Pictures from the WINDY CITY

Well here are some photos from our trip to Chicago. Due to the early mornings, Danny I would drive ourselves to get Starbucks so that we could function normally. MMM Caramel Macchiatos...

These first two pics are of Willow Creek Community Church, where the Youth Leadership Conference was held. They made a really cool set for the conference giving the stage an urban youthy feel. I could NOT get over how big this place was.

A few nights into our trip I was fortunate enough to have a good visit with my friend Charisa from Capernwray in New Zealand! She took me to one of the largest Starbucks' I have ever seen, so I was a happy camper. She lives in the Chicago area, so it was nice to be with someone who knew their way around.

On our travels we were able to eat at a handful of different restaurants. One of the more exciting ones was the Rainforest Cafe. This place is literally a "mock" rainforest, that has life-like animals everywhere that move or make noise every 10 minutes, and misty "rain" that falls from the ceiling every once and a while too.
The food was relatively good too, which is always a bonus. :)

What a nice little lion.

We spent all of our last day there in downtown Chicago, shopping, and seeing the city. It was fun because there was so much to see, but holy smokes was it ever windy and chilly! The boys went crazy over the Apple store, checking out all the latest tech stuff. The architecture inside the store itself was really cool too.

Here I am outside Tiffany's the jewellery store. I was REALLY happy as you can tell, because I love looking at diamonds...and this was my first time at the store. Very pretty, but much too pricey.

Eventually we made it to the John Hancock building that was so high up, at times it was almost too scary to even look out the window. But it was right on the lake, that I am still convinced is actually an ocean. We even got the chance to clean their windows. haha

It was absolutely beautiful up there as the sun was setting, to see all the lights of the city. It really was breathtaking.

On our last night we went out to this delicious restaurant called the Macaroni Grill. The name kind of throws you off, but it was actually quite fancy inside. It was suprising however, because they gave us crayons to color on the crisp white paper table cloths. Hey I'm not going to argue if someone wants me to color! Bring it on!

And here we are waiting for our FIRST ariplane. But of course, if you read my previous blog, you would know that we ended up getting off that plane, and were put up in the HILTON instead, for the night...Not too shabby. I'm just glad I didn't run into Paris Hilton there. YIKES!