Girls trip to Chicago!

Last summer I was standing around with some friends talking about how I really wanted to see the show "Hamilton."  I had tried to buy tickets when the show came through Portland but they sold out within minutes!  Someone suggested I look at tickets in cities where the show is not just traveling through but performed for months at a time.  I looked around and found that Chicago had a permanent show.  Then I looked at airplane tickets and round trip tickets from Portland to Chicago were only $150!  So of course I booked those tickets immediately and then I convinced some friends to join me on my adventure.  Chicago in December isn't the most fun, it was pretty cold and rainy BUT the Hamilton show was amazing and I loved every second of that.  Also, there was the annual German Christmas market in downtown Chicago so I had fun spending all of Hyrum's money there:)

Our cute little brown stone apartment building.  We were on the top floor.

There just happened to be a wonderful French bakery just around the corner from our apartment that we had breakfast at every day.

We walked along  the "Magnificent Mile" for a bit...until the rain got too cold and we were all freezing.

So we stopped in at Lou Malnati's for some Chicago deep dish pizza

So delicious!

We went to the Fourth Presbyterian Church for a Christmas concert.  I love attending concerts inside chapels.  The organ music was beautiful and the singers voices echoed just perfectly around the interior of the chapel.

HAMILTON!!  I was the only person in our group that had even listened to the soundtrack and I was so excited but a little nervous that no one else would enjoy the play.  I was wrong...of course everyone loved it!  I sang along the entire time, I love the music!

This is my "I'm so happy I could burst" smile!  Waiting for Hamilton to start.

More exploring around Chicago, we had to stop by the famous "Cloud Gate" sculpture

We went to the German Christmas market and I added 3 new nativities to my collection:)

It was so fun hanging with these ladies for the quick weekend trip!

We explored around the Zoo light display because it was free and we had nothing else to do.  It was a pretty cute display.

We had to thaw out with some cupcakes after walking around outside looking at the lights.  These were amazing!  If you're ever in Chicago check out "Molly's cupcakes"

The morning we left for the airport it started to snow.  It was so pretty falling down as we walked to catch our train.

This marked my friend Jessie Holwege's first time East of the Rocky Mountains!  I think she had a fun time...I know I did.  Until next time Chicago!