The Windy City and a long-winded post

Hello!
I have a fun trip to tell you about but first I will show you the stitching!

 The house took forever but the 4th part went quickly!

Of course I sat in a hotel room for 3 days and stitched so that might have helped. I almost have the last part done- good thing because I got my traveling pattern yesterday when I got home from Chicago and I bought a pattern while I was away!! So Scott had a truck convention to go to in Chicago and I was able to go along. When we got there we found out that at the same convention center was also having C2E2 which is a comic and entertainment convention. That means that the hotel was always filled with people in costume!!

 I don't know what game these guys are dressed as but I loved them!!

 I don't know what is going on here!

 Han Solo - crazy how much he looks like the actor!!

 HAHA!!

Scott had to work days and I mostly stayed at the hotel - listened to books, drank tea and stitched. It was good. Scott was free every night except Saturday. The first night we hit a diner (of course) Turfanos Vernon Park Tap - it was wonderful!! The staff was awesome the food was fantastic!! (If you go - it's cash only) We had calamari - best I've ever had. I had the lemon chicken they are famous for and Scott had lasagna and a meatball.

then we went downtown to see the Cloud Gate sculpture aka The Bean

The next night we went downtown to eat - nothing worth mentioning but driving in the city is horrifying - those people are the worst drivers I have ever seen and they honk for NO REASON!! Traffic can not go and they are honking their brains out - a more ridiculous group I have not seen. Parking in the city - un- fricking-beliveable!!!!

Do you see those prices? WOW This particular lot had a sign that said if you bought $10 worth of stuff at Nordstroms then parking was only $15 - well worth it but what can you buy for ten bucks? HAHA not much - Scott found something he wanted though.....

Yeah he did! Plus they let you have sample bottles of cologne so we got two bottles for Scott - mmmm smells soooo goood!!! We walked through the city at night while it poured buckets of rain - we were soaked - so much fun!!!

Not wet yet!

 See the rain - very cool art in the city!

 bottom is parking top is apartments - cool!

 you can tell it's raining in this picture! so pretty.

the "L"

Saturday I decided to brave the streets in the rental - scary!! I went to Country Cupboard a cross stitch store in Orland Park. What a wonderful place!! Sadly, I don't have many stichy friends so I talked the owners ears off - poor Barb!! She was super friendly though and her shop is awesome!!  I bought Threadworks Primitives Beggar's Night - there is one in the shop done in #5 Pearl Cotton and I fell in love with it. I never would have bought the pattern if I hadn't seen hers there at the shop.

I tried another shop but it was closed for some show in another state. It was raining - all day - so I headed back to my room for more stitching and tea! Scott went to dinner with his bosses but between his convention and their dinner reservations we managed to go to C2E2 - what fun! We met two comic artists that my kids love and bought them some autographed stuff

 See that one says Ryder's name!! Invader Zim artist Aaron Alexovich

 Plus we met Chad Coleman from the shows The Walking Dead and The Wire and got his autograph - yay!! Now I have Carol and Tyreese - slowly I will get them all!!

Sunday night we went to Lao Sze Chuan  1331 W Ogden Ave Downers Grove, IL 60515 which I had found on Local Eats. A lot of the reviews say the food is spicy - and we always trust local eats. Well, we loved it! Scott got dry chili shrimp

it was pretty spicy!! We also tried dumplings - which were homemade - yum. I had beef Szechuan it was spicy - I couldn't stop eating it!! We also tried "stewed beef trim flankie noodle soup" yes the names are strange and there are some weird weird things on the menu but the noodles were great! Most of the meat was fatty and inedible but it's used for flavor and like I said the noodles were great!! After eating all that and being stuffed to the gills we stopped for ice cream - unbelievable we could eat any more - at Oberweis and had ice cream. Of course it was good. Monday we went to three restaurants before we found an open one - one off the DDD site - didn't say they would be closed. One Scott saw on TV and wanted to try - a diner that doesn't open until 11am? Doesn't seem smart to me but we finally ended up at White Palace Bar and Grill  - it was on DDD and the food was great!!

We grabbed a letterbox, then over to Rex Italian to get some stuff to take home, also has been on DDD and we have eaten there before - so good that we wanted some to take home for dinner! We get the Aracini - sausage and meatballs! It was a good trip!! Thanks for stopping by - hope you have a good week!!
Here is a picture from our hotel room - 29th floor - at night!