family: the Great Chicago Adventure...part 1

Our adventure began in Toledo. Ray had a 35th Class Reunion to attend so we decided to make the trip to Toledo and go on to Chicago from there.
We had a great time at the reunion. Ray was able to see guys that he hasn't seen in years and I promptly found the "spouse of a former Rebel" table (after having found a nice glass of wine that is) and just rode out the party. There were lots of hugs (of course), reminiscences of sporting achievements (Ray was quite the athlete from what I was told) plus a few tales of misspent youth that I found to be quite entertaining. All in all a great party
We then headed out to Chicago. We planned this trip to take Elizabeth home (she's been in OH since mid-June) but thought why not stay a few days and let her give us a tour of her new town! We were in Chicago for 3 days (2 with Elizabeth) and we had a ball.

Day 1-We got into town midday and decided to check out the surroundings after checking into our hotel. We stayed at the Congress Plaza hotel which is located within walking distance of everything we wanted to do! It was built in 1893 and was one of the coolest hotel's I've ever stayed in! We were on the top floor and had a great view of Lake Michigan.
We took a stroll around and decided to visit the Planetarium 1st. This was a great choice since it was the smallest of the attractions we wanted to visit and was a great 1st stop. We played around there (they have the Apollo shuttle on display, very cool) and then went to find something to eat on our way back to the hotel. We decided on an outdoor cafe which was very nice; good food, good beverage and lots of people watching!
1st day in Chicago was fantastic!

More to come in the next post but for now...pics from the days: