Chicago Recap

So, Chicago was super duper amazing. Which I believe I said the other day ... but you know, it's still true. d.a.r. has some amazing recaps HERE and HERE if you wanna check them out! For some reason, Blogger is refusing to post some of my photos tonight, so I am missing some super cute ones from Friday night. Hopefully I can get those to upload tomorrow!

Anyway - on Friday, I picked up d.a.r. from the airport and we had some awesome sushi for lunch. Yums! Afterwards, we headed back to the airport to get MTM and then we went to check out our hotel, the Palmer House Hilton. So fancy! That night, we walked downtown and ate some superfantabulous pizza at Lou Malnati's. So delicious ... I can almost taste it. It was the perfect night - girlfriends, pizza, and a pitcher of Blue Moon!

Okay, these photos are out of order, but ... this was from Saturday afternoon on the way back to the hotel after an 8 mile walk - er, shopping trip. This is one of my favorite photos from the weekend!

Unfortunately, the weather on Saturday morning was kinda crappy - we made it about halfway to Navy Pier to head to the race expo but then gave up and cabbed it the rest of the way. We were freezing and soaking wet from the rain - ICK. Before we gave up and hailed a cab, we had to take the obligatory bean self-portrait. Clearly.


Saturday night, we had some AMAZING sushi - man it was so good! MTM totally approved of her mini spring rolls. Yums.
More food, more booze ... we basically ate and drank our way through Chicago. It was awesome.
Race morning came WAY too early ... we had to get up at 4:30am in order to catch the shuttle to the start! Ridiculous. It was cold - really cold. Here is a lovely photo of us huddling together for warmth in the hotel before heading out into the cold. We look so happy and awake, no?
Loooooong line of school busses for us. The shuttle left at 5:30 despite the fact that the race didn't start until 8! So, needless to say, it was a reeeeeeeally long morning.
MTM, trying to stay warm - and awake - before the race started. What can I say ... it was kinda tough.
Finally, hours later (and still before the race started!), MTM and I enjoyed some pre-race cokes. Tasted like heaven.
We're ready to run!!!
And ... ta da! We're done! With our finishers medals ...
... and some free cookies. DELISH. I am STILL so excited about my 32:37 PR!
We had a great time relaxing after the race ... at least, I THINK we had a great time. It's kind of hard to tell. :)

Afterwards, we boarded the shuttle back to the hotel. It took EIGHT HUNDRED YEARS. Okay, maybe not, but it was a really long ride and I think we all had a little trouble staying awake. It was tough. Really tough.
Thankfully, we crashed afterwards and enjoyed some down time!
Aaaaaand once we got out of bed again, showered and checked out of our hotel, we had the most deeeeelightful brunch at Southport Grocery and Cafe. Yummmmmmmmmy.
One last pose before I had to take these wonderful girls back to the airport. Sads. Oh, and yes, we DID wear our medals all day. :)
The weekend fun didn't end there! I headed over to stay with Lisa on Sunday night, where we watched the RHONJ reunion and ate some good bbq. Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos. Except this one, of Lisa's dog, Bacon. Bacon tends to steal things. I walked into the guest room and found him enjoying his new favorite toy ... my bra. Sad.
Anyway, that's it! I realize that this recap kinda sucks ... but it has taken me about 2 hours to upload the photos and pay attention enough to write it up. So basically ... go read what d.a.r. wrote. :) All in all - Chicago was great. It was SO nice finally "meeting" d.a.r. and MTM - two girls I talk to ALL the time. d.a.r. has really helped me through some deployment downs and I think we have talked pretty much every single day since Matt got his deployment orders last July 2009. MTM and I met more recently ... but still, we talk pretty much every day too!

The best part about blogging? The amazing friendships I have made. The worst part? NONE OF THEM LIVE BY ME.

That being said ... I am already counting down the minutes until I get to see these girls again!