Okay, so I went to see The Offspring in concert in Chicago because of a free trip giveaway from X96 that my boyfriend, Ben, won... which was really awesome. They paid for the flight, hotel and concert and it was a really great time! We stayed in the Essex Inn which I was a little sketchy about at first but it turned out to be a good hotel in a great location. The only bad thing I noticed was that you HAVE to valet park which costs like $36 which blows... but the other option was parking your car in an open lot across the street, NO THANK YOU! But everyone I spoke with at the hotel was kind and very helpful. The room was clean and looked nice, but they don't offer any in-room service at least not that I noticed because they didn't have a booklet or anything telling you about their services/amenities. We rented a car, but the traffic can get really bad so we took the bus to a couple places, which was an adventure in itself. Many times we were the only white people on the bus, which would be fine if there weren't those couple of people who act like racism only works from whites to other races and not the other way around... come on people it's 2009 we're all human let's just move on! Anywho, the bus was rather expensive, $2.50 a ride, but it saved time trying to manuver through traffic and find our way around the city. 
One of the places we went was the Navy Pier, which was a great time. They have a couple rides like a ferris wheel, and the giant turning swings which we went on and it was fun :). You can take boat tours, ride a fast boat, take a Segway tour around the city, which we didn't have time to do any of that but we did have time to grab a Chicago dog! We ate at America's Dog where they offer over 20 different kinds of hotdogs... I got the one that was deep fried and served with grilled onions and cheese on top and it was fantastic! (I know... healthy right?)
Our concert was at the Charter One Pavilion which is kinda by Soldier's Field. The venue was pretty cool but the setup was sooo different than any in Utah! I'm used to going to an outdoor concert like at USANA where there's tons of food and drink vendors. This place had tons of drink vendors, but their food consisted of preztels and popcorn! And when I say drink vendors... I mean mostly alcohol, you could find a Coke, Sprite, rootbeer or lemonade in the bottle, but they had tons of beer vendors and then they even had a full bar where hard liquor was served. It was so interesing to be able to go to a concert in a different state... don't drunk people like to eat too??? But the concert itself was awesome, The Offspring always put on a good show! And the crowd was crazy, we were in the standing section up front and people would take a full plastic glass of beer and just chuck it across the crowd, spraying everyone... why would you spend $8 for a beer to just throw it away? It was confusing but hilarious to watch people get drenched or whacked on the head by a cup. Luckily we went away with only a few drops on us!
We also visited the Sear's Tower which I highly recommend to anyone who goes to Chicago. The funny thing was I didn't find the looking out across the land the coolest thing, I enjoyed all the information they give you while you're there! But it is pretty cool to say you've stood in one of the tallest buildings ever built. Although I learned that just two weeks after we get home, they opened a level where you can walk out on a clear ledge and look straight down... that woulda been pretty cool to do!
We went to Memorial Park as well, which was beautiful and a lot of fun to just walk around and explore! They house that big shiny silver blob of a statue which is really amazing to walk under and look up at because of how it reflects you. They also have these fountains which are like two mini buildings built of glass bricks that have water flowing down them. In between the two is a big rubber floor which people play around on because it's wet. The two buildings have faces projected onto them which move around and then every 15 mins or so, they pucker their lips and a big jet of water spews out of it and all the kids go crazy getting wet in it... it was pretty fun to just sit and watch for a few minutes. But my favorite part of Memorial Park was this walk way which had a little waterway next to it. They have built a lower walkway next to the main one which allows you to sit down on it and splash your feet in the water. We sat there for a good 30 minutes, just chatting and people watching while cooling our feet in the water. One piece of advice though... make sure you don't stand up in the water or put your hands in it... the security guards walking around are pretty strict about those two rules as we found out haha!
The only restaurant I can highly recommend which we ate at was m. henry. It was fantastic! It's a quaint little restaurant that is decorated brilliantly to my tastes, and the food there is delicious. We both got the berry french toast, and it was to die for, I didn't want it to end! They have a little garden out back which you should take a look at if you get the chance. Afterwards, we bought little treats to take on our way out, I got the Opera Cake, which is a 7 layer chocolate lovers dream!The trip was a brief two days, but we packed in as much as we could and I think it was well worth it! Thanks X96!
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