were flying a budget airline. There are a lot of random rules about luggage and carry-ons when you fly on a budget airline and I worried a lot about whether or not ours were ok. The plane was delayed about an hour or so, and the only good thing about that is that there was no time to deal with measuring each piece of luggage because they were just trying to get everyone on the plane. Anya did not have her own seat for the flight, but the seats were grouped in trios, and apparently no one really wanted to sit by a couple with a small child, so Anya sat in her own seat for awhile. Before we boarded, she was really antsy, so I walked her around in the stroller until she fell asleep. Of course, she woke up when we got on the plane, but did fairly well until near the end of our flight. However, we didn't land until like 1230 in the morning (it was supposed to be 1130). Luckily, it didn't take long to collect our luggage once we had landed, and we had hired a driver to pick us up at the airport since it was so late. The driver was super nice and got us to the Hotel Carat in not much time at all.

We got extremely lucky and Anya fell asleep on the way to the hotel, and we were able to change her into  her pajamas and put her in the bed without her ever waking up. I can't believe she didn't wake up, but she didn't. Of course, we were so excited to be in Budapest, it was hard to sleep. I don't think we actually went to bed until about 3 in the morning...

 

Europe 2012 - Day 2: Madrid

On Friday, only our 2nd day in Madrid, we got up and ate some breakfast in the room. This hostal did not include breakfast (for some reason hotels don't usually include breakfast in Spain), so we had gotten some breakfast foods at the grocery. We thought the Prado (a really famous art museum) opened at 9, so we had planned to get there at 8:45 because we had heard the lines to get in were long. We took the metro part of the way and then had to walk in the pouring rain to find that it didn't open until 10, though there were already people there waiting. It was a big fiasco trying to figure out which door to go in, but eventually we got in. We bought a museum pass which got us entry to all three of the big art museums in Madrid.

There are some great pieces of art in the Prado but we weren't all that impressed. We were following a self-tour written by Rick Steves and it seemed like most of the pieces he talked about were not where they had been when the tour was written. Maybe it was because we were already a little frazzled from having to wait for an hour in the rain, but we just weren't in the mood for it.

Once we got out of the Prado, it was about lunchtime so we headed toward Plaza Mayor and got a Bocadilla de Calamari (a bocadilla is a sandwich). I know this sounds really wierd, but it was really good. We had gotten a ham and cheese sandwich for Anya because we didn't think she would eat the calamari sandwich, but she ended up liking the calamari and ate quite a bit of it.

After we finished eating, we headed for the Palacio Royal. We got audio guides with admission and Anya slept for part of the visit but started to get a little anxious toward the end when we went through the armory exhibit. We thought the palace was beautiful (according to Rick Steves, it is one of the three big palaces of Europe next to Versailles in France which we visited in 2007 and Schoenberg in Vienna which we visited later in this trip), but it had nothing on Versailles. The rooms in the interior were beautiful but they didn't have any kind of palace gardens like most other palaces we have seen. We stopped by the Almudena Cathedral right next door. It is huge but not very attractive, especially on the inside, but it was free and considered to be one of the important churches/cathedrals in Madrid so I suppose it was worth the stop.

This is us in front of the palace.

We got ice cream on the way back to the room. After changing in the room, we headed toward Plaza de Espana, which was really beautiful. We arrived early to Las Tablaos where we had booked a flamenco show. Everything we had read said that the shows got better the later they were (some of the don't start until midnight or later), but we booked the early one at 8p because we didn't think any of us would last that long. We ordered a tapa while we were waiting. It was these little toasts with brie and carmelized onions. I know it sounds wierd, but they were soooo good. They were probably the best tapas we had while in Madrid.

Anya did so well during the show. She loved watching the dancers and listening to the music, and she clapped along with the rest of crowd at the appropriate times. The show was about an hour and she didn't fuss at all. After the show, several of the dancers and musicians came over to talk to Anya. They said they hadn't even known a small child had been in the audience until the end when they stood up to take their bows. They couldn't believe how well-behaved she was. We must have gotten really lucky! Ever since the show, Anya has been "flamenco dancing" so we got her a flamenco dress from Spain that she can wear for Halloween. Here is one of the pictures we got of the show but it's not a very good one...

After the show, we went to Cafe de Levante for dinner, which was gazpacho (a Spanish vegetable soup that is served cold), seafood paella, fruit, and sangria. We ate way too much, but the food is so good in Spain that it is hard to resist!

