Welcome Home Stanley!

The Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley cup last month. All of Chicago was partying. They even had a big parade and party with the players downtown the Friday after. Ryan took the day off and we decided to brave the crowds and join in the fun.
Hayden's been on the metra before but she really enjoyed it this time. She was running upstairs, then downstairs, then upstairs, etc..... This was Cole's first metra ride and he enjoyed flirting with the female passengers!!

The train was running behind and got us downtown late. So, we missed the parade. But were greeted by LOTS of confetti. The sidewalks all looked like this. I've never seen anything like it.

We did get to see the players speak. We watched it on the jumbo tron. They were at the top of this street. It was so fun to see all of the red (the blackhawks color).

The police were out in great numbers and Hayden thought it was cool that a lot of them were riding horses.

This is what the streets looked like after the event. I've never seen so much trash in the street before. Crazy!

We watched the games and Ryan loves the Blackhawks, but I'm just kind of along for the ride. However, I was so excited to go downtown for this. Ryan says I just like to be part of the party with things. And it's true. I think it's fun. It was really cool to walk all over town and see all of the flags, banners, signs in stores, decorated statues and everything else people had put up to support the Blackhawks. It's the city's team and they really showed their love and support. It was awesome.

We spent a few more hours downtown getting lunch and checking out the shops along the mag mile. We were really impressed because the streets were totally clean when we headed back to Union Station. Then we headed home. Home to a $15 parking ticket because Ryan couldn't get the parking meter machine to work at the train station. Oh well. We're always so exhausted when we get home, but it's so worth it. I love spending time downtown. It's one of my favorite things :)