2009 Chicago Air and Water Show!!

Mid August marked the begining of back to back to back visitors.  Mr. and Mrs. Ward came to visit on one of my favorite weekends! This weekend, Chicago hosted the 2009 Air and Water Show!! The Chicago Air and Water Show launched in 1959 with modest fanfare. It has since grown into the largest free air and water show in the nation, and it's considered one of the world's largest spectator shows. It draws more than 2.2 million people ever year! We walked down Oak Street to the lake. We had tickets to the Oak Street Bistro which has a fenced in area, a buffet, chairs in the shade, and air conditioned bathrooms. These amenities come in handy when 2.2 million people are vying for prime lake front viewing areas. Two years ago when Amy and I went to see the show, I had surprised her with these tickets, but unfortunately, the show had been cancelled due to inclement weather. This year, we took the Wards and it was great. Aerial acrobatics of both military and private planes including the C-130, F-15, F-16, A-10 Demo, B-1B, Apache Helicopter, Black Hawk Helicopter, KC-135, KC-10, C-17, and the U.S. Coast Guard Air and Sea Rescue, choreographed shows of the U.S. Thunderbirds, the U.S. Army Parachute Team Golden Knights, the U.S. Navy Parachute Team Leap Frogs, and of course the Blue Angels!! It was one of the few warm/hot days of this Chicago summer, so we moved our table into the shade, but still had great views of the planes and their amazing maneuvering capabilities. It was a great day, the food was good, drinks were cold, weather was beautiful, and we got to see a terrific show. All weekend you could hear the military jets practicing and buzzing the skyscrapers of the city. It was a great time, and I'm glad I got to see the show, after being so disappointed two years ago. We had a great time with Amy's parents. Other highlights of that weekend were seeing Jason Mraz in concert at the Pavilion at Northerly Island where he filmed his DVD. Mr. and Mrs. Ward went to see Jersey Boys while we were at the concert.  We also did the hop on hop off bus tour around the city with them where they got to go up in the Willis Tower and Mr. Ward tried chicken feet at Dim Sum in Chinatown for the first time ever.  That weekend, we also went to Art Smith's Restaurant called Table 52. He's a relatively famous chef, known as being Oprah Winfrey's personal chef for many years. He specializes in southern style comfort food and is renowned for his fried chicken. Yes, we went to a upscale restaurant in downtown Chicago and 3 of us ordered fried chicken, and it was awesome. He only serves that chicken on certain days, and it was very difficult to get reservations, but we are glad that we did. After a very filling meal, we went back home. Overall, I hope the Wards had a great trip. We had a great time showing them around one of our favorite cities.