Chicago

The summer is drawing swiftly to a close, but there was one thing left on the list of things to do before fall. A road trip...

Katie was going to Chicago to visit her aunt and uncle and invited me to go along. She did not have to ask twice.

We saw God's protection right away. 10 minutes into the drive, a semi right in front of us kicked up this piece of steel into our hood. It only did cosmetic damage but if we had been 10 feet closer to the semi I would not be blogging this or anything else for that matter.

Uncle Paul has a beautiful collection of cars. He took us out for a ride in his 1986 Ferrari...

And his 1965 Jag...

Aunt Cindy also has some gorgeous cars. When she handed me the keys to her Aston Martin (number 33 out of 99 ever made), I thought I would faint. I didn't, faint that is. Drive I most certainly did.

The next day we went downtown, which included a trip to Willis Tower. Willis Tower used to be both Sears Tower and the tallest building in the world, until Sears sold the name and Dubai built a taller building.

The observation decks, with glass floors, were the highlight of the tower. 110 stories up, stepping out on what feels like nothing over the city, oh yeah baby...

Yep, we were just up there! This is pretty much how I walked around downtown. Hand on the back of my head to catch my sunglasses and looking up everywhere making this same "country mouse in the city" face the whole time.

The skyscraper-lined streets were swarming with humanity. I got a thrill out of smiling at anyone I could and at the same time was overwhelmed with the thought that God loves each of the people passing me and knew their stories.

The 'wedding cake' building flanked by Willis tower. From the top of Willis Tower the wedding cake looked like a doll house...

The last day we went to Cindy's ballroom dance lesson. After watching her and her dance instructors work on a number they will be competing with in nationals we each got our own introduction to ballroom dancing lesson. If I was not addicted to dance before, well, it just got a whole lot more addicting! To top it off, Cindy took us out for ice cream afterwards. Thank you so much, Paul and Cindy, for an amazingly wonderful 3 days! It was the perfect way to wind up the best summer to date.