Burger Bistro & the Inn of Chicago

I didn’t mention that last week hubby was gone ALL. WEEK. LONG. This is the first time we’ve been separated more than a couple nights since we’ve been married. Crazy I know! And really this year is the first time we’ve been separated more than over night before too. I’m soooooo not digging this feeling of being a single parent and have a new found respect for them! This was finals week for me so I was kind of stressed because of that. whew! I’m still waiting on one grade too…. ugh!

Anyway I’m living vicariously through hubby’s trips. So this week he went to Chicago for a week for the Microsoft Ignite. I have no idea what that is so I plan on making him guest post and tell you and me about it 🙂

I did start his trip off with a picture of him and baby girl before he left though!

So now I’m going to turn it over to hubby!

My flight left Springfield around 4pm on Sunday so that I could get to Chicago at a fairly decent hour. The flight is around an hour and five minutes or so that’s what they told us on the system. Once we got to Chicago O’Hare we registered for the conference so that 25,000 people weren’t trying to check in on Monday morning.

We had enough people from work going that they rented limo’s to take us from the airport to the hotel versus making us have to ride the El. Our hotel was the Inn of Chicago. The night we got there it was raining so I didn’t get wifey a picture of the outside of the hotel. But I made sure to get her a picture of the inside of my room before I messed it up.

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Fat Edd’s Roadhouse – Metropolis, IL

Just so we’re all clear, Today is Speak like a Pirate day. Don’t worry, this post won’t be written like that, although while I was writing this post I saw James Patterson’s new book Treasure Hunters on TV and he was attempting to talk like a Pirate :). Anyway 🙂

So while we were at Mermet Springs, after our first day of diving, it was time to head and get some grub. The gang had all been talking about this restaurant that they ate at and I was ready! We met and ate at Fat Edd’s.

The way Fat Edd’s is set up, you order your food at the counter, get a table to sit at, and then order your drinks at the table. Once they call your number, you retrieve your food from the counter.

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Scuba Diving – Feeding Fish

Okay, so I probably shouldn’t admit this, but fish kind of scare me. I’m not sure what it is, but anyway. So when we went to Mermet Springs I told them I would feed a fish. Come on, why not, right? I screamed {yes underwater} the first time one took food from my fingers and screamed again when I touched one.

Yes I am a country girl. No I really haven’t ever been fishing. Don’t sue me. So here’s proof that I fed fish, and the others did too. lol.

AL feeding the fish

Those are my fingers holding the hotdog.

AL again.

Zebra Girl looking over the platform for the catfish that were swimming below all the perch.  The day before we actually got the catfish to swim up and take hotdogs out of our hands, but of course no one had a camera to catch that.

I am Okay!

Hubby and my BC hooked up to our tanks waiting to go down.

One of the dive computers. There are many different types.

This is LL’s dive computer. JT was teasing him saying it was ancient. I have no idea!

LL’s has to have this piece on his tank so that the computer will read correctly. What’s funny is he forgot to turn it on at one point so they said you heard him banging on it because you have to hit it to turn it on.

Let’s just say it sucks when your mask fogs over!

You know me because of my pink tank :). However, red is one of the first colors in the spectrum to lose color so I’m wondering what my pink would look like down further. This is at the 15 foot platform.

We were also playing with the Tonka Truck down on the platform. Who knew pushing a toy around like that could be so much fun.

Zebra Girl.

AL.

Me feeding more fishies. (ha fish).

I did manage to catch a shot of the catfish.

Our tanks waiting for us… Grady, AL, hubby and mine from L-R. The yellow on the other side was Zebra Girls and the big steel up here by my pink is JT’s.

Happy Wednesday.  Are you sick of Mermet Springs yet?

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The Hump Day Blog Hop

Mermet Springs

The whole point of our trip was to head to Mermet Springs, IL, to go scuba diving.  What’s so special about Mermet Springs you ask?  Have you ever seen the movie U. S. Marshalls with Tommy Lee Jones?  Well the 727 airplane that they are flying on in the first 15 minutes of the movie… has been purchased by Mermet Springs and now sits in the query.  Oh… and you can dive it!  Along with many other treasures.

Mermet Springs sits just outside of Metropolis, IL.

As you first enter, you drive straight into the sight.  You keep to the right which will bring you up the building.

You must check in the minute you get there.  You give them your C-card and they’ll keep it the whole weekend (allotted time you plan on being around).

This is the office where you check in.  This would also be where you can get stuff to save a dive, rent equipment, get shirts, etc.  Oh and the AC was on which was nice 🙂

The cool thing is they have a great system set up for getting your tanks refilled with air, which was a good thing because my first 2 dives and pretty much all of hubby’s dives, we were air hogs.  Woops.  They say as you get better/more experienced at diving, you’ll use less air.

Bathrooms and showers on sight.

