the windy city

**warning, this post has a TON of pictures.. mostly scenery, selfies, and food

Cody and I discussed early on in our marriage that we wanted to be intentional about going on trips together and would like to go to a different state for every anniversary. We started big for our first anniversary and choose Chicago! Neither of us had ever been there so it was perfect for us to visit for the first time as a couple! We had SO.MUCH.FUN and definitely recommend it for a vacation. 

We wanted to try to save money any way we could since we knew once we were in the actual city, food and tourist activities add up. So, instead of an expensive hotel right in the heart of downtown we found a studio apartment we could rent through airbnb.com. It was tiny and very simple but all that we needed for a short trip! This first picture is the building we stayed in. It was actually perfectly located between Lincoln Park and downtown, and we walked everywhere from our apartment without a problem. 

I've always loved the look of brownstone houses, busy streets and just the "city" neighborhoods and the street we stayed on was JUST THAT. I could not get over how precious it was everytime we stepped outside!

We flew from west texas at 6:50 am on Wednesday, switched planes in Dallas, and arrived in Chicago about noon. We took the subway from the airport to downtown and then pulled it to our apartment, whew! Once we got settled we started walking downtown and made a stop at Portillo's for their famous chicago hot dogs, yum!

we continued walking to Millenium Park to see the bean. We honestly had no idea where we were going but made our way around pretty well!

I could not get over how beautiful the fall colors were there! Red, orange and yellow leaves EVERYWHERE. 

and their sidewalk fall decorations were perfect, they were different on every block but all with fall mums and pumpkins

the next day we woke up early and intended to go to Glazed and Infused donuts for breakfast. But we walked and walked and eventually found one, but it was a walk up window and we were ready to sit so we ended up at Dunkin' Donuts. Oh well. It was alot cooler this day, so we bundled up!

after breakfast we did an architecture boat tour which we LOVED. We road on an open deck boat on the river through downtown and were told about all of the sky scrapers. It was a fun way to see the city and hear about everything without wearing out our feet ;)

Once we finished the boat tour, we walked over to the Willis (formerly Sears) tower to go onto the sky deck. I'm honestly surprised I even did this! I'm such a chicken when it comes to adventure stuff but it was worth it! The picture below is us on the sidewalk looking up at the Willis Tower and you can barellyyyyy see the sky decks hanging off the side!

Here we are standing/sitting on the sky deck on the 103rd floor!

we then caught a taxi over to Navy Pier, ate lunch, walked around and rode the ferris wheel

after this we walked around downtown, and went to Gino's East for deep dish pizza that was so.good.

the next morning we were going to opposite direction towards Lincoln Park and the zoo. The first picture is me standing right outside our apartment on our precious street!

we turned the corner at the end of the street and found the perfect breakfast spot. This little cafe that gave tons of food and was inexpensive (we actually ate here the next day as well when we couldn't find another breakfast place!)

then we headed into the park which was GORGEOUS and had people running with strollers through the whole thing

the park eventually turns into Lincoln Park Zoo which is a free zoo. We saw giraffes, hippos, zebras, lions, tigers, gorillas, etc. It was neat to have a free zoo to visit!

We then crossed the highway and walked over to the beach

we then took a taxi to the Field Museum, Chicago's famous museum featuring Sue the T-Rex. We enjoyed the museum and seeing everything but we disagreed with some views  ;) and our feet were aching big time at this time

we walked from the museum to downtown to eat deep dish pizza, we walked through Millennium park again and past the Buckingham fountain

 we ate this meal at Giordano's, another famous pizza place in Chicago

after this we headed further into downtown and walked into a few shops. We really wanted somewhere to just hang out but went to some fancy french cafe and got tea and tried Macarons, which was delicious. 

The next morning we went to breakfast with my friend Amanda, from Tech. She so graciously drove us to the airport on Saturday afternoon as well. 

also I had to get some Garrett's popcorn ;)

Chicago was so.much.fun and definitely made our first anniversary a great one!