Chicago

A couple of weekends ago, Paul had a work trip to Chicago, and being the amazing boyfriend that he is, I was invited to join him. Paul loves Chicago and wanted me to experience the city and fall in love with it myself, which was easy to do. It was a quick trip, only two full whole days to explore this amazing city, I was up for the challenge. I knew going in to this weekend, that I was going off the Gluten Train, I wanted to experience the real Chicago and I wasn't going to let my food intolerance get in the way.

We flew in at sunset, the sky was beautiful.

We landed, went straight to the hotel, changed and were out for some Chicago Style Pizza.  Before we left California, we took a poll of the best Pizza in Chi-town and Due won out, Malnati's was a close second. In order to put our name on the wait list we had to place our pizza order (deep dish takes 45 minutes). We sat outside in the brisk cold people watching and getting a vibe of the city. Finally our names were called and it was on. All I can say is both of us waddled out of there with big smiles on our faces. Yummy! We walked around the city for a while afterwards letting our food digest, then headed back to the hotel.

First full day in Chicago, we woke up early, and headed out to breakfast. We ended up at E Leaven 

Paul had strawberry stuffed French Toast and I ordered Banana Nut Bread French Toast, how have I never made that before, it was sooooooooooo delicious. Paul had to work, so I was off to explore the city by myself. First stop: Grab tickets for a Wendella Boat Tour.  Paul recommended I did this to get a lay of the city and to see all the amazing architecture. It was so great, the weather was nice, didn't have to wear my gloves or scarf. 

I loved the reflections of buildings in other buildings. 

Afterwards I took the Red Line out to Wrigley Field.

Below Left: The view from our hotel room downtown. And of course Wrigley Field. 

After Wrigley Field I grabbed some lunch then window shopped along Michigan Ave. until it was time to meet up with Paul. It was dinner time, and we decided on Harry Caray's for steaks. We were crazy stuffed, the food was so delicious we couldn't even claim our free tiramisu care of checking in to foursquare. So we walked around the city for a couple of hours which has become our favorite thing to do when we travel. We always happen upon the best things when we wander.  

The next morning, which was also our last in Chicago, for this trip anyway. We grabbed breakfast at Eggsperience, a great breakfast joint with a huge menu. It was difficult to decide on just one item when so many looked delicious. After breakfast we had a couple of hours till we had to head to the airport so we headed Millennium to see Cloud Gate also know as the Bean. The weather was amazing, I ended up taking off my sweater and I was wishing I hadn't wore my Uggs. It was so warm, I felt like I was back in Cali.   

After taking tons of pictures, we walked back to the hotel via State Street which made for some great last minute pictures. It was so fun to see all the stores getting ready for the Holidays. All the window displays definitely put me in the Holiday Mood.

Although this trip was a short one I definitely fell in love with Chicago. I can say it is now one of my favorite city's. I can't wait to go back with Paul and for us to explore all the things we couldn't fit in this trip. Thanks for taking me with you Babe and sharing your favorite city with me. Love you! 

London Love

Paul posted about our two days in London. You can find those posts here and here.

I just wanted to add a couple of pictures of my favorite things in London.

The Underground, it's no Paris Metro, but it is still amazing that we can pretty much get lost and just find an Underground stop and find our way back to the hotel.

Our ability to take pictures and be right in the middle of what we are trying to include. This happened the entire trip. This is one of the outtakes from Abbey road. 

Abbey Road, hands down my favorite thing in London. I just love love love the Beatles and it was really cool to see a piece of their life up close. Even the tourists walking across and blocking traffic didn't take away from this.  I do regret not knowing and not having a pen to write a message on the wall.  I'll take this moment now......... Ringo I heart you.  and my second message: All you need is love-Paul and Charity July 2010. 

These messages at every cross walk. Most people look right first, this was a reminder to all tourists that the traffic is coming from the other way. So smart! 

And to save my very favorite thing for last: Paul. Being here and sharing all these adventures with him has been the very best part of this entire trip. We will have these memories for a lifetime. 

     .........."Bon Soir......You speak English?......Good Morning......"

