Hooray, we went on a vacation! My gift this year was to organize the flight, hotel, entertainment, and child care for a quick getaway birthday trip. It’s been 3 1/2 years since the last time we left the kids for more than a single night. About time for another break, wouldn’t you say?

Why on earth would I choose Chicago in January, such a bitter cold and windy destination? HAMILTON. That’s why! Ben really wanted to see the musical when it was in Denver, but like every other Colorado citizen without connections (thank you Amanda!), was unable to get tickets. So I’m making up for that with this trip. It’ll be the final event of the week before flying home Saturday morning.

With the kids in the capable and loving hands of Grandma Betty and Grandpa Rick, we enjoyed a quick airplane jump to the Second City.

We arrived at the hotel early afternoon and decided to relax with a movie. With our date night movie habits we’ve seen nearly everything out there already. Ben was trying to talk me into the Hindi movie Simmba. Luckily I found a convenient showtime for a movie we had missed: The Green Book. Here we are feeling bad for cheating on the Alamo Drafthouse.

The Green Book was very good, exceeding my expectations. A thought provoking historical story with incredible performances. It gave us a lot to talk about afterward.

Having had snacks all day, we descended on Pizzeria Uno for some Chicago deep dish. Ben claimed to hate deep dish pizza, harboring bad feelings from previous dining encounters with the iconic dish. Pointless with a soggy bottom, to sum up his criticism. I urged him to give it another try and think of it as pizza lasagne.

Well done, Chicago, you changed his mind! Or maybe we were just that hungry. But Ben said it was delicious, and Mary Berry would agree that there were no soggy bottoms.