Bill’s Weekend in Chicago (PHOTOS)

Living in Cedar Rapids is a great thing. The second largest city in Iowa provides a lot of entertainment opportunities in its own right. I also love the fact that it's located so close to so many great American cities.

A road trip will get you to several of these cities within a few hours. St. Louis is 284 miles away. Kansas City is 319. Des Moines 127. Minneapolis 275. But the city that's always been at the top of my list is Chicago. I made the 247 mile drive to the "Windy City" with my wife over the weekend to take in a Blackhawks game, walk along Michigan Avenue and get gouged with ridiculously priced parking every step of the way! If you don't like plugging the meter here in Cedar Rapids, try paying $37 to park in a ramp for 3 hours in downtown Chicago! Gouging aside, Chicago is still a great time.

Here's Trump International Hotel and Tower... bold and loud just like its namesake, positioned right on the Chicago River

The Michael Jordan statue, located outside of the United Center

Not bad seats... hey, I don't have bottomless pockets. This is the best I could do

I didn't really get a picture with Patrick Kane, but this kind of looks like it...

I'm used to being in Chicago during the summer. It's an amazing summer city, positioned on beautiful Lake Michigan. But the warm temperatures bring a LOT of people. We had no problems getting around downtown on a very cold Saturday morning. We ate at a place that overlooked Michigan Avenue, did a little shopping and eventually headed out to the United Center to watch some hockey. The Blackhawks lost to Anaheim in overtime. All in all though, it was a great weekend... aside from being lighter in the wallet. And oh yeah, I was involved in the I-80 Valentine's smash-up on my drive home Sunday.

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