Chicago

Pictures:

Matt, Jamie and I playing with the iPhones on display at the Apple store

Matt after purchasing the iPhone

View from our room at the Ritz

Jamie at Navy Pier

View of Chicago from the Signature Room in the Hancock Building

Matt and the cookie dough he stepped on in the middle of the sidewalk

Matt and Jamie figuring out which horse to bet on

The Race

The Big Screen and Scoreboard

Jamie, Matt and I at the Arlington Race Track, before the races began

Uncle Jim and I

Arlington Race Track

Me, Matt and Jamie by the finish line at the race track

After spending about three hours in transit from the Midway Airport to Penske to downtown Chicago, Jamie, Matt and I headed to Michigan Avenue for a little lunch and then browsing in the Apple store. Matt had been a little undecide as to whether he was going to buy the new iPhone, but after only about five minutes of fidgeting with one in the store, he conceded and bought one! I must admit, the iPhone is pretty incredible.

After a fun day out in Chicago, I had the chance to catch up with my Uncle Jim the following day via cell phone. Jim happened to be in town for business reasons, but promised us (the night of the SH picnic) that he would meet up with us in Chicago. Not only did Jim meet up with us in Chicago, but introduced us to his business associates and treated us to two fabulous days in Chicago! First of all, we met up with him later in the evening at Twin Anchors for dinner. The weather was perfect so we all sat outside on the patio. It was a group of about eleven people. They brought along a dice game (which I can't remember the name of) and we played before our dinner came. It was a pretty intense and very fun game of dice. For dinner we all ordered ribs and they were great. Following dinner, we continued our competitive game of dice. Not only did we play dice, but we then played poker with the serial numbers on one dollar bills. Apparently it was a night for gambling:-)

After dinner, Jamie, Matt and I walked around the city a bit and stopped at Navy Pier and even went to the Signature Room of the Hancock Building. We then grabbed desert a neat little place that Jamie introduced us to. Since we were in downtown Chicago, Jim invited the three of us to stay with him in his hotel room at the Ritz Carlton. It was a beautiful and extremely large hotel room with an absolutely gorgeous view of the lake. It was so relaxing to stay the night in such a nice hotel. Thank you Uncle Jim!

The following day, Jim took us to the Arlington Race Track. The horse races were such a fun experience. It was the first horse race that I had ever been to and I believe Matt and Jamie's as well, therefore Jim gave us a brief synopsis on how the horses, trainers and jockeys rank and the best way to make a wager. We watched about five races or so from an owner's box and even went down right next to the track for a race. Arlington race track is so beautiful and we had wonderful weather!

Later that evening, after the race, we had to move on to our next event. We were supposed to load in to our event, the USG Sheetrock 400 (a NASCAR race) in Joliet, Illinois that evening, but due to the crazy busy traffic around Chicago and Joliet as well, that was postponed until the following morning. Therefore, we headed to our hotel in Naperville (which is approximately an hour from Joliet) dumped our luggage off and headed to town for dinner. Naperville is a very cute suburb of Chicago and had a neat little downtown. We decided to eat at Catch, a seafood place downtown. On our walk to the restaurant from the parking lot, Matt randomly stepped in a huge pile of....cookie dough. Yes, I said cookie dough. I don't know how a huge wad of cookie dough winds up on the sidewalk downtown, but somehow it did and Matt then managed to step right in it. It was a funny sight and no worries, we re-enacted it so we could take a picture!