Chicago

Train ride to Chicago from Carbondale went great. Highly reccomend for anyone on a budget only $35 a person you can't buy the gas for that price and there is no traffic to deal with.

Got lost a little on our way to the hotel only a few blocks from the train station so we decided to walk. Problem is we went the wrong way and ended up at a Dunkin Donuts and had to go back the way we came. Took some pictures a long they way back. I believe one is of a barge going under a bridge and the other is of the Chicago Tribune.

Club Quarters Central Loop Hotel was amazing. I have to say we origionally booked a room at the Rennassance Hotel through Orbitz.com and that reservation somehow dissapeared by the time we caught it there was hardly anywhere else that had rooms but this place... unless you wanted to pay a lot of money. This place was NICE. They have a resturant/bar in the hotel. They offer free bottled water (which was nice since we walked a lot) and they offered room service. The location was PERFECT not far from places to eat, shopping, bus stops and some attractions. This is a picture out of our 5th floor room. For being right smack in the middle of all the excitement our room was really quiet.

The first day we had no agenda except to get to our hotel and find Macy's to get our Chicago GO card (highly recomended no waiting in line and discounted for all the mueseums). The rest of the night was ours to explore and we had a GREAT time doing so my husband and I both could define the night in one word... magical.

It didn't take us long to finde the ledgendary Chicago sign all lit up. Didn't dissapoint us at all. We found many of theaters and preformances going on but after sitting for 6 hours we were egar to streach our legs. However there is definatly something to do for everyone.

Shortly after we found the chicago sign we found Millennium Park and it was really something to see at night in the winter. No words can describe how beautiful it was all lit up at night. Very romantic. There is the famous structure my husband nick named the kidney bean. There was also an Ice Skating rink, although we didn't Ice Skate at all it was a good time to watch and I must say Chicago has some very good amature ice skaters! There is also a picture of us under the tree lights the whole night was just amazing and had an aventurous feel too it.  

For lunch we found a place that sold Italian Beef sandwhiches that were sooooo good. We tried to find that place again but we never did. By the time we got out of Macy's and explored it was getting late and decided to head back to the hotel instead of stopping somewhere to eat. We did however order Pizza from the room service guide I believe it was Giordanos and OMG it was good. We took a picture which is worth a thousand words. It was absolutly full of cheese and peperoni... YUMMY. And Yes that is a cell phone standing up next to it so you can see how thick it really was!