The Night Chicago Died

Chicago is most notable for the many toll roads (which is really shocking for a west-coaster). Thankfully, none of the tolls were more than a dollar or so. 

We stayed at the Palomar, which I highly recommend. Once we dropped off our bags, we immediately went to the Magnificent Mile for some shopping. Our first stop? The Lego store. Why? Because my dad is obsessed with Legos and apparently you can't just buy the separate pieces online without great expense. Of course, we ended up buying ten bottles of Lego pieces because my dad wanted wheels.

The Lego store had this cool display of Godzilla tromping down a Chicago street. All made out of Legos. 

We did more shopping, but nothing else of note. For probably months Josh researched deep dish pizza places because he wanted a genuine Chicago pizza experience. He finally decided on Giordano's, which was tasty.

Though they were very busy.

Too busy to fix their sign, it would seem

We capped off the night with a trip to Sprinkles.

 Yum!

 The next day, we made a late start for the Willis Tower. Here is a tip for you if you ever go to Chicago: Go to the Willis Tower as early as possible. Even if it's a freezing day in March, it will be busy! We had absolutely no idea, but it took an hour to get to the top. It was ridiculous.

Willis Tower, grounded version

The view from the top

If you didn't know, Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) is famous for these sky ledges that are constructed so you can wait in line while other tourists (mostly kids) can sit for 20 minutes while their parents take a million pictures, elbow you out of the way, and walk in front of your pictures when you're trying to take one of your husband and/or your feet. 

The "sitting on the floor of the ledge, taking up space and getting in Emily's way" was a popular picture pose

My only complaint is that they built the sky ledges on the really boring side of the building.

Oh, it might also be famous for being tall. How tall? 284 Barack Obamas, that's how tall!

And slightly more Josh Alders tall

We also walked around the city and saw things like:

The Chicago Theater where Charlie Sheen performed a week later

The riverfront, where Josh wanted to go for an early-morning run but it was just too cold!

More buildings on the riverfront

Later that day we went to temple #41. The Chicago temple is sisters with the Dallas and Boise temples. It seems larger than the both of them (especially since you have to walk back through the dressing room from the chapel to the ordinance rooms in Boise), but is actually smaller.

I think this temple is the only one that any of my family members had visiting that I had not because my sisters would do baptisms there with the Rhinelander branch during the summer (we had a house in Wisconsin).

I was the only female in the session, which has never happened to me before. In fact, I think there were more men than women in all of the temples we visited during this trip. My experience in this temple was special-- not because it has unique architecture (though there is what appears to be a kitchenette in the dressing room, which was new to me, and the bathroom looks like it hasn't been renovated ever), but because I heard one of the most moving prayers ever, and because one of the temple workers came up to me afterward and shared with me that she's also a graduate student in a doctoral program. It may seem like such a silly, small thing, but it meant a lot to me. We're a small group-- the doctorate-seeking, childless, LDS females-- and it gets really (really) lonely. But she knew that and we shared a moment of connection.

Our last Chicago meal involved hot dogs at Portillo's. It was good! Josh's research on the place for the best Chicago dog paid off.

 Inside the restaurant

Chicago is beautiful. Josh and I already have tentative plans to return and do some of the architecture walking tours. We could/should have spent the entire week there, but we had to move on to Nauvoo!