Chicago, the work bit

The reason I was in Chicago last week was to attend/work a large Christian conference being held at McCormick Place, The Gospel Coalition. E came along because he was really interested in the conference (he is a seminary student after all), and was able to help me.

[We really enjoyed being in Chicago with the almost 6,000 other attendees and really benefited from the sessions. If you're at all interested, I would highly recommend listening to the talks by Tim Keller, Matt Chandler, Conrad Mbewe, Mike Bullmore & Don Carson.]

The days were really long, 12 to 14 hours, and we chose to stay at the historic Palmer House Hilton in the Loop instead of at the conference hotel, so we had a commute as well.

But even after getting out at 9-10pm each night we couldn't just head to bed! (and staying at the Palmer House was worth it)

I tried my first bubble tea (coconut) at Argo when I stopped in for a quick bite. It took a minute to get used to, but I loved it!

The second night we weren't feeling adventurous enough to try something new, so we stopped in at Bennigans on Michigan avenue. I was craving their monte cristo sandwich and it did not disappoint.

essentially, a fried dough deli sandwich sprinkled in powdered sugar & dipped into raspberry jam. ( did not eat it all (though I wish I could have!)

We spent time with friends eating at Lou Malnati's (after which E proclaimed he actually liked Chicago-style deep dish--a miracle!).

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And met up with our friend Gino for drinks in Old Town.

I've never spent this much time in the city, because I lived far enough into the burbs that we only came up for special occasions, but E and I were surprised to discover we really enjoyed the urban environment after spending a few days 'working' and 'living' there. There are a lot of facets to city life, but being there together made it seem somewhat different than last time I was in Chicago.

I was still happy to come home to my 75 and sunny home with views and mountains (it had just started to snow when we took off!), but we wouldn't rule out a city when it comes to our next place to live.