Chicago, Illinois

Let’s time travel to August 2017: I had just taken the Tennessee Bar Exam to become licensed as an attorney, and I was due to start my new job in early September. Matt and I were just two weeks away from getting married! So we did something spontaneous—we decided to take what I termed a “pre-wedding, post-bar, mini-moon” to Chicago celebrate everything that was happening to us.

We would depart four months later for our real honeymoon to New Zealand, which you can read about extensively on this blog.

Matt pulled out all the stops to impress me that August—he booked us a swanky room at the Omni in downtown Chicago, right on the Magnificent Mile. For four nights, we drank champagne and admired the view from our suite overlooking the shiny, bright city around us.

When we landed in Chicago, we immediately did the most touristy thing possible and grabbed two huge slices of Chicago pizza from Giordano’s. Fully fed, we then set off to explore the city, heading west along Michigan Avenue towards Navy Pier and Millennium Park.

We stood on the DuSable Bridge that cuts across the Chicago Riverwalk and looked up in awe at the buildings towering over us. It was a very warm, breezy August day and the sun glaring off Prudential Plaza made us squint.

Once we reached Millennium Park, we headed straight for the famous Cloud Gate, more colloquially known as the Bean.

Cloud Gate is an iconic sculpture made of welded stainless steel with no visible seams. Its highly polished exterior reflects the city’s skyline so beautifully that photos of the Bean almost look like direct photos of the city itself. We, along with every other tourist in Chicago, spent a long time taking photos of ourselves in the mirrored façade.

After that, we headed further into the park, admiring the clean, bright green space of the city and the stunning architecture of the buildings around us.

So began our tour of the many, many museums that Chicago has to offer. To facilitate our time in Chicago, we purchased a $100 City Pass that allowed us priority access/VIP entry to five attractions: the Shedd Aquarium, the Willis Tower Skydeck, the Field Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the 360 Chicago Observation Deck at the John Hancock Tower.

Our first museum was the Art Institute of Chicago in Grant Park, where we saw famous paintings like A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat, American Gothic by Grant Wood, the Portrait of Pablo Picasso, and other works by Gaugin, Picasso, Georgia O’Keeffe, Marc Chagall, Van Gogh, Claude Monet, and Paul Cézanne, to name a few!

Afterwards, we doubled-back east to Navy Pier, where the harbor juts out onto Michigan Lake. We watched boats sail in and out of the area while we ate dinner before heading back to the hotel.

The next morning, we retraced our steps down the Mag Mile to Grant Park, where we spent the morning at the Shedd Aquarium. I was extremely impressed by this museum!

We were astounded by the massive tanks and beautiful waterfront views from the outdoor dining terrace.

The day was so beautiful and warm that we walked along the lakeside paths that connect the various museums in Grant Park.

After the Shedd, we headed to the Field Museum, where we glimpsed dinosaurs and beautiful jade jewelry and walked through ancient Egyptian tombs.

On our trip to Chicago, we also made the decision (prompted by the options on our City Pass) to see the city from above—twice.

At the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower), we rode an elevator up to the 103rd floor and stepped out onto the clear glass-bottom Skydeck to gaze out over the city at sunset.

I don’t really suffer from a fear or heights, but I had so much vertigo in the Skydeck. It was extremely difficult to look at the floor, but Matt and I managed to strike a pose for the photo. As my mom would say, “photo for Facebook!”

At the John Hancock building, we witnessed the city lit up at night. The building was so tall that I could feel it swaying slightly in the wind—or maybe that was just vertigo kicking in again!

As we made our way back to the Omni, we noticed a line forming outside the AT&T flagship store on Michigan Avenue. Curious, we poked our heads in the door and saw the actor who plays Bran on Game of Thrones sitting on the Iron Throne!!! As huge fans of the show, we couldn’t help but dart into the store, which was decorated for a meet-and-greet event with displays of costumes, props, swords, and film from the actual show. We even got to sit on the Iron Throne. I took this moment to remind Matt, my then-fiancé, that “marriage is coming.”

On our final morning in Chicago, we continued our habit of strolling along the Mag Mile, popping in and out of shops, buying buckets of M&Ms from Dylan’s Candy Bar, and enjoying the mild summer weather along the lakefront. We even popped into St. Peter’s Catholic Church to celebrate mass!