Chicago with Spencer & Laura

Mitzi and I had a wonderful day with Spencer and Laura in their hometown, downtown Chicago.

We arrived in the evening of Oct 26 and visited at their high-rise apartment. It's a fancy place! We spent some time in the Club Room. They had these fun chairs hanging from the ceiling on the 7th floor.

On Oct 27 (our 2 year anniversary!) we started the day at the Willis Tower (Sears Tower), the tallest building in Chicago. Laura through her Influencing work has a contact that was able to get us a private session at the top for an hour. Once it's open to the public there are thousands of people, 3 hour waits, and only 1 minute to snap photos.

We were not sad about the special treatment and we enjoyed taking lots of pictures with nobody around!

Once we were outside I was able to snap an architecture shot with the Hasselblad, looking straight up to the top of the building.

We grabbed a bite to eat at Hero Coffee Bar, one of Spencer and Laura's favorite places and right next to Spencer's work. Mitzi and I split their favorite breakfast bagel, and it was yummy! Laura is contemplative, and Mitzi is listening intently to something Spencer (off camera) is saying.

In the early afternoon we did a Chicago Architecture tour. Something Spencer and Laura had wanted to do for a long time but hadn't yet. The sky was perfectly clear and we learned a lot about the architecture and stories behind some of these downtown buildings. A very pleasant afternoon indeed!

The tour guide mentioned Chicago hot (Vienna) dogs and I wanted to try one. He recommended going to Lizzie's Irish Pub – go Lizzie :) – just down from where we disembarked the tour boat.

Let's just say that while we intended to just take a bite or two, we ended up eating the whole thing! Mitzi has never had a hot dog this good, and there were no unpleasant belly-aches afterward. Truly a delicious item. They deserve a picture all of their own!

We visited for a long time at Lizzie's and thoroughly enjoyed talking. Then we went back to the apartment and kicked around for a bit. Spencer took this picture of their dog Buster with the Hasselblad. Last year Buster was a crazy active jumpy and partially obedient dog. This visit he is mellow and well behaved – they've done a great job training him!

After resting and visiting for a bit we headed over to 3 Arts Club Cafe. It's part of Restoration Hardware, a furniture store, and Spencer was so so so excited to show us their Cloud sofas! They are super comfortable and we got to wait on one for five minutes while they got our table ready.

The restaurant was in an enclosed area that used to be an outside courtyard. They put a glass roof on it. It feels like an outdoor cafe that is indoors, very pleasant vibe and environment. You can see how relaxed and cozy it is.

The dinner was exquisite. We group ordered and shared the food around. I like that Mitzi and Spencer and Laura enjoyed that, it's fun to share food and experience more flavors and variety when dining. Spencer ordered this virgin peach drink. He let me have a sip and it was so good, I had to get one too :)

We loved our conversations with Spencer and Laura and were the last group to leave the restaurant we stayed so long.

We had a wonderful time with these two! It was a great way to spend our our anniversary!