Love you babe! 

Leaving on a Jet Plane.........

After only four hours of sleep, we are about to hop on the underground to the train station to head to the airport. We are finally headed home. These past couple of weeks have been a blast, time has flown by, we have squeezed as much in as we possibly could have. It has been a trip of a lifetime. We will catch you all happenings of the past few days when we can.  You can check Paul's blog for a sneak peak.

Until then....


"Tell me what you want, what you really really want......"

Off to London

Sorry about the lack of blogging, it's been a blast these last few days in Paris. We have tried to fit in as much sight seeing and exploring that we could before we left. 

We are off to London this morning for a couple of days before we head home. We will catch up on blogging when we can. 

Au Revoir, 

Charity

Our last day in Paris

Woke up this morning and did a little more shopping, we both couldn’t believe it was our last full day in Paris. Time just flew by so fast. We decided to just do one of our favorite things on our last day......wander. We just hopped on the metro, exited right by the Louvre and walked, and walked, and walked. We walked through the Tuileries Gardens had a couple of drinks, walked some more and found a little carnival.....

walked more and found Eglise Saint Eustache...

After about six hours of wandering we headed back to the apartment to get changed and we were off yet again. This time we headed to dinner, we stumbled upon a cute little place on a corner of one of the streets we were on. It was definitely a great choice. The food was tasty, the service was awesome, and the people watching was amazing. 

After our two and a half hour dinner we headed towards the Seine. It was our last night here so we wanted to do something that really would be the perfect end cap on such an amazing trip. We were debating between taking a boat tour of the Seine or going to the top of the Eiffel Tower. We chose the boat tour, and we were really glad we did. The weather was great and we got to see a ton of things that had made us fall in love with this city. 

I can't believe our time in Paris is over, such an amazing city. I have fallen madly in love with Paris and I know I will return in the near future. 

Tomorrow we are off to London. More adventures await. 

Au Revoir, 

Charity

Happy Bastille Day!

We haven't posted in a few days, which means we have been busy taking in all that we can in the little time we are here. Paul posted a ton of images from the last couple of days so check out his blog to get caught up. 

Also instead of filling you with tons of information about the things we saw I just posted links to where you can find more information on them so feel free to click away and learn a little about what we've learned this trip. 

The weather has been quite hot and humid since we arrived. So we were quite surprised when we awoke to a huge thunderstorm this morning which lasted until about 5pm. At one point it lightened up enough for us to head to the store to grab something for dinner then we stopped at the Boulangerie (the bakery) for fresh bread to have with dinner. As we ordered our baguette the rain came pouring down again, so we waited it out. By the time the rain let up we had to purchase another baguette since we had gone through half the one we were to eat at dinner. We decided to wait out the rain, do laundry, work a little, and blog of course. 

Today is Bastille Day, there was a Military Parade this morning we didn't make it to, because of the rain but tonight if the weather permits we are headed to the Eiffel Tower to watch the fireworks. 

Here is what we were up to yesterday:

We started at the Basilique du Sacre-Coeur. which is the highest point of the city and overlooks all of Paris. The Basilique was pretty plain to what we were used to in Rome, which was surprising. 

To get to the top we took the Funiculaire... 

The most amazing views of Paris from the Basilique stairs.

Before we headed inside we stopped for refreshments. 

Yes, he is drinking a beer, from a can, next to a huge Eiffel Tower replica. 

Yep, that's my man!

The clouds made for awesome pictures.

Afterwards we headed to see Moulin Rouge. 

Moulin Rouge is located in the Red Light district, which meant rows of sex stores and strip clubs. 

After a nap, we headed out with some of Pauls students and other faculty members to play a couple of hours of Petanque next to the Seine. (which is very similar to Bocce). It was a blast and pretty addicting. 

  On our way to the Metro we came across one of the biggest places to celebrate the Eve of July 14th, the Bastille where a huge concert was going on. I think we should take a note from the French and start celebrating the fourth of July on the third, so much more celebrating to be had!

Until next time...
Au Revoir,
Charity