This post is long overdue…Like almost 2 years overdue…
I had always wanted to go to Chicago as I had heard it was a fantastic city and well, ER was filmed there. Ya, I’m old. So when the opportunity to meet up with a bunch of photographer friends presented itself (all former attendees of the Pinkle Toes Workshop), I jumped on it as fast as possible!
Best.decision.ever.
These girls have become my lifeline in so many ways it’s not funny. We are trying to meet up yearly as we live all over the place (Leah in Dallas, Michele in Austin, Carol my fellow Canuck in Winnipeg, Heidi in St. Louis, Janie in Kansas, Minnette in Houston, Stacy in Preoria (central Illinois), Lena in New Jersey, Sarah in Methuen (outside of Boston) and sweet sweet MeeMaw…Michele’s Mom and former office manager). Since I moved to St. Albert I am sadly the furthest away…boo! Oh well, we talk almost daily and have subsequently met up in Cape Cod, Maine and are currently planning our next reunion for June <insert stupid happy grin here>.
Here’s a not so brief synopsis of our weekend in Chicago…
Day 1 saw lots of site seeing (I was giddy to go see the Chicago sign and the L Train where Dr. John Carter…aka Noah Wyle ran up before heading to the ER…okay, I’ll stop) and a stop into Trader Joes…since I’d never been to one before.
Day 2 started out with shopping (yup, a few of us bought a Tiffany’s “Bean” necklace), seeing some sights along Michigan Ave and PF Changs for a late lunch/snack/supper whatever!
Oh! And did I tell you we met and got our photo with Nick Jonas. Heck ya we did 😉 Can you say Cougar??
We then cleaned up and got ready for a photo session with some underprivileged teens who wrote essays on why they wanted to have their photographs taken. They were really sweet girls and taking photos at the Navy Pier was fan-freaking-tastic! None of those photos are included, but a bunch of us goofing off are 🙂
Yes, we road there in a limo, but it was cheaper for all of us to dog pile into the thing…
We took the little trolly back to the hotel and the restaurant where we had a late, but yummy dinner.
Then we pretended to sleep…
Day 3 began early… I thought the girls were nuts to want to go photograph “The Bean” at 7 in the morning (I had no idea what it was or why we were doing this), but I went with it and boy am I glad I did. Not only was the light beautiful, but the crowds of people shortly thereafter was nuts! Now I love watching movies where I can see Millennium Park and The Bean. So fun!
Later that day, we took a food tour that was fantastic! Everything from REAL Chicago style hotdogs to frozen hot chocolate with homemade marshmallows! It’s a good thing it was a walking tour through Wicker Park as well.
We had not so brilliantly made reservations for a late super at Sunda, but like troopers, we sucked it up (okay in) and went 🙂
After another late night it was time to go home…boo!
A fantastic weekend with fantastic friends! Makes me smile to relieve it and the best part is we made a photo book so that we all have each others different take on everything we saw them together. So very cool to see how everyone “sees” things!! And if you haven’t been to Chicago…go!
Shona xo