There are tons of street performers in Spain (there were lots in Barcelona when we were there, too) and we happened to see Mickey and Minnie Mouse at some point this day. Anya got a picture with them, but she wasn't too sure about them!

Conference!

I just returned from the AMTA (American Music Therapy Association) National Conference in Atlanta, GA. I'm hoping to blog about it as soon as I get a chance, though this week is crazy with work and Thanksgiving and then we are off to Cincinnati this coming weekend...

Jamaica (Saturday, Day 7)

Because our flight was scheduled to leave a little after noon and our resort was a couple hours away from the airport, we didn't get to do much before leaving Jamaica. We got up early to get our luggage ready, because we were supposed to leave it outside our door to be picked up. We stopped by the Cafe and got some pastries for breakfast as well as some muffins and scones for snacks on the plane. Then, we headed to the lobby to wait for our shuttle.

The ride back to the airport was a little scarier than getting to the resort, just because this time we were driving on the side of the road nearest to edge of the mountain. Nonetheless, we made it to the airport with no problems. We ate at Margaritaville in the airport, just like we did the last time.

The flight back to Charlotte went without a hitch, but of course the customs area was so full that we had to wait on the plane for awhile after landing. This made us nervous because we only had an hour and 15 minutes between flights, and during that time, we had to get through immigration to get back into the country, get our luggage, go through customs, go through security again, and then board the plane before it left. It took so long to get through customs that we were really scared we would miss our flight. Fortunately for us, most of the people on the connecting flight were also in the customs line, so the flight took off quite a bit later than anticipated because there would have been very few people on the flight had they not waited. The funny part was that as we boarded the plane, we saw one of our bags being lifted onto the plane, so our baggage almost beat us there.

Speaking of baggage....when we got to Louisville, we found that one of our bags had made it (apparently the one we had seen) but the other did not, which made no sense, seeing that we had checked both bags at the exact same time. There were four couples that this happened to as well. Luckily, the airline made arrangements to deliver it to our house the next day, even though it was more than a two hour drive.

Once we got that mess figured out, we stopped at Culver's to grab some dinner to eat on the way and headed home. Eric's parents brought Anya to our house so we could just go home without having to stop somewhere else. We were so happy to see Ani and I think she was really happy to see us. She was up much later than normal that night, but I was okay with that because we definitely wanted to see her when we got home.

So the next question is: Where are we headed next? I don't know where we will go for our 10 year anniversary. Who knows how things will be at that point? For now, we are planning another European adventure in early May 2012 and this time, Anya will come with us. We are thinking Madrid, Budapest, Vienna (with a day trip to Bratislavia), and the Middle Rhine in Germany!

Jamaica (Wednesday, Day 4)

Wednesday, Day 4

I was exhausted Wednesday morning because I hadn’t slept much the night before, but I was able to get up and go to breakfast at The Bayside. Then, we spent the morning doing absolutely nothing on the beach, which was great, considering I was so tired. We had lunch at Bluefield’s. Again, we ordered the Bammie and the Ackie and this time, we also tried a Chicken Patty, though the “patty” was more like a dry dumpling instead of a “patty” like we know it. Eric had the Red Snapper Filet Sandwich and I had Curried Goat. Yes, I said goat. I had never had goat before, so I thought I would try it. The great thing about an all-inclusive resort is that if you don’t like what you order, you can order something else. However, the goat wasn’t bad, though it was spicy because of the curry. It tasted similar to beef. After lunch, we headed to the pool and then took a short nap on the beach bed. Then, we headed back to the room to get ready for dinner because we had been invited to the Returnee’s Dinner.

When you go back to Sandals after being there at least once, you are invited to a special dinner for only returning guests. We had debated going because we didn’t want to miss out on all the other restaurants but people on the forums insisted that this was the best meal they had all week, and I’m so glad we didn’t miss it. It was a 4-course meal and it was amazing. This is what we had:

South Coast Butter poach Lobster Medallion and Cheese Filled Ravioli with Lime Tarragon Beurre Blanc

Freshly nix Leaves of Lettuce accompanied with Charred Mango and Pineapple served with Vine Ripen Tomato and Red Wine reduction

Grilled rubbed Chicken Breast mounted on Pumpkin sweet Potato mash served with Coconut Shrimp Run-Down, seasonal Vegetables and Au-Jus

Spanish Flan with Peppercorn Biscotti and Strawberry Sauce

Blue Mountain Coffee or Tea

Of course, this was complete with wine! Even though I was still scared to eat as much as I wanted due to the previous night, I was still able to enjoy the meal. It was definitely the fanciest meal we’d ever had!