Are you hungry?  No problemo!  They’ve got you covered!  Drinks.  They have you covered there too!  And trust me you need to drink water every time you come up out of the water due to the dehydration factor!  It’s weird, I know but it’s still there.

On Sunday before we headed home, we got burgers.  Let me tell you, these burgers were fabulous.  We also had Gatorade.

They had tables set up under lean to’s so that you can get your equipment set up, but if it’s raining, you can set your gear up in the dry conditions.  How cleaver.

Then it’s time to head to the water.  Don’t worry, that weird red thing is the upper half of my wet suit.  I also had a dive skin on… yes, it’s what you think it is… like having a second skin 🙂  The wet suits are warm, especially on warm days so we took them down but they are a PITA (pain in the @$$) to get back on once they’re wet so it’s just easier to cool off your upper half and walk around with them half on.

There are many treasures to be found at depths of 15 feet down to 115 feet.  Definitely stay in your comfort zone though.  Oh and the water at the 115 foot mark was around 39 degrees…. I didn’t venture that far, but a bunch of our group did.  I’m not big on cold weather or being cold… so I stuck more to the warmer temperatures.

There was a map you could actually hook on your BC to take down with you, try to help keep yourself located under water.  Hubby and I sooooo should have invested in one of these, especially since this was our first outing to Mermet Springs.  I think one of our people told me they were $10, but don’t quote me on that….

Here is the fish feeding platform.  Can you believe it is 15 feet down?

And that, ladies and gents is Mermet Springs.  Y’all come back now, ya hear?  Oh wait… that’s the Beverly Hillbillies, but I’ll bet the sentiment is the same here! 🙂

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Last day of Chicago

Tired of Chicago yet ;)… haha…. The morning we went to leave and come home (Wednesday, yes we had a short honeymoon, PC had to be back to work on Thursday) we went and ate breakfast at Dunkin’ Donuts. We wanted a photo frame to bring home and hadn’t bought one yet, so we went to Michigan Ave and found a souvenir store. They weren’t open yet so we walked on to the Chicago River just to kill some time.

PC at the Chicago River

Us at the Chicago River

Me at the Chicago River

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Navy Pier – Tuesday Part 1

Tuesday morning we got up, still full from dinner the night before, so we decided to walk some of it off! We headed for Navy Pier. Navy Pier is full of lots of fun. During the summer at night they have firework’s shows. The last one, Sept 4th, our wedding day so we weren’t able to witness one of those. See another reason to go back 🙂 Not that I really need a reason other than I want to 🙂

 

I feel like a gal out of a movie, like I should be singing and dancing (and no not “pole” dancing…)

I love Mac & cheese THIS much!

My honey and me!

Ok this is how windy it was… look at my poor hair!

I was aiming to get the skyline in the background… I don’t think I succeeded!

The beautiful skyline!

My baby with the skyline

and me with the skyline 🙂

Pretty flowers 🙂

I asked someone to take our picture with the skyline.
I had to hold my hair b/c the wind was wicked wild!

The Anchor off the U.S.S. Chicago

 

 

 

I was attempting to shoot it like he was touching the top. I misjudged just a bit 🙁

And of course, me with the sunglasses….

 

We ate lunch at Capi’s Italian Restaurant. PC RAVED about the tomato basil soup. It was pretty good and I’m not a fan of tomato soup.

His Chicken Parmesan

My Cavatappi and Mushrooms in Gorgonzola Sauce

Then we went to their botanical gardens.

Next came the BIG Ferris Wheel. I’m not a fan of Ferris Wheels but I couldn’t pass up riding it either. It never stops, it moves slowly and you “run” to jump on it. It is 150 ft tall. It’s a replica of the 1893 World’s Fair Ferris Wheel.

See I’m doin good… 🙂

And it’s a breeze for this one!

Once you got to the top it felt like you weren’t moving b/c the wind was whipping the car around so bad….

Here are some views from the Ferris Wheel:

 

 

 

Once we got off the Ferris Wheel we went in and had this ring made and did a build a bear. The build a bear we named Honeymoon and she sits on our bed with the ring bearer pillow when we get the bed made 🙂

I have a lot of photos from this day as well so I’ll break it up into a 2 posts so you don’t go on photo Over Dose 🙂

Peace, Love, & Tuesdays (on a Thursday re-cap)

Chicago – Monday – Part II

On a quick side note, my friend Jacin over at She Said Yes is on her honeymoon and I’m a guest blogger there today. Go check out her blog and of course while you’re there read what I wrote :). It’s about the Love List. It looks/sounds like she planned a beautiful wedding (Sept 25) and I can’t wait to see photos!

Ok here’s the rest of the Monday Photos from our honeymoon. So I found some photos I took on my phone also so again as usual, this blog is Jam Packed full of photos! What can I say, I love them!!!

This was just a skyline shot. It’d have been great if that light pole hadn’t jumped in my way 🙂

Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears

Lakefront Drive… can you guess where it runs by 😉 (hint: Lake Michigan)

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