Anniversary Getaway

It's hard to believe that Tony and I have been married for 7 years, and that we've known each other for over 15 (and only disliked each other for about 3 of those years). What a journey we've had, and what a crazy year we have ahead of us!

Less than two weeks ago Tony and I decided to head out of town to celebrate our Anniversary. We had some airline miles to use (that won't help us with the Korea trips) and I've been itching to get out of town. Plus, the daily issues of both home construction and adoption drama coupled with busy schedules had us both needing a small escape.

We flew out extra early Thursday and came back extra late last night (Sunday) for a lovely 4 days/3 nights in Chicago. Tony booked our room through this fancy credit card travel program, so our home base was the Trump International Hotel right along the river. As part of the travel program deal we were treated to a yummy welcome (the chocolates were part of the program; the chocolate covered berries painted with gold were for our anniversary):

 

However, the best surprise was the upgrade. We expected a king room with a city view, hoping to be upgraded to a river view. Unfortunately no river view rooms were available, so instead we were upgraded to a SUITE! The suite is listed on their site as starting at 1,200SF...bigger than apartments Tony and I have lived in! It.Was.Beautiful. A bathroom with shower was right by the front door; a full kitchen (all of the Trump rooms have full kitchens, so this wasn't just for the suite); a dining area; a large living room with fireplace and work area. 

This is a photo from the Trump website; our room was actually reverse and just a bit different (work area was beyond the fireplace; sofa was against a wall). But it gives you an idea of the space. Photo taken from the dining area.

Photo taken from the chaise lounge across from the desk; windows behind me. 

Then through the door was the Master Suite, which included a very large bathroom (the deep bath tub was great!); a dressing and make up room; and an extra large bedroom and sitting area. 

This is a photo from the Trump website; our bathroom room was actually reverse of this. Behind the frosted glass is the business area of the bathroom. And yes, there is a TV in the mirror.

The photo doesn't quite do the bedroom justice, but as you can see it is quite luxurious.

This is the dressing and makeup room; there is a large closet just to the right and a full mirror between that and the bathroom (hard to fit it all in)

Unbelievable! The lovely accommodations aside, Tony and I really enjoyed the weekend. We saw a couple of friends (once on purpose; once in a "it's a small world" encounter), ate good food, did a little biking and a lot of walking, caught the Air part of the Chicago Air & Water show, ate more good food, saw "We're the Millers" (very funny), enjoyed some adult beverages, ate even more, and did a lot of relaxing. It was great. 

On Thursday night we stumbled upon a USO concert and got a chance to step into the gunner position of an armored humvee. Here's a cell phone photo one of the army guys snapped for us:

Tony took (literally) hundreds and hundreds of pictures; these are all the ones I have on my phone...sadly mostly of the room, but I deferred to Tony's more professional camera and photo-taking skills for the rest.

Now, back to the real world!