After dinner, we headed over to the Le Cabaret for White Night and the Chocolate Buffet. Each week, there is a White Night where people are invited to wear their best white clothes and there is a buffet of chocolate around 10 pm. It was supposed to be outside, but it had rained pretty hard earlier that evening, so they had to move things inside. The chocolate buffet was really nice but there wasn’t a whole lot left by the time we got to the buffet, but we probably didn’t need it anyway.

Jamaica (Tuesday, Day 3)

Tuesday, Day 3

Tuesday morning we had breakfast at Eleanor’s, which is the Caribbean restaurant that serves an a la carte breakfast. We had a fruit tray to start and then I had Eggs Ranchero (egg, sausage, and cheese in a tortilla), bacon, hash brown, and a pancake and Eric had Eggs Benedict, hash browns, and bacon. We had to wait a little bit for a table and the service was a little slow so it took awhile to actually do breakfast, but we didn’t have anywhere to be so it wasn’t a big deal.

After breakfast, one of the Sandals staff members took us out on the hobie cat. Last time we were in Jamaica, Eric and I took one out on our own, but this one was bigger than the others, so we assumed that staff took people out on this particular boat, which was fine with us. There’s no way we would have been able to have the kind of ride we had without the staff person there. When we turned in the hobie cat, we signed out a kayak and paddled our way down the beach. This gave us a nice view of the resort. Afterwards, we hung out on the beach for a bit and then headed to The Bayside for the lunch buffet.

At around 3 or so, we headed to our Catamaran Cruise. This was the only excursion we signed up for because we really just wanted to relax. There were about 6 or 7 couples total and our cruise included snacks and alcohol. So we cruised along the ocean and made one stop so that we could get in the water for a bit. Then we headed to what the Jamaicans call “The Barder” which is the border between Westmoreland and St. Elizabeth parishes. They took us to this neat-looking cove area where the two parishes meet. Then, we headed back out to the open ocean to see the sunset. After the sun had set, the DJ turned the music up and everyone did some dancing as we pulled back into the resort. The cruise was really fun (though more expensive than it probably should have been), but Eric and I both got a little seasick. We took a similar excursion last time and had no problems, so we’re not sure if the person driving the boat was going faster than normal or if the waves were rougher than normal, but we both had moments of nausea so we didn’t drink as much as we would normally have.

When we got back to our room, we cleaned up and headed to Giuseppe’s for dinner. For some reason, I wasn’t very hungry but I ate what I could. We had Bruschetta and Caprese for appetizers and then I had a Capellini dish and Eric had Penne Carbonara. Then we headed over to Le Cabaret for a fun game show and the staff talent show. Afterwards, we got some snacks from Café de Paris to go and ate them on a beach bed on the way back to the room.

Unfortunately, this was the night that my change in eating habits got to me. About an hour after we went to bed, I woke up feeling really nauseous and ended up being up most of the night either in the bathroom or lying in bed trying to ignore my nausea. I think I finally fell asleep around 3:30. I don’t know if it was something I ate or what, though I think the fact that I don’t normally eat the way I had been eating probably played a role in it.

Sleepover

Anya had her first sleepover Saturday night. She stayed with my parents while Eric and I spent the weekend in New Harmony. Several months ago, we had gotten a coupon on Seize the Deal for the New Harmony Inn. For $75, you could stay one night at the inn, which actually had a $140 price value, so it was almost half-price. While both of us have been to New Harmony, this was the first time either of us had actually spent the night in New Harmony.

