Not Laboring

So somehow, somewhere in the universe, the stars aligned and I had this past weekend off. Miracle, I know. So what to do with a weekend off? Go on a road trip of course!

Saturday Ellie and I headed west, to South Bend, and my very first ever ND game at ND.
Here come the Irish!
First play of the season!
The student section celebrating the first score of the season!
Victory formation!
Tradition.
Touchdown Jesus from the top of my section.

I met back up with Charlie, Rachel, Ellie and C4 and we eventually went to Red Robin for dinner - Ellie got some good photos, well maybe they're scary. And then we all went to bed kind of early. Breakfast Sunday at IHOP (pumpkin pancakes!) And things might have gotten a bit silly...
Sarah decided to make a mustache out of her straw wrapper, then the glasses came out, then the hood went up...
And then the bus boy brought us silly glasses.
Not everyone was so amused. But it was fun. All too soon, it was time to part ways - the Jerseyans went directly to Chicago to catch a plane, and Ellie and I went to the Christmas Tree store (I swear if there's one within a 50 mile radius, she will find it). And then we were off to Chicago as well. After checking into the hotel, we headed out to Navy Pier and happened upon the Stained Glass exhibit.
I took a bazillion pictures, but I'll only show you my favorites, and surprise, most of them are the work of Tiffany.
Seriously beautiful.
This one is not by Tiffany and was my most favorite, should have paid more attention to who and what, but I was distracted by the pretty!
I probably could have spent a lot more time wandering and admiring, but we had short time. This last one is by Tiffany, and it took me a few looks to figure it out, but here it is:
So cool how the light changes it!

We eventually made our way down to the Ferris Wheel, and hopped a ride.
Amazing how many pictures you can take on a 7 minute ride (and I probably would have taken more, but I restrained myself).
Then we set off for Michigan Avenue. Did a little shopping, took a few pictures, then started looking for a place for dinner.

We ended up at a Mexican place (so good! we both overate a lot) and then went back to the hotel as it got dark.
So I had to take some night time Chi-town pictures along the way.
Monday came (here's the view from our hotel room). And we went out to get some coffee and see some more sights.

First we went to Millennium Park, to find the bean.
Aka, Cloud Gate. Pretty cool.
Then we found this fountain - not sure what it's called - but it's kind of cool that the faces change, and then they do this:
Too funny. Okay, maybe I'm easily amused. We kept walking, went past the Art Institute and Grant Park, and finally hit the harbor. We sat for a while, finishing our coffee and watching the boats float.
We walked along the lake for a while, almost back to Navy Pier, then headed to the River Walk.
Found another fountain, and happened to be there for the 10 minutes an hour it shoots across the river.
The architecture is just so cool in Chicago, I kept snapping random photos of random buildings.
We happened upon the theater district, I think this picture will make the perfect title for a scrapbook page that will have to be made.
Then we went to the Pizzeria Uno, and had some deep dish pizza. Forgot to take a picture, oops. And then we went down Michigan Ave again, and wandered through the Swarovski store - OMG! I wanted just about everything in there, including the decorative store chandelier like thing.

And then we headed home. And it's back to work today. But it was so great to get away for a little while.