Trip to Green Bay

When we arrived in Chicago it was pretty late, we got our car and headed for our Hotel in the Hoffman Estates area, which was supposed to be about a 25 minute drive.  45 minutes later we see a "Welcome to Wisconsin" sign, needless to say I was pretty upset, I guess we were just anxious to get to the Packers game :)  So, instead of finding our hotel we decided to head back to Chicago and find the Cheesecake Factory because by this time we were all starving.  One thing that we did not plan for was the price of parking in Chicago, I think we spent about $100 per couple on parking for this whole trip.  The food was great at the Cheesecake Factory as always. We then headed to the Hancock Observatory and only had about 15 minutes to look around, but seeing the city at night was pretty cool.

The next day we headed for the Museum of Science & Industry.  The drive along Lake Shore Drive was amazing, it was such a nice day, probably the nicest day of the whole trip.  We saw the Buckingham fountain along the way but the fountains weren't turned on so we decided to bag going there all together.  The Museum was cool, our favorite part was the U-505 submarine, we took the tour inside the sub but were disappointed that we couldn't take photos inside.  We also saw a Deep Sea Monsters movie in the iMax theater that made Carrie sick, so that was cool.  After the Museum we headed for the Sears Tower. Finding a place to park was crazy and I was getting pretty frustrated, but we found a spot that wasn't too far away and headed to the Sears Tower building.  The view up there was amazing and we were able to spend more time there than the Hancock building so that was nice.

When we were done looking around the Sears Tower we decided to walk to Millennium Park.  It was a pretty long walk but looking at all the cool buildings helped the time go by fast.  We also spotted a Giordano's on the way that we decided to hit on the way back.  Millennium Park was cool, it was kinda chilly and then there were some crazy chicks all dressed up weird walking around in a straight line.  So after we were done laughing at them we headed to Giordano's.

Gordianos was by far the best pizza I've ever had!!! This was my first time having Chicago style pizza and now I don't know if I'll ever be able to eat the crap they serve you at Pizza Hut :)

Saturday we headed for Wrigley Field. We loved all the cool houses on the way to the ballpark and the street right by the park with all the bars was pretty sweet lookin.  We then headed for the United Center.  All day long Carrie was trying to freak us out about how scary the neighborhood was around the United Center, but when we got there it wasn't bad at all.  There were a few sweet rides in the parking lot so we figured the Bulls players were practicing there, but when we talked to the security guard he told us that it was just the Blackhawk hockey players.  Which was lame because hockey is a Communist sport :)

After the United Center we headed for Michigan Ave. to go on the Architectural River Cruise.  When we got there it was sold out for the day so we bought tickets for Monday.  We then headed for Navy Pier.  It was pretty cool, we liked all the little shops inside and it was relaxing to look out over the lake.  We bought some souvenirs there and took a ride on the ferris wheel.  Once we got on the ride we realized that none of us really wanted to go on it and that the girls are affraid of them so I tried to shake the thing and freak them out more, it was pretty funny.  After walking around the Pier we were pretty tired so we decided to head back towards the Hotel and get some food at TGI Friday's.  One note about the hotel, Never stay at the Baymont Inn & Suites in the Hoffman Estates area.  The beds suck and the room smelled kinda funny, the one good thing was that it was clean but Carrie is not allowed to pick our hotel for any future trips. :)

It was now Sunday, and time to start the greatest day of my life!!!  I could hardly sleep the night before, I think I woke up around 3:30 AM and just laid there in bed waiting for everyone else to get up at 6:00.  The drive to Green Bay was longer than I expected, it was a good 3 hour drive, that I was hoping to do in 2.5 hours, but that didn't happen.  On the way we realized that we had left Flat John Paul at the hotel, so Jared looked up a FedEx Kinkos on his phone and they had one right on Oneida street in Green Bay.  We stopped there, printed him up and headed for the stadium.  I must say that I have never seen anything like a NFL city on game day, it was Green and Gold as far as I could see.  Once we were inside we headed for the Pro Shop to buy some stuff for everyone and the kids at home.  $300 later we were out of there and ready for the game.  It started off pretty nice but by around the 2nd quarter it started to rain pretty hard, so it was back to the Pro Shop for sweaters, ponchos and blankets.  It was a close game and Favre broke another NFL record for the most career interceptions, so that was funny to see and be a part of.  We met some nice ladies who were sitting behind us and Carrie talked to them the whole game.  By the 4th quarter the crowd was getting so loud and crazy when the defense was on the field, it was awesome!  Luckily the defense stepped up that whole game and got us the win, 17-14.  After the game we had planned on going to the Brett Favre Stakehouse but we called and they were all booked, so we stopped at the Texas Roadhouse Grill.  After another long ride back to Chicago that night we stopped at a Steak & Shake for a late night shake and headed back to the hotel.

On Monday it was time to checkout and everyone was starting to get sad.  We stopped at iHop for breakfast and then headed back downtown to go on the river cruise.  The cruise was cool, it was a nice hour and a half to just relax after such a long weekend.  When the cruise was over we headed for Portillo's for lunch, I got the chili cheese dog and that put me down for a while.  After lunch we walked up and down Michigan Ave looking for more souvenirs for the kids and then headed for the airport.  It was such a fun trip and it was hard to see it come to an end.