We dropped Anya off at my parents around lunchtime on Saturday and headed to New Harmony. The room was nice and very clean but nothing extremely special, which was totally fine. We were just so glad to get away with just the two of us! After checking into the hotel, we walked downtown to find lunch. We ended up eating at Pop's Grill on Main Street. We split a milkshake (I decided to drop the diet for the rest of the weekend!) and Eric had a burger and fries and I had a BELTCH (Bacon, Egg, Lettuce, Tomato, and Cheese sandwich) and fries. It was pretty good. Then, we walked down to the labyrinth. As many times as I have been to New Harmony for school field trips, I had never been to the labyrinth. so it was on our to-do list. On the way back from the labyrinth, it started pouring, so Eric and I ducked into some little antique shops on the way. We also stopped at a modern art gallery. Eric found a fish sculpture he wanted but I insisted that it was way too expensive to buy, especially with a small child and a cat who could knock it over and break it in a heartbeat. Before heading back to the room, we visited the Roofless Church.

When we got back to the room, the weather had cleared up, so we decided to borrow the inn's complimentary bikes and ride around town. We rode down by some of the historical buildings and the Atheneum. We started to hear thunder again, so we decided to head back to the room and swim for a bit before dinner since the pool house had a roof. Afterwards, we showered and got ready to go out for dinner. I wore a new little black dress I had found on clearance at Old Navy the night before. We walked downtown again and ate at Samuel's Place, which is a little Italian restaurant. There was a guy playing the guitar in the restaurant which was kind of neat. We split some cheesey bread and Eric got some rigatoni and I had a calzone. The food was really good and there was a lot of it!

After dinner, we walked to the Cathedral Labyrinth and to some other little areas near the inn. Then, we went back to the hotel to talk to Anya and my parents through web cam. We wanted to try it out because it will be an option when we are in Jamaica, as long as Anya doesn't get too upset at seeing us on the webcam but not being able to get to us.

Once it got dark, we decided to drive to Maple Hill Cemetery. Back in college, some friends and I had come to New Harmony in the middle of the night to check out some of the supposedly haunted places. The Maple Hill Cemetery is one of those places. It has a really high hill in the middle of the cemetery and driving through it at night is really, really creepy. It was Eric's first time, and he definitely agreed with me!

The rest of the night, we just relaxed in the hotel room with a bottle of wine we bought from Michigan last summer. We also ordered dessert to go from the Red Geranium and split it.

We got to sleep until 8 the next morning, which doesn't sound much like sleeping in, but it definitely is sleeping in when you have a child! The complimentary breakfast at the inn wasn't much so we decided to eat breakfast at the Red Geranium instead. The portions for the breakfasts were huge, so Eric and I split one of them and had plenty to eat. After checking out of the room, we decided to do a little light hiking around the lake and the Wabash River. Even though the trails weren't very long, it was nice to be able to get out and walk for a bit. We walked for about an hour and then decided to go pick up our girl.

Anya was very happy to see us, but it sounded like she had a lot of fun at Grandma and Grandpa's. They had toys that were new to her, so she really enjoyed playing with them. Overall, my parents said she did pretty well, and it was definitely nice for us to get some alone time. We will be doing the next overnight with Eric's parents in 2 weeks. This time, we will be staying at our house but we are planning to go out in Evansville that night.

Chicago, Day 7: Saturday, July 16

On Saturday morning, we packed up all of our things and checked out of the hotel. Then, we decided to walk down by the Chicago River for awhile. It wasn't too hot and it was still fairly early, so it was a nice walk. We went to Big Bowl for lunch and ordered Chinese and Thai. Eric and I went to a Thai buffet in London several years ago, but we're not entirely sure what we actually ate that night. Other than that experience, this was the first time we'd ever had Thai, and it was pretty good. Lately, Anya has been wanting whatever we're eating and we typically try to give her what we're having unless she either won't eat it or it's not good for her to have. We decided to let her try the Kung Pao Chicken. It wasn't that hot - at first. Anya ate the first couple of pieces with no problem, but after a few minutes, she just started screaming. She refused to take a drink or to eat anything else on the plate. Instead, she started licking the plastic mat we use at restaurants to put her food on. I know it's not really funny, but we couldn't help but laugh. Finally, Eric pulled out some applesauce and Eric got her to eat some of that and she got better.

After lunch, we got our car and headed back to Evansville. On the way, we stopped by a daylily farm to feed Eric's addiction. In fact, it was the same farm we stopped at on the way back from Michigan last summer. Eric bought several daylilies and we got back in the car to head back. We stopped at Arby's in Terre Haute for a quick dinner and then got back around 9:15 pm. Anya was up late that night because she had slept in the car so much, but she eventually went to bed.

