Fuimos a Chicago

Brock had to make a business trip to Chicago this week, so I tagged along. We rented a minivan and drove up there Monday with his coworker Maritza and her niece Natalie. It's about 5 hours away, so it wasn't too bad of a trip. Maritza and Natalie are from Venezuela (where Brock was a missionary for 2 years), so they all spoke Spanish mostly, and I tried really hard to practice my Spanish comprehension. I realized that I have a lot of room for improvement. I understood everything Brock said because he speaks very clearly, but as soon as anyone else started speaking, I couldn't follow it. I understood the first few words, so I knew what they were talking about, but I couldn't tell you much of what was specifically said.

When we got to the city, we unloaded our stuff, and Brock and I started walking around. While we were walking down the street, I was looking at my cell phone, and Brock saw Oprah drive by. Well, she wasn't driving, but she was being driven. We went into a few stores. My favorite was the Hershey store. I didn't buy anything there though. I didn't really buy a single thing during this whole trip.

We walked down by the lake. It was pretty cold that day.Brock didn't want to be in any pictures, so here I am again.

We ate sandwiches for dinner, then we went to Ghirardelli and shared an ice cream sundae. It was the best thing ever.

All day Tuesday Brock had to work. He was there to study African American consumers. He spent all day at a Target store. That night he had to go to dinner with his coworkers and people from an ad agency. I hung out with Natalie all day. We walked a TON. Maritza's daughter Veronica is a student at Loyola University. She got out of class in the afternoon, so Natalie and I met up with her, and she took us to Belmont to look at all the interesting shops there. We ate dinner at a diner which was really good. She said that she had seen Amy Winehouse eating there before. Natalie and Veronica were going to the Cubs and Reds game which was in the same area, so I rode the "L" back to the hotel. Veronica was really worried about me going back by myself, so she wrote out instructions for me, and took me up to the platform. I wasn't that concerned about it, but I did get a little lost once I got back out on the street.

Wednesday, Brock and I went with Veronica, Maritza, and Natalie to Navy Pier. We walked around in the crazy wind. It was a nice day, but the wind was wild. We ate lunch there at the food court then we dropped Veronica off at school. Maritza needed to stop by a hispanic grocery store called La Unica to pick up some meat and cheese and other stuff.

It was a good short trip. Especially considering the free transportation and hotel. I think we need to go back again though and spend more time there.