Chicago -- My Kind of Town

This past weekend, I attended the CASE (Council for the Advancement and Support of Education) District V Conference in Chicago. The highlight of the conference for me was hearing the keynote speaker, Ron Clark. He was so inspiring! He is a teacher who doesn't take no for an answer, dreams big and doesn't give up on his students. There's a movies about him called "The Ron Clark Story" in which Matthew Perry played Ron. I haven't seen the movie but I'd like to. I'd like to read his book, too. (Can you tell he made an impression on me?) The rest of the conference was good, too, but this was certainly the highlight.

The conference sessions ended around 5:00 on both Sunday and Monday so my friend and co-worker Christina and I hit the town to do a little shopping. I was good and only bought some treats at Fannie May (to share, of course!) What I love about Chicago at this time of year is the gorgeous decorations and the millions of lights strung everywhere for Christmas. Even our hotel had the most beautiful decorations. It was a treat -- even with the negative wind chills -- to be in Chicago for a short time. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the trip.

This is the view from my hotel room window-- I could see both Lake Michigan and the Chicago River! If I looked to the right, I could see the towers on top of the Sears Tower -- awesome!

On Monday night, Christina and I ate dessert first at the Hershey's store on Michigan Ave. We both had the most delicious hot chocolate and brownies. After a little bit of shopping, we had dinner at Buca di Bepo's -- or Bucka de Pepo's as my friend Kelly likes to call it!

We stopped by Chicago's NBC station, channel 5, to watch a little bit of the evening news broadcast.







And here is Christina at the new Trump building. I love her hat! Seriously, it was soooo cold it made my cheeks burn within a few minutes of being outside. Hanging out with Christina made this trip all the more fun!