I was lucky to spend my weekend exploring Chicago with a friend. We packed in lots of fun into a few beautiful days.
We began our adventures at the top of the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower. We had a clear morning with a fantastic view of the City. When you walk the streets, you sort of feel engulfed by all of the tall buildings, but from this perspective, the landscape is so different ... love all of the sizes and shapes.
And I even got brave enough to walk out onto the clear ledge and look down (just long enough to snap a photo).

We ventured to the Old Town area of Chicago to explore a few stores (for this early riser, it's always odd to me that nothing opens until 11am). We got some fabulous smelling spice mixes at The Spice House and some fun Washi Tape and lots of card making inspiration at Greer Chicago.
Then, in an awesome kismet event, my brother Rick from San Jose also ended-up in Chicago with his wife for the weekend, so we met them at XOCO for lunch. I had the Pork Belly Fideo, which was delicious.
We also managed to snap a few pictures together.

Next we enjoyed an Architectural Boat Tour along the river ... what a fantastic way to spend an hour learning about the City ... and a completely different perspective on those tall buildings.

We ended our day with supper at Sushi Naniwa (yes, it was so good I forgot to take a picture until it was almost consumed).

The final stop was After-Words Bookstore where we picked-up lots of great new reads ... used bookstores are one of my favorite adventures ... such helpful and knowledgeable staff.
Saturday morning we hopped in the car & headed to Lockport, Illinois for shopping at Stamp Thyme. They are going to be holding an upcoming class on these wonderful little houses, although unfortunately the person working at the store knew nothing about the products used to make them. I believe it's embossed aluminum with some kind of patina.

We also stopped at Archiver's in Orland Park, Illinois on our way home (another very nice store with helpful staff). There was also a JoAnn's in the same shopping center, but we decided our shopping bags were pretty full at that point, so we headed back into the City.
Our evening was spent watching the White Sox play a fantastic baseball game. Loved this statue outside of Gate 4.

We had near perfect weather and a fantastic view of the game from our box (I will say again how much I love having Instagram on my phone).

And after the victory ... there were fireworks set to music. The absoliute perfect way to end the day.
