Surprisingly, I have never been to Chicago. I always see plane tickets really cheap there so when I saw BTS was going to be performing a concert there, I knew that was my chance to go and take my sister. I booked the trip a long time ago and didn’t tell my sister until about a month ago. When I told her we were going to the concert, she cried and continuously said how much she loved me and never saw it coming. We decided to take a long weekend and explore the rest of the city as well.

Friday, May 10th

Only a travel day. Our flight out of Columbus was supposed to take off at 9:30pm, but ended up being delayed until almost 11:30pm. This was Felicia’s first plane ride!! Unfortunately, I was exhausted from working all day and as soon as we took off I fell asleep. But I did get to see her, “WOW”, at taking off. As soon as we got to Chicago we went to the hotel and immediately went to bed.

Saturday, May 11th

I woke up sick on Saturday. I felt like I had a fever, my body ached, I had a sore throat, and I was freezing. Even with waking up late because I was sick, I still woke up before my teenage sister! Haha! We pulled ourselves out of bed after lunch time and walked down to Navy Pier. Since it was raining we decided to go inside. It was mainly gift shops and restaurants. We grabbed some burgers and sat down for quite awhile, my body was still aching. It was getting close to dinner time so we decided to walk down to the end of the pier, inside. Then we walked outside on the way back. They have a cute garden on top of the building where the ferris wheel is. ((Fun fact: The first Ferris wheel was invented in 1893 at the Chicago World’s Fair. It was 264 feet high and could carry 60 people in each of it’s 36 cars, for a total of 2,160 passengers per rotation.)) We could see the skyline of Chicago and even how blue Lake Michigan is. I’m glad we decided to go outside!

We headed back to the hotel for a bit to change into some dry clothes and layer up for the outdoor concert we were about to go to. The BTS concert is the WHOLE reason I decided to bring Felicia to Chicago. She was ecstatic! The concert was held at Soldier Field, we got down there, grabbed some food, and headed to our seats only about ten minutes before the show started. As soon as the band showed up on stage Felicia started crying. It was priceless to see! I’ve never seen anyone so happy in their life. It made the whole trip worth it to see the look on her face the whole concert! I, on the other hand, felt like an old lady. I had never heard of the band, other than her mentioning it, so I didn’t know any of their songs, nor could I understand the Korean they were singing in. But the whole stadium was shaking with how crazy these teenagers were going for these boys.

By the end of the night it got down to a chilling 34 degrees. I was absolutely frozen and sat on my hands most of the concert. I couldn’t feel my face either. We had to walk about a mile away from the stadium before we could even get an Uber. Again, as soon as we got back to the hotel, we fell asleep.

Sunday, May 12th

We slept in again this morning, but we got out of bed before noon this time. We headed down to Millennium Park. Since we were starving on our way down, we hopped into Giordano’s. I have heard from multiple people that it was the place to go in Chicago! Inside the waiting room, it was literally shoulder to shoulder, butt to butt. We put our name in for a table and ordered our pizza and stood in that crowded room for 45 minutes, it was miserable. An upside was that within five minutes of being seated, we had our pizza and were eating! Since we were starving, we decided to order a medium pizza, which on the menu said it would serve 3-4 people…. we didn’t even eat half of it before we were both full. The pizza is so thick and cheesy! With me not being a big fan of cheese, I wasn’t too fond of the pizza but Felicia thought it was pretty good. I honestly thought it tasted better when it was cold the next morning. But I’m still glad we went because they were founded in Chicago in 1974.

After we were stuffed with pizza we walked down to Millennium Park where ‘the Bean’ is located. It was so crowded there that we took our pictures and walked away. It was cool to see but the rest of the park was cooler! The park had giant brick fountains that had pictures of peoples’ faces on them that looked like they were spraying water out of their mouths. They also had tons and tons of beautiful tulips planted there, and around the rest of the city, which made my day because tulips are my favorite flowers!

The last stop on our walking tour of the city was Willis Tower, formerly Sears Tower. We got our tickets and headed to the line to the Skydeck. We waited about an hour in line before it was our turn to take an elevator up to the 103rd floor. They had panoramic views of the city with giant windows that we strolled around. Then we had to stand for about another half hour in line to go out into the glass box. Felicia is deathly scared of heights but she still got out there for a minute and took some pictures with me. I’m super proud of her!! I am usually pretty good with heights but when I went to sit on that glass and looked down, I even got a little freaked out. It’s still a very cool attraction though!

When we finished with the Skydeck we headed back to the hotel for a relaxing night in.

Monday, May 13th

Another travel day. We headed to the airport in the morning, dealt with another plane delay, and were back home in the afternoon.

I am very glad that I finally got to visit Chicago, especially with my sister by my side. I love to be able to take my siblings on trips when I can and show them the world! The BTS concert that we went to was an early 16th birthday present for Felicia and I’m very thankful to have been the one to share that once in a lifetime experience with her! We had a good weekend away and I will never forget it!