Four days before the Chicago Marathon and Jamesy and I have arrived!  It has been a dreadfully long day, but we’re here now and actually adjusting nicely to the 2-hour time difference!

This is going to be short and sweet, and mostly pictures tonight.  My day started stupid early, and the following is what we dealt with when we were heading to the airport this morning:

It took us an hour and a half to drive 60 miles.  Seattle traffic is the worst.

The flight was fine, albeit I felt like I was roughing it with no wi-fi and no movies and no plug-ins for chargers.  It was an older plane on Southwest… need I say more.  But we arrived safe and sound which is all that really matters!

The Chicago skyline is mesmerizing, so fabulous.  We’re on the 30th floor in the downtown area, not too far from the “Magnificent Mile.”  So we’re in the heart of the city.  I can’t wait until I can actually run through this town too, so I can see it from ground level!

Once we dropped off our suitcases, James and I were in search of some place to have happy hour!  All the buildings were lit up at the top in pink.

We found a great place to have happy hour and eat dinner, Howell’s and Hood, on Michigan Ave.

We had a fabulous waitress, Courtney!  She’s a runner herself and we had a great time chatting with her!  She’s hoping to run her first half-marathon in the spring, but you know me, I had to try and convince her to do next year’s Chicago half for the bling!  The size of the prize would get her hooked for sure!!  🙂

The food here was to die for.  James had a burger and I had a grilled cheese sandwich…  this is unlike any grilled cheese sandwich I’d ever had before.  They added “braised pork belly” on the sandwich, but to me it was great big huge cuts of bacon… bacon on a grilled cheese! Magnifico! How have I never discovered this combination before??!!  (Okay, I’m on holiday… I don’t count calories when I’m on holiday!)

Thankfully, Courtney helped me talk James into some dessert as well… donuts with dipping sauce.  Oh my word…

Overall, we have had one fabulous day!!  Chicago is amazing, and the food is even more so. Granted, we won’t be eating like this for the rest of the holiday, but it sure was nice to splurge just for today.  The rest of the weekend will be low fat, high carb, so James can kick some Chicago Marathon ass!!  Three more days…