Chicago

I haven't written in a while... I also haven't traveled within the states in a while... 

Last week my best girl friend and I went to Chicago for a couple of days! Funny thing is that we both spend more time traveling internationally so it was hard to adjust at first. I kept wanting to ask if there were free refills, free bathrooms, etc. and got super excited when there were. Whenever I heard someone speaking English I wanted to ask them if they were from the states. I looked in all directions when I crossed the street because who knows whether cars drive on the left or right side of the road anymore. And while we were at our hotel we kept having to reassure each other that the water was safe to drink. :)

We stayed in a great location which meant we could walk everywhere we wanted to!! 

We started out with a lovely stroll through millennium park and guess what we found?!

THE BEAN!! 

Last time I was in Chicago the Bean had not been there so I was super excited to take selfies in it :)

We walked to Navy Pier..

Willis (Sears) Tower ...

And even ventured out onto the glass enclosure :)

We had so much time on our hands we spent a lot just walking around the city. 

And look what else we found!

One of my favorite parts though was stumbling across this:

This building had a ton of stone, brick, you name it from all over the world! :) represented in the photo above starting from the top is the House of Parliament (London),  temple in (Cambodia), St. Peter's cathedral (Rome), and pyramid of Giza (Egypt) ! 

All in all, Chicago was a great getaway for a couple of days! 

In other news... I am excited to officially announce that I put my deposit down for South America 2017!!! Chile, Peru, and Brazil are all on the itinerary. And I'm also excited to have a travel buddy for this journey!! :) Antarctica unfortunately didn't make the cut, but I'm working on it! I'll get there eventually...