Rain rain stay away

Our Saturday went well. We started at the Farmer's Market, made a quick trip to the Art show and then we went back to the hotel so we could meet up with one of my friends from back in my days at UF. I met Laurie when I lived in the dorms. We both ended up on the same floor in Mallory Hall.

that was my room- right over the covered entrance.....I lucked out I got a huge room

 Because she was from out of state (Indiana) I think she arrived a day or two before the rest of us. She reminded me about how she met another friend of ours, Betsy, when the two of them were the only ones around. We have kept in touch over the years and she's been back to Florida a few times since that first year of school. She came for my wedding and a couple of other times as well. I have always enjoyed her sense of humor and recently we have "connected" on Facebook. Now instead of an annual letter, we get to see what's happening in each others lives on a regular basis.
Ironically, Betsy who is from Chicago....just recently moved to Florida! hahah so we didn't get to see her on this trip. My niece picked out a place around the corner from our hotel for us to go have a nice breakfast. It was great to see Laurie again...it's been quite awhile since our last visit. (I believe she was in town and I called in sick so I could join her at the beach...hahah I can still hear her saying to me, as I made my call, "I can almost feel your pain" hahahaha

I was so glad she was able to make the trip up for the quick visit. It was great to see her again!

                              Maybe next time we won't wait so long to get together again.
As I mentioned we made our way to Millennium Park after breakfast and then we meandered around downtown for a bit. we stopped in a couple of stores along the way.
Had to check out Dylan's Candy Bar

 We all decided it was a good thing we never went in that place when we were little, or took my girls when they were little...hahah a kid could go crazy in there with all the options! hahahaha

I enjoyed seeing the mix of old and new buildings and the details on some of them. We passed the Chicago Tribune building and other big offices downtown.

We saw the tour boats going out; Meredith wasn't really interested, and even though Liz and I were, we didn't want to take up too much time, so I'll save that for another trip. Because we weren't sure about the weather, we tried to get in as much sight seeing as possible on Saturday while we could. Liz has been on one of the tours before  and said it's a fun way to learn a little about the city and see things from the river. Definitely will try that another time.
After a few hours downtown we went back to the hotel to relax for a bit. We were happy because so far, we did not have any rain.....and decided we'd try to make our way back downtown if the rain held off on Sunday because there was plenty more to see.
Sunday morning our plan was to go to brunch...at Brunch (the restaurant). At first we were sure we'd never last until our 11:30 reservation....but as the morning went on it worked out perfectly. Sunday morning there were some storms...and it was raining when I got up.  It looked like we might need the umbrellas and boots after all. *Saturday night the committee members at the show had warned the artists that a line of strong storms might be moving through during the night, so they should pack up accordingly. While I sat and sipped on my coffee I watched people moving along outside in the drizzle. People were still out jogging, walking, etc. That's another thing David had told me before the trip...even it it rains, people will be out and about. They just wear boots, or a raincoat and grab an umbrella and carry on as usual. The rain seemed to be mostly gone, but there were some deep puddles left behind. It was hard to tell what the day would be like; but I had my umbrella and Meredith and Liz had their boots and we went to brunch.

Like almost every other place we went to, Brunch was pretty busy but we got our table after a short wait. The only disappointment was Elizabeth wasn't able to have one of their "famous" cinnamon rolls. They were all out and it would be a while before they had any more if they made them. Oh well...we were going in search of a place called "The Doughnut Vault" later anyway, so we'd have to settle for a doughnut later. There were some items on the menu that sounded really great...but I settled for seared muffin tops with lemon creme fraiche. and some fresh fruit. Meredith had a nice egg dish and Elizabeth enjoyed her choice too. we did periodically eye the cinnamon roll on the table next to us (" the last  one")....it did look good.
After we ate we got out our map and tried to find our way to the doughnut place. The streets were pretty quiet, like any Sunday morning anywhere I guess.

