Surprise, Surprise!

I absolutely love happy surprises!  My husband knows that, so he surprised me for our 5th anniversary by driving to Chicago on Saturday!  I walked out of the bathroom (a pretty regular occurrence these days!) to find him standing there nonchalantly.  I, of course, flipped my lid and screamed and flubbered incoherently for a few minutes.  I love my man.

He had another surprise for me Sunday night.  He took me downtown Chicago to stay at this beautiful, grand hotel, The Drake Hotel.   It was built in the 1920's, and it exudes opulence.  With the help of a friend, Ben got a room through "Name Your Own Price" on Priceline for just $93.94 total.  I just checked out prices for our room, and the cheapest I could find was $319!  Talk about out of our class! :)

The great big skyscraper behind the hotel is the John Hancock Building.

The entrance to The Drake, complete with bellhops and their signature dragons.

The staircase leading to the lobby.  That flower arrangement is all real, and boy, were those stargazer lilies fragrant!  From this picture it is hard to picture how huge the arrangement was.

Another hallway on the ground floor leading to the ballroom.

The Palm Court restaurant inside of the hotel, just off the lobby.  That flower arrangement is real as well.

Our room, which was very elegantly appointed.  I was obviously not posing for this shot!

The marble bathroom.  I felt like a princess in this room! 

What a great anniversary surprise!  My husband calculated that with meals, gas, and accommodations, we spent less than $250 for this trip!  This trip was certainly one of the Finer Things in Life!

We also had such a nice time with my family.  I failed to break out the camera until the day we left, so I didn't get ANY pictures of my adorable nieces or my brother and his wife, but here's a few of my folks.

Gracie and Grandma

I love this shot!