Chi town, here we come!

I have a few friends in Chicago, but this visit was dedicated to seeing Jessica!  Jessica was my favorite college roommate.  We roomed (with 4 other girls!) for 2 years together.  We did all sorts of fun stuff, including dancing to music in front of our apartment to celebrate the end of school, hysterically baking a cake for another roommate, and making tacos once a week.  About a year and a half ago, she moved to Chicago (used to live on East side of Michigan so it was a lot easier to get together), and I was over due for a visit.  Carson had never been on a train before, so I decided to take him with me on the Amtrak. Theoretically it sounded good.

Jessica and I at Navy Pier (great picture taken by Carson)

Carson doesn't need a car seat any more; doesn't throw fits (much) when he's tired or hungry; and is a great listener.  Exactly what I needed for a traveling companion.  We left Friday afternoon, thinking we were going to arrive in Chicago around 4pm.  For some reasons or another, we ended up in Chicago at 6:15 (Chicago time).  It was a LONG train ride.  We were stopped multiple times and there are apparently new speed restrictions on part of the track.  We then boarded the Metra train (Carson was adamant about sitting on top of this double decker train, so a lot of passengers got their legs hit by our luggage) and ended up in our finally destination at 7:30.

My traveling buddy Carson

We spent Saturday site seeing Chicago (Millennium Park, Lego store, Hershey store, Cheesecake factory, Navy Pier, McDonalds!) and getting plenty of exercise (so, of course, we had to counteract the exercise with ice cream and cheesecake).  Jessica and Brian were great tour guides.  James, their toddler, had plenty of play time with Carson.
I'm definitely not going to let another year and a half go by before I see Jessica again.  This weekend reminded me again about what a great friend she is and how fun she is to be around.