Team DJ Takes Chicago (Part 1)

After signing up for the race forever ago, booking plane tickets, and a hotel, the time finally arrived to head to Chicago. I was meeting up with one of my best friends, Jenn. Now Jenn and I have only met in person for about an hour last year at the Tinkerbelle Half Marathon. But just cause we live on opposite coasts doesn't mean we don't text all day, and talk about anything and everything.

Lately, my trips have all had a monkey wrench thrown in. As I was at the nail salon the night before I left the power went out. There was a crazy thunderstorm, and apparently it knocked out the power. Everyone in the salon used their cell phone flashlights to light the place up as best as we could. As my nail lady was packing up her stuff to take it to my house to finish up my mani, the lights came back on and we were back in business. I finally got home, and was checking my email, when I saw my 10am flight was canceled.

A craze of phone calls and texts ensued, but eventually Jenn was able to book me a flight out to Chicago, and I snagged a flight back. After all of that crazy, I'd be flying out of Fort Lauderdale, not Miami like I originally planned. So Pop picked me up and we headed about an hour away to Fort Lauderdale. I got there, and luckily my flight was not canceled. It was just delayed an hour. UGH1 The weather was bad up by Fort Lauderdale. Eventually, I boarded and was headed towards Chicago.

After waiting for my delayed flight to land, I met up with Jenn at the airport and we headed into the city. We checked into our hotel and rested for a second before getting dressed to grab dinner and go see Aladdin, which we had tickets for. We of course had to toast with a glass of wine first!

One of the things we wanted to do in Chicago was see a show. We both love musicals and Disney, so we got tickets to Aladdin. And mostly cause Hamilton was mad crazy expensive. The show was spectacular. Lots of glitz and fireworks (not even kidding), and singing and dancing.

The theater it was in, the Cadillac Palace Theater, was old and just amazingly gorgeous inside. I couldn't stop looking around at everything.

After the show, we walked back to our hotel. And as we walked through the theater district, we stumbled across the Chicago theater! It was definitely on my to do list, and I'm glad we got to see it all lit up.

It had been a long day of travel, so we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep. We slept in a little on Friday, cause no races! We grabbed a great breakfast and headed out to explore the city.

Our hotel, the Congress Plaza Hotel. We found out on our last day it was haunted by Al Capone.

As we walked around, we saw so much. Gorgeous buildings, statues all over and street art too. I loved seeing all of the old buildings mixed in with the new. Older cities fascinate me.

We headed to the Willis Sears Tower. And OMG, it's huge.

And we headed right up to the Skydeck, 103 floors up. The elevator gets you up there so fast, and my ears totally popped. LOL!

Luckily we had the GoCity Card, which we got with a Groupon, so no waiting in line for us. We got the fast pass lane. These Disney girls do love them a fast pass.

We got to the top and, just WOW. Those views were amazing. You could see the whole city and the lake (but you couldn't see the other side of the lake, it's that big).

And since we were up there, we got brave and took pics in the glass that overhangs the building. It was crazy!

And we laid down too. OMG that was so nuts, my heart was beating so fast when we finished.

After getting back on the ground, we headed to the expo to grab our bibs and do a little shopping, cause let's be serious, you always need more running stuff.

But we both noticed that this expo was a little smaller than we had thought. I know Jenn sees crazy huge expos in California, and I'm used to runDisney. But we were able to scoop up a few things.

Since we had such a big late breakfast, we found a little bar on yelp to grab some bites and a drink. OMG, it was amazing. Can you say homemade tortilla chips?

Then it was time to meet Cintia! My friend Cintia moved to Chicago earlier this year. So I had to see her while we were there. We went up to her office and saw the views from there, then headed to the Riverfront for wine, and the worst sandwiches ever.

We decided we needed a dinner re-do, so she suggested Mario Batali's Eataly. It was like a wonderland of food and cheese and kitchen stuff. Plus, of course they have a restaurant.

We ordered some real food from there and it was amazing! Handmade pasta and a handmade pizza. All of it was so delicious.

And on the way out, we got cannoli from their cannoli bar. Yes, a cannoli bar! We took the cannoli to go, and parted ways. Jenn and I had a race in the morning. And that cannoli was the perfect midnight snack!

Then it was time for flat runners and get to bed. We had a 5k in the morning.