We had a great time in Chicago. Even though we spent 6 nights there, there is still so much to see. We would highly recommend our hotel (Comfort Suites). It was right in the middle of the city and the staff was excellent. It was also nice to have an actual bedroom, kitchen, and living room. It made it a lot easier for Eric and I to stay up and watch TV after Anya went to bed. We would also recommend the CityPass. It got us into most of the museums and attractions and the whole packet of tickets was half the price of what it would have cost to go to each of them separately. For the metro, it was nice to have a pass as well. The best choice we made was to park the car and just take public transportation. The traffic is stressful and I hated driving in it to and from the hotel when arriving and leaving. It is much, much easier to just hop on the bus or the metro to get to where you are going. We just took the umbrella stroller with us and carried a large backpack as our diaper bag. This made travel around the city fairly easy.

Now that our family vacation is over, Eric and I are counting down to Jamaica!

Chicago, Day 6, July 15

On Friday, we planned to be indoors a majority of the day because it was supposed to be really hot. We went to the Museum of Science and Industry for a good portion of the day. It was fun, but I think it will be more fun in a few years when Anya is old enough to enjoy more of the museum. However, she got to see baby chicks hatching from eggs, which was kind of neat. There were a lot of interesting exhibits at the museum, but we noticed that there were so many school groups there that it was hard to enjoy much of it. The kids didn't seem to be very well behaved. When I went on field trips as a child, I remember having to walk quietly in a line, but this wasn't the case with these groups. You could barely get through some of the hallways because the kids were running up and down the hallways.

After the Museum of Science and Industry, we had planned to visit the Oriental Institute, but we were exhausted so we just headed back to the hotel instead. After a bit of a rest, we went to Buca di Beppo for dinner and then stopped by Fannie Mae's to grab some ice cream to take back to the hotel. The three of us split the ice cream and if we weren't feeding Anya fast enough, she would just help herself with her little spoon. After Anya went to bed, Eric and I relaxed with yet another glass of wine. it was a fun day but I feel like the last full day of vacation is always the worst just because the fact that you are leaving the next day is always in the back of your mind...

Chicago, Day 3: Tuesday, July 12

Because of the weather, we decided to change around our original plans for Tuesday. Also, since we had such a long day on Monday, it was nice to do something more informal. After breakfast, we went to North Avenue Beach. It is crazy to think that Chicago has beaches because we never really thought about it, but it is actually pretty nice. The water was really cold so we didn't get in much. Instead, we spent the time playing in the sand. Anya hated the sand at first but eventually played in it, though she wouldn't sit in the sand. We also had a little tent set up for her to sit in if it got too hot or sunny. She liked sitting in there eating her puffs. We brought a picnic lunch so we ate lunch on the beach and then headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up.

After spending some time resting in the hotel, we set out to take the brown line on the metro. It weaves in between office buildings and you are close enough to peer into the windows. While it was neat, it wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be and didn't seem any different from anything else we've seen while travelling in Europe.

Once we left the metro, we decided to look for somewhere to eat. We were really hungry and ended up settling for a place called Burrito Beach, though it wasn't quite what we were looking for. One nice thing about it, though, is that it was cheap. After dinner, we walked around the Magnificent Mile a little and ended up stopping at the Hershey store to get some treats. We got them to-go and then headed back to the hotel. Anya fell asleep in her crib so we got her right in bed when we got back and were able to enjoy our treats with a nice glass of wine:)

Chicago, Day 2: Monday, July 11

We got up early Monday morning so we could get to Shedd's Aquarium as close to 8:30 as possible. While we were in Chicago, we used public transportation or walked 100% of the time, so we took the bus to the aquarium because it was the easiest and straightest shot to it. Of course, while we were on the bus, Chicago was hit by a really nasty storm. When the bus arrived, we ran to the covering by the bus stop to regroup and then ran in the rain to the entrance. We had a great time at Shedd's and I think Anya enjoyed it, too. We went to a dolphin show and there was a special Jellies exhibition that was really interesting. I've never seen that many kinds of jellyfish all in one place. I didn't even know there were that many kinds, either. We brought our own lunch and ate near the dolphin pool. There was a ledge that Anya could stand up on and stand right at the glass. She loved the dolphins and kept pointing at them when they swam past her. She also liked the beluga whales. After lunch, we took Anya to the play area where she put on a penguin suit, went down the slide, and crawled through tunnels. We didn't stay long because a lot of bigger kids eventually showed up and we didn't want her to get trampled.

