Our first trip away from Violet

So, Dave and I decided we needed to do 2 things: Get away together and not be "mom and dad" all the time (mostly for me though...) and also celebrate our 4th wedding annivesary. I was able to get the weekend off baking for the coffee shop, and Dave lined up his mom to watch Violet for us, and we booked a trip to downtown Chicago. My initial feeling was nervousness, only because this was my first trip away from Violet overnight. I knew that she would be fine, so I convinced myself to enjoy myself and talk myself into believing that she would be perfectly fine with Martha. I had no worried whatsoever about Martha's ability to take care of her...goodness...she's practically overqualified, but I worried about Violet being with someone unfamiliar for 2 days. Tonight is our last night in Chicago. We arrived here Thursday late, but we left our house very early Thursday morning. Very early is like 8:30 for us. Violet was awake for the first 2 hours of the car ride, and eventually fell asleep for an hour, and then was awake for the last hour. We drove right to Dave's grandma's house and had lunch with her and Aunt Joyce. The 17-yr locusts were out in full force, buzzing so loud that you needed earplugs. I got a headache just listening to them for a couple hours. She served cold cut sandwiches, melon, pineapple, potato salad, and chips. Then Dave tackled the light fixture above the kitchen table for his grandma, so he and her went to Home Depot while Joyce and I stayed to play with Violet. After an hour, Dave got back and Violet needed to go take a nap. I headed downstairs with her to the guest bed to see if she would go to sleep, but she would only calm down to rest if I was laying next to her rubbing her back, so I ended up taking a nap too. That was nice to sleep during the day. Once Dave was done with the light, we went out to dinner at Max & Erma's with Martha, Florence and Joyce. Violet was a little less than behaved, only getting a minimal amount of sleep during the day and refusing to eat the chicken and broccoli we offered her. We got her to bed at Martha's house around 9 pm, and then headed downtown. The feeling of taking off without the car seat in the car or Violet's familiar babble from the back seat was really weird! Refreshing and disheartening at the same time. I already missed her, but kept thinking how much fun Dave and I would have the next couple days, and got excited. So, we checked into the fancy Conrad hotel. We were in room 1213, a king suite with a view of Michigan Avenue and the lakefront. Very, very nice. Huge bathroom, comfy bed, and basically all the best amenities. We slept well that night. Friday morning we woke up at 8:00 (I think I officially lack the ability to sleep in now because I'm programmed to wake up when Violet does!). We got ready for the day, and ate a delicious breakfast at the restaurant at the hotel. We took a cab to the Museum of Science and Industry that cost us around $20. We saw old airplanes, trains, genetics research and displays, a prenatal development display, the human heart, human brain, an old historic main street, historical robot world, the insides of a navy submarine, ate a brownie ice cream sundae, etc. I can't remember every exhibit, but each one was 100% different from the other and it took a lot of brain power to take it all in. We felt exhausted after 2 hours, and decided to leave. We discovered the public bus route came by the museum, so we waited, and once it arrived, were happy to know that the fare was only $2 per person. Much better than our cab ride expense on the way to the museum. The bus would have taken us into the heart of Michigan Avenue, but we saw a Land's End store and decided to hop off early and shop there, because we had 3 gift cards to the store to use up. I found 2 pairs of sunglasses and some maternity clothes, and Dave got a pair of leather flipflops. We headed back to the hotel to drop off our things, and stayed there for awhile to rest and appreciate the relaxing silence and escape of the noisy atmosphere on the streets. After about an hour, we decided to head back out for some dinner and get to Millennium Park in time to get good seats for the show that night. We had our hearts set on Mr. Submarine, but when we got there, we found out it was closed down. We were disappointed, but had a 2nd option knowing that we had just passed a local sandwich shop a block away, and went there instead. We were surprised at how delicious it was. We ate our sandwiches in the park and waited for the show to start. We got seats to Mendellson's Elijah. We didn't realize it was more of an opera. Definitely talented singers, orchestra and choir, but after an hour (we waited for the intermission), we took off to explore more things and enjoy the nightlife. We meandered through the park and enjoyed watching the families with young children hop around the fountains with changing faces and water shooting out at random times. We ended up back at our hotel, tired from all the walking. Dave had a desire to go out and find a nice place to get dessert. The concierge recommended a place called Phil Stefani's which was supposed to be a block away from the hotel, but we headed the wrong direction and never found it. We ended up at a smaller restaurant that had seating on the sidewalk outside. It was around 10 pm by the time we sat down. We split a strawberry-rhubarb salad and chocolate fondue. It was fun to enjoy the warm night and watch people as they walked by. There is no shortage of interesting people to look at. Saturday morning we were able to sleep in til 9:00. We had a desire to check out this new breakfast restaurant called Yolk, so we got ready quickly (because we were so hungry!) and got down to Rush Street. We hailed the first cab we saw and it took us there. We paid $6 for that taxi fare. The restaurant was hopping! We got seats at the bar, sipped strawberry-orange juice and looked over the menu. Dave got a corned beef hollandaise sauce dish, and I ordered an omelet with 3 kinds of meat, tomatoes, and onions. It was an absolutely enourmous amount of food, but we finished it and were very happy with our satisfying breakfast. Our next stop was the Art Institute. It was a 1 mile walk from the restaurant. I think the combination of the hot, muggy air and our full bellies made both of us extremely groggy and tired. We got our tickets at the Institute and started walking down the hall to the first exhibit, but both decided we couldn't move on without some coffee or something. We drug our feet down to the café and slowly sipped our coffee hoping for a pick-me-up. Dave said he could have fallen asleep right there on his arm no problem. We sat there for a long time, just hoping we would wake up. We were so full....and tired. The feeling eventually left and we perked up a little bit. We strolled through so many exhibits...and the last one we saw was the "contemporary" art. Weird, really weird art. Some things I am sure I could have scribbed, framed, and stuck on the wall to fit right in. Just silly...to us. We didn't get it. Anyway, we had enough of the quiet art institute. I was kindof bored actually. Dave was disappointed at the lack of armor on display, as he was hoping to find some items he remembered seeing as a child to show me. We found out 1/2 of the armor was in storage, waiting for renovations and the moving of art wings to be relocated. Oh well. So, after the Art Institute, we decided to walk back to our hotel (another mile) and made a pit-stop at Caribou Coffee. We got iced mochas, Dave had a cookie, and I had a cup of fruit, granola and yogurt. We weren't really hungry...but ate anyway. We got back to the hotel and laid around and relaxed, enjoying the peace and quiet again. I worked on a sudoku puzzle, I think. We changed clothes and put on nice attire for our dinner out. We decided to try Lawry's Prime Rib restaurant, and had reservations set for 8:15. We had about 2 hours to kill, so we shopped at Crate and Barrel and found some gifts to give Martha as a token of our appreciation for taking care of Violet while we were away. Dave got some ibuprofen to try relieve a sore back muscle ache, and then we had our dinner. We both ordered Prime Rib...but enjoyed their signature "spinning salad" the most out of the entire dinner. The restaurant gave us a complimentary strawberry trifle for dessert for our annivesary. :) So, here we are in our hotel room after having dinner at Lawry's. We are planning on getting to bed a little earlier than the last 2 nights because we have an earlier morning. I am really excited to see Violet!! This time was much needed for Dave and I...to get some 1 on 1 time, and remember what it was like before kids. Its amazing how much our little daughter consumes our life and it gave me a renewed appreciation for Dave, as well as a reminder that we need to do this time away thing (even an evening) on a more consistent basis to keep our priorities in order.