Virtually Gina

“What do you want for Valentine’s Day, honey?” my husband Jeff asked.

“A Michael Kors handbag,” I replied without batting an eyelash. “But you know, for the same amount of money, we could take a trip somewhere cool.”

In the end, we settled on the latter. And by “cool,” I wasn’t kidding around. With temps in the teens for much of our trip, we had little recourse than to seek indoor activities. We visited Second City and Zanies, two well-known Chicago comedy clubs, spent a few hours at the Chicago History Museum, and dined at various restaurants.

In our down time, we settled into the comfort of a room at the Swissotel on Upper Wacker Drive, near where the Chicago River meets Lake Michigan. Something they don’t tell you on the hotel’s website: they have a fitness center with a phenomenal view on the 42nd floor of the building. Here, I spent a little time working out, and an equal amount of time staring–bedazzled–out the floor to ceiling windows at the city skyline below.

From my vantage point near a wall of dumbbells, I made use of my telephoto lens, capturing this shot of a fireboat cruising the Chicago River.

We spent one morning strolling Milwaukee Avenue, a hip street in the Wicker Park neighborhood. Here, I captured the following half-dozen shots.

That afternoon, we ate lunch at Sticky Rice Chiang Mai in Wicker Park for tasty food, friendly service, and charming decor.

Following our meal, we hung out a a coffee shop/gallery called Cup & Spoon while the gray winter sky faded to twilight.

On our second night in Chicago, we caught a show at Second City. While standing in line outside the club, I captured this shot of the building’s exterior.

The comedy show kept us out well past midnight. Upon returning to our hotel room–still buzzing from the day’s excitement–I studied the artwork on the wall next to our bed. There hung a large framed photograph of the city skyline as viewed from the Chicago River. In the foreground, the photo portrayed trees in full bloom: a lovely reminder of the beauty that the city offers between April and October.

Nighty-night, Chicago!

p.s. Throughout most of the trip, I used the built-in camera on my iPhone to capture special moments, as opposed to my trusty–albeit bulky–Nikon D3100. However, all of the shots in this particular post were photographed with the Nikon. A third and final installment in the Chicago travel blog series will display the iPhone shots . . . stay tuned.