After Shedd's Aquarium, we headed toward The Field Museum. While this was a good museum, it just wasn't as interesting as Shedd's. I don't know if it was because we were tired and Anya was a little fussy or if it just really wasn't as good. We went through several exhibits, including the Eqyptian tomb, the African animals (to see the Lions of Tsavo), and Sue (the T-Rex). What's kind of interesting is that Eric and I were both on family vacations in the western part of the US when Sue was being discovered and they were trying to figure out where she was going to go.

After going back to the hotel, we opted to go down to Navy Pier for dinner. We ended up eating at Bubba Gump's, which was a little expensive, but good. Then, we rode the bus back to the Mag Mile and walked to the Ghirardelli store for an ice cream brownie sundae. It was amazing!

Back at the hotel, Anya didn't take quite as long to get to sleep but she was definitely fighting it. It was like she knew we were on vacation and she was too excited to sleep. After she finally went to bed, Eric and stayed up a little later and had a glass of wine before bed.

Chicago, Day 1: Sunday, July 10

We got up before 6 am so that we could leave by 8 am. Eric and I were both able to get showers and get ready before Anya woke up. After loading the rest of the stuff into the car and eating some breakfast, we were off. Unfortunately, our GPS did not know about the construction and closures right outside of Chicago so we drove around in circles for awhile until we figured out exactly how to get into the city. We finally pulled in around 3 pm. We got the car sent to the valet for parking and checked into our hotel. The nice part about our hotel room was that we had a 1-bedroom suite, meaning that we could put Anya to bed in her pack and play in the bedroom and then we could hang out in the living room until we were ready for bed. We also had free breakfast and free internet. We were on the 11th floor and had wall to wall windows in parts of the room so that we had a great view of other buildings. While we were there, Anya loved standing up at the window and looking out at the city below.

Once we got settled in, we ventured out to explore the Magnificent Mile, even though it was pretty hot out. We stopped to see some street performers who were dancing in the street, which was pretty neat to see. We were also lucky enough to meet up with Tricia, a friend of mine from grad school who lives in Chicago. She, her husband, and her son met us downtown and walked with us for awhile. Tricia was 9 months pregnant and her due date was the following day. (She actually ended up having her daughter the day after meeting us.) When we got hungry, we headed for Giordano’s for some Chicago-style deep dish pizza. We had decided that we were going to try 2 different pizza places during the week we were there and we kept hearing about Giordano’s and Lou Malnati’s. We had stuffed mushrooms, garlic bread, and deep dish pizza. The pizza was pretty good but not quite as good as I had hoped, though overall it was a good meal.

After dinner, we walked around a bit longer but then went back to the hotel. Anya was up really late because she didn’t want to go to sleep. I think she knew we were on vacation and wanted to stay up with us so she wouldn’t miss anything. We ended up walking her up and down the street at like 10:30 in the evening to try to make her sleepy. We walked around for about 15 minutes before the people started to look kind of shady and then came back to the room. Anya wasn’t completely asleep, but she had at least calmed down a little and was able to fall asleep. It was a pretty good day, other than getting Anya to sleep, and we were excited for an entire week to spend in such a beautiful city.

More to come about our week as time allows…

Anniversary Weekend

Eric and I spent this past weekend in Louisville to celebrate our Anniversary. We have decided to try to get away for a weekend every year to celebrate our anniversary, at least until we have kids to worry about!

We left Saturday morning and stopped at Indian Creek Winery in Georgetown, Indiana. It is a fairly new winery and probably the only one we haven't been to off of I-64. Then, we headed on to Louisville and checked in at our hotel downtown. We had dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory and then went on a ghost tour through downtown Louisville. We got some really interesting pictures of orbs while on the tour. Afterwards, we went to Howl at the Moon, which is a dueling piano bar. It was the first time I had ever been and we had a blast. We probably spent WAY too much money on beer and we stayed there until almost 2 in the morning - we haven't been out that late in a long time! Of course, after drinking for 3 hours, we had the munchies, so we made a stop at White Castle on the way back to the hotel. It was quite an evening!

On Sunday we decided to visit the World Market and again, spent WAY too much money on wine, though they had some great sales on red wine that day! On the way out of Louisville, we had lunch at Joe's Crab Shack, and then headed home.

We will post pictures as soon as we get a chance!