The ABCs of my Weekend in Chi-Town

After abstaining from traveling to Chicago for the first 21 1/2 years of my life, I ventured into the windy city for the THIRD time this year!  I'm basically a native Chicagoan now.

This is not what it looked like when I was there.  There was a lot
more dirty snow, slush, and fog.

Why was I in the big C you ask?  Well that brings me to the first letter of the alphabet.

A)  My sister, Courtney/Court/Ney/Ney-Haw, is spending the semester abroad in Madrid, Spain.  Her flight departed from O'Hare this afternoon so we had to go to Chicago so she could ride the Airplane.  

Little Ney herself.  

 Since it's no fun spending 8 hours in the car driving to Chicago and back just to drop the young'n off, the Ring family decided to turn the trip into a family getaway.  We left early Saturday morning, arriving in Chicago around 12pm (C-town time).  After checking into the hotel, we headed to the Magnificent Mile.  We went in a few stores...mostly just to keep warm, but overall it was a very unsuccessful shopping spree.  Meaning we bought nothing.  For one, I can't afford a $700 ugly jacket.  Two, there were about a zillion other people who decided to shop that day also.  Victoria's Secret looked like Black Friday, probably because they were having their semi-annual sale...which I swear happens once a month.  Also, I had no desire to wait in huge long lines to get naked and try clothes on and then wait in some more lines to check out.  So, the magnificent mile was more like the mmm-unsuccessful mile (I couldn't think of a synonym for unsuccessful that started with an m).

This is what it looked like. Not really. But kind of.

After shopping, we went to Second City to see a comedy show about Chicago.  Court and I were in the front row which made us really nervous, but luckily they didn't call us up on stage or throw things in our faces.  Even though we didn't get some of the jokes about Chicagoan things, it was still pretty funny.  After the show, we rushed back to the hotel to fancify ourselves so that we could go to another show!  This time it was a musical called "Ghost".  I liked it a lot and decided that I want to be a person who goes to plays.

The main actors.  The musical is based on a movie where these
characters are played by Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore

   On to the next letter....

B)  Gotta rewind a little for this one.  As we were driving along, prepared to take on Chi, I was keeping up with the rest of the world on facebook.  As I was scrolling through my newsfeed for the fiftieth time, I discovered a post by one of my cousins.  It was about the value of Beanie Babies these days.  After skimming through it, I exclaimed to my family, "WE'RE GONNA BE RICH!"  The article claimed that Beanie Babies, one of my favorite childhood toys, are valued at thousands of dollars today.  There were photos of ebay listings for multiple beanie babies.  However, the most valued of these treasures is the Princess Diana First Edition bear.  And it just so happens that I STILL HAVE ALL MY BEANIE BABIES INCLUDING THE PRINCESS DIANA ONE!!!!  See below for an example of what this beanie baby is going for:

Better make sure you all stay friends with me....just sayin'.

And last but not least...

C)  Before taking Ney Haw to the airport, we squeezed in a delicious meal at one of the most amazingly delicious restaurants on the planet: Cheesecake Factory.  We all ordered way too much food and after already having giant food babies, Courtney and I of course topped it off with yummy cheesecake!

Even though I'm still full from lunch, I'm drooling looking
at this picture.

  Finally, it was time to say our goodbyes...to the baby Ring and big Chi.  After making sure that Courtney got through security with her 100lbs of luggage, we blew her kisses and hit the road.  Until next time Chicago...