Knapp Girls in Chicago...Minus One

My mom and my little sister took a bus to Chicago yesterday. The women in their church get together every year and take a Chi-town shopping trip. So, my mom and Rachelle signed up. Instead of taking the bus back, though, I met up with them and we took the Metra back to my condo for the night. Today I drove them back to Michigan where I am staying for the week. I decided to take a week off work for a much needed vacation. Ben is in Maryland until Tuesday when he'll fly to Detroit so I can pick him up and we'll visit Chris and Vicki...and Genna.

So...yesterday in Chicago... We shopped a little and walked a lot! Mom and Rachelle arrived about 10am, which is 11 to them. So we went to a shop, then walked over to Ed Debevic's for lunch. They had never been there, so i thought they should have the experience. It was fun! For those of you who've never been there or heard of it...it's a diner where the waiters' job is to be mean to you. :) Two of the waiters sang to Rachelle for her birthday and gave her "The World's Smallest Sundae". After lunch, we shopped a bit more, then took a cab up to North Ave beach where we rented bicycles. It was a ton of fun to ride our bikes up and down the Lake Michigan coast. It was probably the best weather we've had all year...just gorgeous! There is something about Lake Michigan that makes me extremely happy and feel so at peace. This was definitely my favorite part of our day Saturday. We drove down to Navy Pier, then back up to the beach to drop off the bikes.

Afterwards, we hit up the State Street shopping area where I introduced Rachelle to the store, H&M. She bought a really cute outfit and another shirt, but before we left she decided to return the outfit. Ohhh...the fickle days of a 13 year old. We then rushed to the train station to catch the 4:40 train back to Wheaton. Once we arrive at my condo, we cleaned up a bit then headed to dinner at Cafe' Buonaro's which is a delish "mom & pop" Italian restaurant in the old train station in Naperville. Then after dinner, I took them to the quaint downtown area of Naperville to have dessert. Our dessert was at Ethel's Chocolate Lounge where you can get dessert fondue! Yummmmy!!

Dessert wore us out! We were ready to hit the sack by the time we got back home. This morning we woke up, went to church, came home and ate our leftovers for lunch. Then mom wanted to go to IKEA ..especially to pick up some ginger cookies that are $4 at the grocer store but only 99 cents at IKEA. :) Rachelle bought a squiggly mirror for her new Hawaiian room, then we got back on the road to head home to Michigan.

Tomorrow I think we are going to spend some time in downtown Rockford and Grand Rapids. I'm going to see my Grandmother Borrello too!

I'll update more later this week when we get to see little Genesis! Can't wait!