Boo. This week flew by. We are sad that it is Friday and our STAYCATION is over, but I gotta say…it was such a fun time. It turned out better than I had hoped and was truly a vacation. While I look forward to traveling on a plane, train or automobile soon, this suits us right now. If I’m honest with myself, Sean and I are very ambitious travelers, that pack the days full of sight-seeing, learning, tours and stops. We don’t take breathers and that wouldn’t work with Miss K right now (at least she wouldn’t enjoy herself, which is paramount if we’re going to be shelling out big bucks on a vacation).
All in all, this was memorable, super cheap and relaxing. I’m really happy we had the chance to spend the whole week together and experience parts of it with friends and family. Thanks for following our travels!
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Today was Chicago. The “windy city” and also a city I am dying to visit. I just need to hire a pilot to take us around the nation for a week. Done.
We watched a movie that takes place in Chicago. We love this film (Dustin Hoffman is genius) and watch it over and over.
(Seriously, this was the week of movies and games. I think we watched 14 and played 5 games of Monopoly so far)
We were dying to have a authentic Chicago dog and found the perfect place by our house:
We met the Browns there and they were sportin’ their CUBS love:
Can you say YUM?:
They have tons of Chicago paraphernalia, old newspapers and pictures. It’s pretty cool:
We came home, relaxed (I took an afternoon nap, which NEVER happens), read and hit up dinner at Chick-Fil-A, which has nothing to do with Chicago at all. But hey….it’s vacation and we wanted it. That’s reason enough, right?
My friend MaryAnn sent over a great link to a Chicago based poet, and THIS poem made me chuckle.
We are off to put the baby to sleep and play a little more MONOPOLY. Our idea of finishing 8 games makes me laugh now as we are only on game 5. These are taken a LONG time, but Sean has won 3 and I have won 1. Boo.
The STAYCATION is over, but we had a grand time and would recommend this to anyone!
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Thanks for visiting back each day, leaving fun and festive comments and enjoying our trip with us. Comments on any of the STAYCATION posts are open until tomorrow night at 5pm, so live it up and I will pull a name and announce it on Monday! GET EXCITED!
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“Normal” blog posts will resume, effective tomorrow. Unless I’m exceptionally lazy, which has been the trend this week.
But, I’m hitting up some estate sales, so I’m hoping to find some steals!
no. 17 cherry tree lane 
Not kidding, this morning I was going to ask if you were going to Mustard’s! Too bad Champs is gone, do you remember that place???
We have visited Chicago a few times since moving to IL and I have to say, it is a beautiful city in the parts that are supposed to be beautiful…like most cities! The best part is how close it is to the water..so fun! You beat me to having a Chicago dog though! It looked good! We’ll have to try it!
i LOVE stranger than fiction! its such a cerebral movie but HI-LARIOUS!
my mom and I used to go to Mustards ALL the time when I was H.S.- i didnt know it was still there!
thanks for giving me so many ideas and inspiring so many others!
I will have to check out that movie again – I think I caught part of it on tv once and thought it was pretty good.
Chick-Fil-A definitely deserves a place in every vacation 🙂
Chicago is definitely on my list of places I want to visit. Oh and we love Stranger than Fiction over here too. I think Will Ferrel should pick more roles like it.
Glad you were able to enjoy your vaca!
I told D about your staycation and he was excited for you guys and impressed with your creativity.
And it inspired me for our Chirstmas vacation this year (simply meaning the 2 weeks D gets off from school!). Want to know now or wait for posts? ;o)
I am glad you guys had so much fun and created such memorable moments with one another.
You will talk about this for years to come!
Love you, M
I think the smartest thing you did was to eat out so much. So many people who try this idea cook the food at home which is economical but makes for a lot of hard work and is not at all vacation-like.
All of your pictures looks like your staycation was a success. Have fun with the rest of your Monopoly games.
~Charree
Chicago looked fun – especially the food. Enjoy your estate sales!
How fun to “travel” with you guys. I’m impressed with the Monopoly games…you know I have NEVER played or watched a Monopoly game to the end? Is that sad or what? Are you already storing up ideas for next years staycation? 🙂
Chicago! Fun! Stranger than Fiction is one of my favorite movies. I may just watch it again tonight thanks to you. 🙂
glad you had a great staycation…maybe you’ll get to actually visit some of those places some day…
yay!!! you know jeffie lives in chicago these days…i think we should totally go visit :)!!
staycation is my favorite thing EVER and i can’t wait to totally copy you one day!!
xoxoxo!
I adore Stranger than Fiction!
Glad you’re having fun in Chicago! It’s among my top places to visit here in the US.