The Windy City

Warning: there are a MILLION photos, I included all the ones I took for my coworkers who didn't take cameras. Also if you want to see the picture bigger just click on it.
So I had training This week in St. Charles, Illinois about an hour west of Chicago. Sunday evening I met my coworkers at O'Hare and then we met our limo for our ride to the Q Center. This was only my second time in a limo, the first time was a year ago again on the way to the Q Center for new hire training. One of the guys on this trip was having his first time in a limo.

 Barely in the shot on the left is Tanner, it was his first time in a limo.

Class was a bit scattered and hard to follow on Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday were business writing classes. I got some really good tips and stuff to use for business writing. The best part about Wednesday was that we got out at 2:30pm. This meant we had time to change and catch the 3:37pm train from Geneva into downtown Chicago. The taxi we called got a flat tire, at least that's what he said. A few other were called and then we got one that said they could possibly get us there in time, it was 3 then. The five of us crammed into the cab and held our breath. We made it in time to the train, yeeaaah! A little over an hour later we arrived in the windy city.

I was in Chicago a couple years ago and in planning this outing there were two things I HAD to do:
1 - visit Portillo's again and eat a SCRUM-DID-ILI-UMPCIOUS hotdog.

 Tanner, Wenjie, Barry

Me, Hotdog, and Mike

Seriously delicious hotdogs and everything else! Last time, with the hotdog, I had ribs, spaghetti, and fries, all of it a-m-a-z-i-n-g! This time I just had fries and a strawberry shake, OH MY GOODNESS. It was all delicious, I was so happy and so STUFFED! It was a good thing we were walking. Next on the list,
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2 - visit the Bean, actual name Cloud Gate.

I wish I had a better camera and I really wish I had known about this when I was there last time so I could have captured daytime shots. A lady offered to take pictures of us, she first did some without the flash. With editing this is the best I could get it.

She then took a couple with the flash on.

 AFTER she took the pictures, she then told us she was with a women's shelter and would like donations. We probably gave her $15 and I don't think that money went to a shelter, but oh well. The below shot is my FAVORITE of the night!

 These pictures do not do it justice, its so beautiful and mind-blowing. If you walk under it you see like 50 multiples of you! I of course could not get a good shot, but I highly recommend putting this on your list when you visit Chicago.

 The entire park is really pretty and so many trees. A great place to chill, wander, hang-out, rest and more- day or night.

 Next to the park is the Art Museum. We didn't go in but I got a few pictures of the outside.

 Doesn't that balcony look so cool. This lion below I really wanted to climb onto and get some photos, but the group thought security guards would come get me. So I resisted the urge...then.

A few blocks later as we were wandering, we came across another bull run!

Mike totally touched the horn!

Then he head-locked that beast,

and showed him who was boss!

 I'm not sure what he's doing here.

Seriously finding this random bull on the street was TONS of fun.

Look at my form, it's perfect. Ride, cowgirl, ride! Mike has a video on his phone of me pretending to actually be riding a bull, its pretty funny. Hopefully I can get it up sometime and get it to work.

Tanner, model posing.

There he goes!

 Mike was doing a Superman pose but I told him to plank. We're hip like that.

 The final face-off. I always win the stare downs. Remember this one?

Here are more pictures of downtown.

These buildings below looked like high end apartments/condos and the bottom 10 floors was open parking! The cars were on the edge and it didn't look like there was anything to stop them from going over. It was crazy looking

Another really unique thing that I recommend seeing when in Chicago is the Chicago Tribune building. The walls have pieces of structures from all over the world!

This is the entrance of the Tribune, I thought it was a cathedral. I think its gorgeous!

Latvia

Amsterdam

 France

China

 It was fun to look at all the pieces and all the places they have come from. We also heard and saw a radio show taking place while we were there. I won't say who but somebody really wanted to moon them and see if they said anything, since they were live on air. I thought it would be hilarious but in the end he didn't do it.

 Also in the plaza right outside the Tribune is this HUGE statue of Marilyn and look at Mike, no shame looking up her skirt. Haha!

To finish out the night we headed back to in the area where Portillo's is but this time to have some deep dish pizza at Gino's.

Last time I was in Chicago I had deep dish from Giordano's, they are major rivals on the deep dish. I think I liked Gino's better, but I'm not a huge fan of deep dish...but when in Chicago...
This pumpkin light was on the sidewalk as we headed to get pizza.

 We also passed by this hard rock McDonalds, it was crazy big and fancy looking.

Here's one last shot of Chicago on our way back to the train station.

We got back to the Q Center around 12:30am. I was exhausted. Remember what I said previously about me being too exhausted. Yep, I get cranky and I definitely was on Thursday. It was so hard for me to stay awake in class. Yet I still managed to follow the lecture and knew the answers to his questions. I was quite impressed with myself. We got out a little after 4pm and it was such a nice day. So Wenjie and I went for a bike ride. The bikes were free to use and there is a nice path along the river. Here are some pics of the area. The colors were just BEAUTIFUL!

Friday was only morning classes, both were really pointless. Then we headed back to Phoenix. It was a good trip, definitely exhausting, helped me know how to better prepare for my New York trip. Hope you enjoyed the photos, have a good one!