Oh my dear people. Grab coffee. Sit back. This is a tale and a half.
So yesterday I left you after we'd visited the Willis Tower and the observation deck. We needed to get down toward the Magnificent Mile for our dinner reservation and in any other season, we would have just scurried right over on foot, but it was SO COLD, so Ryan was a darling and got us a cab to get the mile or so over that way.
{The Shaffers in a cab.}
Remember these? Nik Wallenda walked the tightrope between them, blindfolded. My main observation was that if I had to back my car into those spots, well, things would really not go well. {All those lower floors are parking, if you can't see.}
We made it to the Magnificent Mile and began window-shopping.
Literally.
That, my friends, is my husband sitting in the window display in Crate and Barrel, right there in downtown Chicago.
Not kidding.
It was SO COLD, so we walked for a bit and then ducked into a store to warm up and then back out into the cold we went and then into another store...you get the idea.
By this point in the day, I was NOT feeling well at all. I realize that this may not be a big deal to YOU, but when my eating and sleeping schedules get off kilter, I just start to feel really sick. And we we had been keeping a weird schedule, and then in and out of the extreme warm and extreme cold - I felt so sick to my stomach and just wanted to go home! But we had dinner reservations, so that was not going to work.
Ryan felt so bad for me that he called the restaurant to see if we could move the reservations up at all. They could take us at 6:30, so we stopped and got me some medicine and then decided to head toward the restaurant so we could take our time.
We braced against the bitter wind and headed into it, walking through the city. We passed a park, and Ryan asked if I wanted to stop for a photo shoot.
No.
WHAT?!?!?!?
That's when he knew I was
serious about not feeling well. But as we passed the park, I happened to catch a little glimpse of something that looked familiar to me.
The bean!!!
It's actually called Coud Gate, but I think more people call it the bean. {Obviously. I mean, look at it!}
It was really cool to be there right when we were, because not many other people were milling about, and the nighttime view in the thing was spectacular! More pics:
After we got done with this, Ryan and I continued on our merry way, so we could get to dinner, which by this point was just a half hour away. I was so cold, I couldn't even feel my right thumb, and only TRUSTED it was still in my glove.
And
that was when....we discovered we had been walking the
wrong direction the entire time. We were now a
mile and a half in the wrong direction with 30 minutes until dinner.
I. Am. Not. Even. Kidding.
So there we were, the hicks from the sticks, tearing through the streets of Chicago, power-walking and full-on running around people, zooming through flashing red hands at intersections, and doing our best to make it in the freezing cold to our building by 6:30.
We made it.
Know where the building was?
NEXT DOOR TO WHERE WE STARTED WALKING THE WRONG WAY.
I. Am. Not. Even. Kidding.
Our reservations were at a place called The Signature Room,and it's on the 95th floor of its building.
I should back up and tell you that when I found out we had reservations, I asked Ryan about the attire we should wear. I didn't want to dress up to walk around the city in December - but neither did I want to haul around a bag with a change of clothes! He said we could wear nice jeans and dress shirts, so that's what we'd done.
And we wore walking shoes. :)
So we arrived at the building and got put on an elevator to go up 95 floors with 234289347298347923 other people. Our gigantic noses were bright red and running, we couldn't feel any fingers or toes, and I had hat hair.
We tumbled out of the elevator and the woman who greeted us invited us to check our coats around the corner.
Yeah, well, that cost a dollar a coat, so we, the cheapies, kept our coats! They led us to our table, and we traipsed past all the ladies in their cocktail dresses in stilettos, still wearing our coats, draped in our tour-the-city-cinch sacks, and padding along in our walking shoes and jeans.
Classy, party of two.
They seated us by the window, and y'all, check OUT THE VIEW!!!!!! {Oh yes. I whipped out the old phone-aroonie and started taking pictures.}
The city {above} and the lake shore {below}. STUNNING.
ALMOST like the beach of two years prior...except not really.
The waiter brought our menu and I opened mine....
YOU GUYS!!! He had it personalized for me!! I cried. No one has EVER done anything like this for me before. I felt SO SPOILED and SO LOVED!!!!!
So this place was pretty much out of our price range, but we enjoyed the chicken we ordered. So good.
I so cherished this time with him. It was lovely. {And for the record, a guy came in after we did, pulling a suitcase. So I started feeling better about our little backpacks and our coats!!}
I couldn't eat very much because I still didn't feel well, but Ryan took care of our dinners, and right about the time I asked for some coffee, the waiter appeared with my second surprise of the night:
AAAHHHHH!! How is he so good to me?????
It was white chocolate mousse cake.
Y.U.M.
So it may have been the dinner with so many comedic moments, but oh my word, what a treasured memory. I was in awe of Ryan's sweet display of love that night. He treated me like a princess, and I did not take it for granted. I appreciated the sacrifices he made to make this sort of thing possible for us. Probably won't get to do anything like this again for a really long time, but what a treasure it was!!
After dinner, we took a cab back to Union Station. We'd run enough for one day.
Made it back to Schaumburg without incident!!!
And that was our anniversary!!!
