Our whirlwind trip to Chicago over a very short weekend was an experience like none other. Justin's long-lived dream to see the Bears play at Soldier Field finally came true, plans were set in place months in advance, and this was about to become the highlight of our year... or so we thought. The trip started off great; I met Justin at our favorite hotel, the Hampton Inn (always clean, smells nice, comfy beds, great continental breakfast, military discount). He was already in Portland finishing up his monthly drill day. We had a nice relaxing night and we were both filled with excitement for the big event on Sunday. Our plane left in the morning Saturday; Southwest does not assign seats and we found that most travelers were solo flyers, so on both rows all the way to the end of the plane just one middle seat was available and people were not in the mood to scoot over or change the seats that they had already laid claim to. I ended up in between two fairly nice travelers, although one woman had extremely foul breath and she defaulted to sleeping with her mouth wide open, aimed right at my very pregnant-sensitive schnoz. We landed in Chicago and we finally got settled into our hotel, which was nice, but I noticed some very questionable stains on the comforter and plush head board, yuk. We planned to eat at Ditka's downtown, which would have been about a 25 minute walk, so we opted for a urine soaked van cab, with a driver that couldn't possibly be legitimately licensed. Justin ended up tipping him $4 just so he could get the hell out, much to my dismay. Ditka's ended up being a 2 hour wait and everyone was dressed to the nines so we took our scrubby selves right out and walked around downtown to find a more fitting dining spot. We landed at Rock Bottom grill, which was able to seat us right away, and we enjoyed a nice steak dinner. We left the hotel the next morning and walked to Soldier Field in 17 degree temps and full on blizzard. We had little warmers stuck to our feet, hands, and butts and the chill still found its way in. Soldier field was amazing, and Justin fit right in with his fellow Bears fans. We were given free Bears oven mitts upon entering the stadium, which was about the best thing about that game. After a $7 hot chocolate, $8 beer for Justin, snow flurries, biting wind, and borderline frostbite, we courageously sat through the entire game while the Bears endured a complete and utter beat down from the Patriots. It wasn't so bad once I started cheering for the other team; I never claimed to be a loyal fan. We left the game trying to stay positive about the whole experience and went searching for some Chicago deep dish pizza, which ultimately made our night. Lou Malnati's Pizzeria was our hero that night. Our plane flew out Monday into beautiful blue sky; I felt ripped off because due to our short timeline and horrible weather, we didn't get to experience much of Chicago at all. We vow to go back in the Summer someday so we can tour around a little more and enjoy some of the attractions.
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