I've done the pizza tour and it's wonderful! We've scheduled it again in November, when the gang is in for Thanksgiving. I've eaten at just about every other of the popular pizza places in town and the tour far exceeds all of them, even Malnati's which is good. I'm between Chicago and Oak Park every day. In addition to the Chgo Arch Assn boat tour, I'd also highly recommend some of their downtown walking tours, particularly Historic Downtown Old and New. Chicago is world renowned for architecture and these 2 walking tours give a great flavor of the city. If you are a gardener, head west of downtown on the Green Line El to the Conservatory stop and visit the Garfield Park Conservatory. It's a wonderful place and was designed by Jens Jensen. The building itself has no foundation....just sits right on the ground. Get back on the Green Line and keep going west to The Oak Park Ave stop. from there, it's about a 10 minute walk to the FL Wright Home and Studio. Docents lead tours of it along with neighborhood tours. They are excellent (my friend is a docent there). In Millenium Park, join a tour of the Lurie Garden on Fridays or Sundays. It's a great garden and, if your tour is conducted by one of the plant suppliers, it's especially good. Also in Millenium Park, in the Pritzker Pavilion, are various musical performances. All can be found at cityofchicago.org. Restaurants...it's getting too close for a reservation at Girl and the Goat...(Top Chef winner), but if you go there right when it opens and sit at the bar, you can order from the regular dinner menu. Right when it opens is key!! IT IS WONDERFUL! If you don't do that, a bit further west on Randolph is Belly Q, an Asian barbecue restaurant. Those are my 2 current favorites! When we have visitors, we do some out of the ordinary spots. let me know if you are interested in other ideas. Here is a link that might be useful: CAA tours

LOL - my beautiful gift bag - can you tell I was makeup shopping? We had such a wonderful visit - it was way too short and I know you all will NOT believe that - especially considering that it was Alexa and ME involved - there was NO alcohol. none. zip. nada. OK, pick yourselves up off the floor...we still had a 6 hr drive ahead of us, so Scott definitely couldn't and we did arrive at 10:30 AM...we considered bloody mary's but the visit was so short, we never got to them. :-) First Alexa gave me a wonderful basket filled with some of her home canned goodies! I got some of the gingered holiday chutney! YEA! Also some yummy looking apricot chutney, and some pickled asparagus! I appreciate these so much because I know what it takes to can - and I also am skeptical as to whether anything I have done this year is going to be edible - LOL! also in my basket were some green bean crisps that she got at the local farmer's market - these things are addictive. We can't figure out how they make them. They're crunchy but light green beans. (Sammy had one in the car and she likes them too.) Also some beautiful little wooden serving dishes - Alexa knows that sometimes my "entertaining" involves cocktails and assorted nuts - LOL. For lunch she made bbq'd pork sandwiches and following Alexa's lead, we put our coleslaw right on the sandwich - mmmm! We also had a yummy salad with lots of veggies and fresh cheese She had also made some great tortilla roll ups - we loved the red ones which had jalapenos in them. Here we are in Alexa's picturesque back yard with Sammy (who was a bit of a pain) Here are the texting buddies (LOVE that hair!) And here are all of us minus Scott who was taking the pic... Alexa's boys are adorable and friendly - and Scott and I both found Alexa to be charming, intelligent, funny, interesting, and a wonderful hostess. She was able to do all of this without having a car to get around - with her DH's vehicle issues this week! We all were so at ease together - we plan to get together again when we had down that way. I don't think the boys will let us forget it, either - LOL. Sorry it took me so long - we were on the road til almost 8 last night...long day but very fun. And I forgot to say that she lives in a beautiful beautiful area... Stacy

Good to meet you, Tami! A visit with Annie is always a good time, and you couldn't have chosen a more picturesque spot! Linda

We don't seem to get together as much as we used to, John, and I miss my friends. Sherry/sheshebop also stopped a couple of weeks ago, she's moved since her husband passed away. She only spent one night, because Elery and I had to leave for Tennessee, his BIL passed away from cancer the day Sherry arrived. So, she spent the night and the next morning she started north for Nancy/wizardnm and we started south. I was sorry to cut that visit short. Annie