Whoa. It's been a while...

Yikes! I can't believe that I've been missing from the blogging world for over three months now. Time seriously flies. Needless to say, a lot has happened within those past three months. For instance, holiday after holiday, Chicago for my brother-in-law's 30th birthday, and snowboarding. Chicago was a blast so I figure I'll talk about that for now. About fifteen of my brother-in-law's good friends and family all headed West to Chicago on New Year's Day. We all purchased this awesome Groupon, which I was pleasantly surprised with how easy it was to deal with, and stayed the whole weekend for cheap! This was my first time purchasing a traveling Groupon and now it most likely won't be my last either. Most of us took the Amtrak train there too. It was my first train ride, too! So many first experiences happened on this trip. Overall, we did multiple different party/touristy things while in town. We all got together to have a birthday dinner for Joey and went to Lou Malnati's. It is a well known Chicago-style (of course) deep dish pizza joint. Man, was it delicious! Best pizza I've had in Chicago hands down.

For some tourist events, I rode the subway for the first time ever. Yes, ever...and I loved it. It's so convenient and easy to use! I was shocked. I also saw the "Bean" for the first time as well. Although, it looked more like an egg. The weather was gloomy and snowy so the top portion of the Bean was covered. However, a little snow and ice doesn't stop me from sight-seeing! I'm from Michigan people and we're currently getting snow as I speak, er, type. A ton at that! We have already gotten 8" and there's another expected 8" on the way. I'm taking work off tomorrow, just saying. Anyways, back to Chicago. 

                           

                                                                                                                                       

I was fascinated by the Bean. It's so cool how you can see Chicago's skyline (on a good day) in its' reflection. Also, as if I wasn't short enough to begin with, it acted as a fun mirror. I looked half my size. Even walking underneath the bean was a unique experience. All of these swirls that the angle of the surface makes flips your image in different ways. Then, the fun part was trying to find where the bean flipped your image. I found myself in multiple locations!

Underneath the Bean

Fun Size

             I love how in the picture below the snow and ice covers our faces perfectly! 

Then, we went to the Museum of Science and Industry. Let me tell you, that place is HUGE! There was so much to see it was unbelievable! We spent hours there. It happened to be the time of the year in which they decorate a bunch of different Christmas trees to represent different countries. For example, Belgium had Belgian waffles hanging all over it and the United States tree had a bald eagle as it's tree topper. I apologize for my photo clarity, I was just using my phone's camera at the time.

Belgium Tree

United State Tree

Finally, we grabbed some of the famous cheddar/caramel mixed popcorn at Garrett's Popcorn. You can never go to Chi-Town without picking up some of their awesome popcorn!

So, there you have it! Joey's Chicago birthday trip to celebrate his "dirty thirty." Needless to say, I definitely want to make a Spring or Summer trip this year back to Chi-Town. There's so much more to explore and the night life is great! 

Thanks for sticking out the long hiatus with me. I promise I'll post more frequently now. Talk to you soon! :)