We found the place and laughed because all it was was this one entrance. You went in the front entrance( above) turned to the left and there was a young woman at the counter. No display cases...just the girl at the register. Because it was late all they had left was one Buttermilk doughnut and a few glazed" doughnuts of the day". Liz bought one of each...which we intended to bring back to Paul and David; after we had a small taste of course...hahaha.
By now as you can see the clouds were moving out and the sun was moving in. It looked like our luck was going to hold for another day!

We made our way around town and passed all the theatres. Lots of great shows were playing...yet another thing to keep in mind if we go back again.

We were slowly making our way down to the Navy Pier. We did decide to ride the trolley the last few blocks. There was definitely a lot of activity down by the pier. Traffic was coming in from all directions; the trolley driver though that maybe no one was directing traffic, but realized there was in fact someone there...he was just trying to manage all the traffic, and it was a slow process. We finally made it to our stop.

We decided to take a ride on the Ferris Wheel, even though Elizabeth really doesn't like heights, she told us it was a nice way to see the lake and the city.

We were so happy that the day turned out like it did...it was beautiful! The ride wouldn't have been the same in the rain :)
We looked around a bit and then hopped back on the trolley. We rode it down to where we could get a ride back to the hotel. Getting out of the area proved to be much easier than getting in...hhaha
We made our way back to the hotel and took a little break. Liz and I  sat out on the patio and enjoyed a drink and talked and watched people milling around.When we were done we went back for a last walk around the art show.
We met a friend of David's (a Greek man who's son is the artist, he just goes along to help). He was quite the character. hahah But one thing he did say was that he knew David was happy to have us there with him for the weekend. I believe he said something like "His eyes lit up when he told me "my sisters are here". That was nice. Apparently they  originally met at a show in Des Moines ,Iowa a couple of years ago(a show they both raved about) and hit it off. They have run into each other a different shows along the way since then.
Sunday sales were a little slower for David, but there was still plenty of activity around the booth.
We made plans to meet up for dinner at a place a few blocks away....Twin Anchors. A scene from the Dark Knight was filmed in the place. (Meredith has seen it , more than once, planned to watch it again to see if she could spot the restaurant). Personally...I really didn't care...hahaha and was a little unsure because it was  another barbecue place. Hey...I figured there would be something to eat that I liked and the company was just as important as the meal.

parking lot on the right is where the truck and trailer were parked...Art Show was a block or two further down this sidewalk

My stomach was a little upset for some reason...but Paul saved the day with a Pepto tablet (or something) I found some barbecue chicken on the menu and all in all we had a good dinner.David and Paul had to finish packing up after we ate...and then they were going to hit the road.  As it was getting dark,Meredith, Liz and I went back to our hotel and got organized and ready to leave in the morning. Monday morning it was raining and we got a little nervous when we couldn't seem to get a cab to take us to the airport. We finally decided to go for an Uber ride...even though Liz and I never did manage to get the app downloaded onto our phones. Once Meredith placed the call...we had a car within 5 minutes and we had a rainy, 45 minute ride to the airport.  Chatted with our driver and learned a little about how Uber works which kept us interested.
Once we got to the airport

we got dropped off at our terminals , checked in and then we.....................waited.
Their flight was delayed a little less than an hour. My flight kept getting delayed. 1hr, 2 hrs..one plane had mechanical trouble, found a replacement. When it finally arrived after some weather delays, we actually boarded and headed out to the runway. But, then we stopped and had to turn around and go back to the gate. (a gate). More mechanical issues on this plane...so we got off and moved to another gate.

 Eventually, a plane arrived, a new crew arrived and we took off 8-9hrs after our original departure time. Through all the delays the group stayed pretty calm. I was impressed...especially considering how many of them were families headed to Disney World. A day at the airport was not quite what they had in mind. Everyone clapped and cheered when we finally took off...and again when we landed in Orlando. hahah We missed the bad weather...so that was a plus; we were all just a little weary. But it was worth it...I had a great trip!
One final shot

good times in Chicago!