Full Moon in Chicago

So the internship is winding down. I still have three weeks left, but the big intern presentation was on Tuesday, and a lot of people are leaving to go back to school. Our cube is going to be lonely without Ilija and Dan fighting about stupidity in America or healthcare in Serbia. We've had a memorable last few days in the pit/kindergarten/best intern cube, and we topped them off with a trip to Chicago.

Meagan, Mara, Sierra, Joe, and I drove to Chicago after work on Friday, and Dan met up with us later that night. We checked into the Hotel Sax, which has a really strange entrance (as in, the entrance cannot be found), but a really cool, edgy interior. We were on the fifteenth floor with a pretty good view of the city and HBO on the television.

The room was way cooler than this picture would indicate.

We got downtown around 2:30, settled into the hotel room, and headed over to Navy Pier. I've only visited this tourist attraction once before (during my accidental date freshman year), and it was fun to explore in the daylight. The weather was absolutely perfect, so we sat outside in the sun for a while.

Touristy stuff may be cheesy, but I love it.

When I was a freshman in high school, I was sitting in silence with my best friend during a free period, and I commented on the fact that we had nothing to talk about. She said that you could tell if a friendship was real if you were comfortable with the quiet, and I think of it with every new friend I make. I'm happy to say that the friends I've made this summer have passed this particular test. We have plenty to chat about, but we were perfectly happy sitting silently at Navy Pier watching the boats and the people.

Wouldn't the speed boat tour be fun? I want to get wet!

The line for the ferris wheel was too long, so we went on a boat tour instead. I've always wanted to do a boat tour of Chicago. We chose the half hour Skyline tour, which was super nerdy but really great. We learned that Chicago is the "land of smelly onions". I loved being on the water in the sun, and I definitely want to go on the longer tour next time. 

I love this city more and more every time I return.

We went back to the hotel to get ready for the evening, and headed to Rosebud Trattoria for dinner. Rosebud is a chain of restaurants in Chicago, all with different names (like Rosebud on Rush and Rosebud Steakhouse). You can always count on Rosebud for good Italian food, and they did not disappoint. We headed back to the hotel to meet up with Dan and headed out from there.

Sierra's dinner was more photogenic than mine.

The places around our hotel in the financial district didn't really suit us ($10 covers and such), so we took a cab to Wrigleyville. I was a little late to get into the dancing, but once we started, we didn't stop. Dan was busting some interesting moves, and even Mara was dancing!

Full moon y'all. I didn't even wear a cardigan!

On Saturday morning, we went to breakfast and said goodbye to Dan. He claims he won't stay in touch, but I'm an aggressive social networker, so I'll force contact. The rest of us spent some time shopping on Michigan and lounging in Grant Park. The weather was gorgeous until 2:00, which was exactly when we decided to leave. The thunderstorm started the moment that we pulled out of the garage. It was kind of stressful because I was driving Joe's car, but we survived the hail and made it back to Racine in one piece. I felt like a mom with all my sleeping children in the back.

Our visit to Chicago was a great way to end our summer together. Thank you Meagan for planning such a great trip! Reunion in December?