Chicago!! Part I

Mike and I took a second honeymoon to Chicago (in conjunction with the pitiful Utah v. Notre Dame game), and it was completely amazing!  Our first night we stayed in a swanky, spendy hotel (thanks Hotwire!), and went to the Chicago Institute of Art.  Hooray for free thursdays at the museum!  Since this will be a lot of pictures (really, a lot), I'm breaking it up into parts.  Part I is our first day in Chicago.

The Intercontinental was beautiful and fancy, and we were definitely not their average customer.  Thanks to Hotwire we got a great price on a room...because we would never spend $300 on one night in a hotel!  Plus none of the amenities are included.  $12 to work out?  No way.

You can't really tell, but the pool was so amazing.  And plenty of stadium seating to go around.  Which was only a little weird.

The view from our room was incredible at night.

 I think this is the Chicago Tribune building.  It was intricate and detailed and so beautiful!

We were on the 21st floor, and the street below is the Magnificent Mile.  The pictures really don't do it justice.  It was amazing!!

The cool, weird architectural art at Millennium Park.

Even the stairs are artsy at the museum!

 The museum was ENORMOUS!  It would have taken us a week to really see everything, so we just kind of had to admire as we walked.  I've always loved this picture (and I can't even remember the artist!), but when I was little Grandpa Orin explained to me the entire painting was done in dots.  And I never knew until we saw the real thing that it is HUGE.  Now I think it's even cooler.
 

 The Van Goghs were absolutely incredible.

As were the Picassos.  It was so amazing to see these paintings in real life!

 This is one of Mike's favorites.

As we were almost done walking through the modern art wing, I told Mike that the only thing missing was a Jackson Pollock.  Literally two steps later we happened upon...an amazing Jackson Pollock!  I'm not huge into modern art, but I really love Jackson Pollock's stuff.  It was so cool to see one!

We happened to see our friend Don that lives down the street from us (biggest U fan alive), so he took a picture for us in front of American Gothic.  

There were miles of artifacts, paintings, and so many amazing things to see.  This is a very small sampling of what we saw.  We were exhausted by the time we left!  It was so cool to go, it was incredible to see the actual paintings that I've seen in books all my life.