Oak Park with the Gorman clan

My week with the Gorman family started off with a trip into the city on the L to the Art Institute of Chicago to take advantage of "Winter Weekdays": free admission on week days in January.  I got to see American Gothic, Nighthawks, The Child's Bath, and the Marc Chagall windows.  I also really enjoyed the modern wing of the museum.  After grabbing a quick lunch in the city, we headed back to Oak Park and enjoyed a wonderful home cooked meal and a movie night with Hannah's younger sister, Lulu.

posing like art

posing like art

posing like art

The next few days were a blur of 3 different malls and shopping centers, we obviously got some MAJOR shopping done.  Also, we stopped by the only known Jason's Deli in/around Oak Park for dinner one evening...it sure did look different from the one in the Colonade. 

classy jasons deli

Thursday night we ordered in Giordano's pizza and then went out (in the snow) for my first authentic Italian Ice from a local eatery, Johnny's :)  

yumm!! can't get delivery like this in San Antonio

my first italian ice

The next morning we tagged along with Hannah's mom back into the city.  She had a meeting at The Chicago Club so we got to use the car to explore different pockets of the city, sounded like a great deal...WRONG.  The traffic in Chicago is like none I have ever seen!! It took us an hour and a half to get to a destination that was (according to mapquest) 25 minutes away, taking the scenic lake shore drive route.  We finally made it to a unique part of town that had a ton of small resale shops and boutiques.  It was fun to walk around for a bit, before having to brave the traffic again, but frankly we were running low on cash and our debit cards were getting weak from all the swipe-age.  

That evening, our last night "at home" her mom treated us to Portillo's another local favorite.  There I ordered a delicious chicago styled hotdog!!  When we got home we began the oh-so-dreaded process of packing.  I was pretty close to packed but had the challenge of trying to fit all my new merchandise into my bags.  Hannah on the other hand hadn't even started.  After sitting back and watching her try to haphazardly cram things into duffle bags and suite cases, I stepped in and packed her entire life away for her.  What are friends for anyways? :)

oh ya, we had a tendency to dress the same throughout the week :)

packing Hannah's bag

ridiculous amounts of food we somehow managed to bring back. 

 The next morning we were both a bundle of nerves, having never traveled by train before, but we somehow made it on and enjoyed our short 5 hour trip back to STL.  

a little bit nervous for the journey ahead

at the station, with all our luggage

keeping a close eye on our baggage

home sweet lou

ruby crammed into a vintage, 2 door, with our bags.

let's get back to campus...QUICK!

After breaking our backs getting our 1,000 pounds worth of luggage back to our room, our big plans for going out on the town went out the window as we crashed and slept for 11 hours straight.