Friday Rob had a half day at work, so we were able to head out of the house around 2:30pm. The drive down to Chicago was uneventful and we made a quick stop off a White Castle for a snack and a bathroom run. We got to our hotel around 5:30pm. Traffic was fine until we hit the city area and the it was all backed up.

This time we stayed in the Westin Michigan Avenue. It's right across the street from where my Dad and Cheryl live (the Hancock). We normally stay at the Ritz (which is on the other side of the Hancock), but it was completely booked. The Westin is nice enough, but is nowhere near as kid friendly as the Ritz is.

We checked in, got our room, and ordered up room service for dinner while we had Dollhouse on in the background. Their room service food was so-so. Eventually we headed to bed.

Saturday we showered and got ready and met up with my Dad and Cheryl around 1pm. We were surprised to find out that my Aunt Mitzi was also in town, but it was a happy surprise. We all headed to Lawry's for lunch. I've never been there before and they have amazing prime rib. Gabriel was well behaved during lunch, but kept asking to go to the bathroom because he liked playing on the staircase.

After lunch we walked around the city a bit. We briefly headed into the Disney Store, but headed right out when we saw how crowded it was. The crowds even in the streets were insane. Mitzi headed to the hotel and the rest of us headed to the Hancock so Gabriel could see the train display. Then Cheryl headed home while Dad, Rob, and I headed to the Hancock observatory. It took a long time to get up there because of the lines. The view was breathtaking when we did finally get up there. It was amazing. I was even able to see the roof of the condos that I lived in when I was a teenager and pointed them out to Rob. We tried to take Gabriel to see Santa, but the line was long and he was cranky and he just wanted to go back to the hotel room and didn't want to see Santa. We'll try again at a local mall sometime before Xmas (hopefully).

Dad headed back to his place while Rob, Gabriel, and I headed back to the hotel to rest for awhile and get ready for dinner.

We met back up with Dad, Cheryl, and Mitzi in the lobby of the Hancock for dinner. I was able to give the presents we had brought to Dad and Cheryl (a bottle of Jordan cabernet and a bottle of Jordan chardonnay) and then we all headed over to the Carlton Club for dinner. I LOVE that place and it sucks that it will be closing down forever in a few weeks. It's going to be turned into a cafe for the Ritz because not enough people use it anymore. Suck.

We chilled out in the bar for awhile and then got our table. For the first time ever, I had lobster thermadore for dinner. It was AMAZING. Dinner was fantastic and Gabriel was amazingly well behaved. So much so that the other patrons didn't even know that there was a child in the restaurant. The piano player remembered him from last time and fell head over heels for him.

After dinner Gabriel fell asleep in my arms and so we headed back to our hotel and got ready for bed.

Sunday we were able to get a late check out (3pm) so that we could meet up with Dad and Cheryl for brunch. Mitzi decided to take an early train back home.

We headed over around noon to meet up with them at the Ritz for the buffet brunch. It was SO good and they even had some dim sum there! Breakfast went well and when we were done we headed out of the hotel to check out.

Once we checked out, we drove the car over to the loading zone in front of the Hancock so we could load up some gifts from Dad and Cheryl to Gabriel. One of them was a BMW for Gabriel that's motorized. Gabriel keeps asking for a car and so he LOVED it when he got to see it. He kept saying "my BMW" on the way home.

We got a bit lost heading out of the city, but with the help of the navigation system in Rob's car, we were able to find the freeway. Gabriel kept saying "bye bye Chicago" as we left.

The drive back home was uneventful and we made a quick stop at the Wisconsin welcome station to use the bathrooms.

Sunday morning before brunch I almost had to make an ER run, but luckily it didn't happen. I'll post about that in a private entry to follow this one.

When we got home we unpacked and Rob made a run to the grocery store while I stayed at home with Gabriel. We had some soup and sandwich for dinner and watched the finale of The Amazing Race.

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