Lunch at Snickers with Kate!

While I was in Chicago for the Gruner wedding - I only found it fitting to find my dear friend Kate in the midsts of the city.  She picked me up from Evanston and we dropped of my stuff at her place to catch the train to downtown Chicago!  We decided to spend the afternoon in the loop and enjoy the warm weather!

Our first stop was Snickers which was quite close to where we stayed the last time I was in Chicago for our girls weekend.  The food was just was I expected for Chicago bar food - delicious.  From there we decided to walk over the the Pier so I could experience Chicago summertime in all it's glory.  It's sad that I never knew this existed and that I always forget how close downtown Chicago is to the water.

We walked up and down the Pier stopping along the way at different places to people watch and catch up on past times.  It was a blast to hangout and chat up the afternoon.  We made sure to call Haus and scream over the phone at him.  It's kind of tradition when any of the three of us are together!

Walking close to the water - catching some Chicago sun...

Chicago from the Hancock Building!

 After some Jimmy Buffet trivia, we made a break for the Hancock Building - one of my personal favorites in Chicago.  I feel like it's going to be tradition to head up there for a drink and tribute to Joel every time I'm in Chicago with Kate!  We survived our ears popping and sat down to take in the view.  We were right by the windows and the sun was starting to go down: perfection. 

Later that evening we met up with Alyssa before she had to go to work the night shift!  What a trooper!  It was so fun to connect, even if it was just for a few moments on the sidewalk outside of Northwestern!  What an exciting place to be in the medical field!

Watching the ants swim!

For dinner we met up with Julian and his girlfriend.  It was nice to finally meet the myth and the legend on a happy note! As the evening came to a close Kate called a cab so we didn't have to mess with the long train ride.  We had an intense conversation about the cab business with our cab driver - and we realized that the cab community has their very own newspaper - nice!  Haha - it was a blast and the early morning alarm clock came much too fast - I had to catch a plane at the crack of dawn back to Pittsburgh!

I'm sure glad I stayed the extra day, I had a blast with Kate and the many people we met up with!  I can't wait until our next adventure... Lake Eva?!  Or perhaps I'll be exported to Detroit!