Chicago Trip

Hello CHIIIICAGO!  

As a last minute, lets-try-to-avoid-bad weather decision, I was headed to Chicago to try and finalize my Miss America wardrobe.  Of course I didn't want to make the trip alone and because it was on my way I decided to stop in Davenport and pick of my big sister Chabree.  We enjoy traveling together and she is great at giving me honest opinions so I thought she'd be a great addition to the trip.  Plus, she's a little intimidating if I were to run into any trouble in the big city!  

On Tuesday, October 18th I started my trip and drove the first five and a half hours to Davenport.  That night my sister and I discussed our plan of action for the next couple days including rush hour times...so it could be avoided.  We left Wednesday morning around 9am to avoid rush hour and arrived in Chicago, greeted by the lovely 40mph+ winds and 40 degree temperature mixed in with a little rain!  It doesn't make for the best outdoor shopping but we had things to get accomplished!

We made it to most of the stores on my list in the first day while tackling that crazy weather and were very ready to crash that night!  We stayed so busy shopping we forgot to take pictures!  Seriously, with my sister and I this is a HUGE deal.  We love, love, LOVE taking photos and never go anywhere without doing it so it was very unlike us.  After some well needed rest in our little hotel we were ready to take on day two of Chicago.  

Starbucks, Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus, Macy's and of course the LEGO store!  I found my Miss America interview outfit and many outfits for different appearances while in Vegas.  It was such a relief to find all the things I needed.  

We had decided that we'd leave no later than 5pm so as it was getting closer we made our final trip to the bathroom and loaded up the car and pulled out of the parking garage just to be sitting in traffic.  It took me a little while to realize what was going on but around 5:14pm it hit me as I turned to Chabree, tapping on the clock in my car and said, rush hour.  Ugh, we hadn't even thought about running into it on the way home!  

I was trying to keep my sister from throwing up with car sickness while getting out of downtown, but we finally started moving fast than 20mph so we were getting somewhere.  Although we weren't able to do any sort of tourist activities, we had a great time shopping, fun laughs on the drive home and even named my car.  Her name is Judy.  Normally referred to as Judy Attitudy!  I love spending time with my sister and was so glad she came with me.

As if I could ever be shopped out :)

Kayla

Miss Nebraska