A Much Needed Break

On Tuesday, I flew to Chicago for the Blue October concert that Mike gave me tickets to for our anniversary. It's been a long 3 month wait, but it was well worth it. Mike worked it out so that I would stay with Emily while I was there. It was so awesome to actually spend a little time with her. Okay, so 2.5 days. :) Mike, for Valentine's Day, made us reservations at The Signature Room on the 95th floor of the John Hancock building for dinner before the concert. The view was amazing. These pictures were actually taken from my seat at the table.

Navy Pier

Lake Michigan

Emily pointed out my fear of heights, and I was actually okay because I didn't feel like I was going to fall. Stupid, but true.

After a wonderful dinner (I've honestly never had this swanky of a dinner in my life), we headed over to the House of Blues for the Blue October concert. Yay!

The stage
Balcony
One of the opening bands had some of the Blue October members come and play with them. The guy on the far left is Ryan from BO. The next day, this opening band (Hurricane Bells) blew out their engine in St. Joe, not far from us. I would have gone to pick them up. LOL!

And then, Blue October took the stage...it's a small venue, so we had a good view.




I've actually got this one up as my FB profile picture. LOL!

Anyway, the concert was amazing. The average age was probably around 35 and we were all acting like college kids. I think that annoyed the college kids that actually were there.

Wednesday, we drove to the suburbs to visit with an old friend, Amy. Amy moved from Peoria when we were in 5th grade but up until that point, she and I would walk home from school together. I haven't seen her since 7th grade, about 22 years ago. Wow. It was awesome to catch up over lunch. What was really nice is that it wasn't awkward and we've vowed to make it, at least, a yearly thing.

I also made a stop to see Bobbi and Ed. We couldn't stay long, though, because of the wonderful Chicago rush hour traffic.

That night, Emily and I grabbed a bottle of wine (or two or three...I don't remember) and stayed up talking until 4 am. It is so amazing to have a friend that you can go forever without talking to and when you do, it's like nothing at all...there's no "why haven't you called?" or anything like that.

The trip length was perfect, but I was sad to go back home on Thursday. However, it was really nice to get back to the routine and my own bed. The kids gave Mike an excellent report and Mike did the same. I really think he liked being "in charge." LOL!