Chicago and a Grey's Anatomy Reference

It's no secret that my friend Kate is a very important person in my life. In fact, I have often referred to her as "my person".  She is there for me always and exudes happiness, energy, and can find the good in anyone.  I stand to learn a lot from her.

She also knows how to live it up on her birthday!

Along with a handful of other amazing women, we spent the entire day downtown helping celebrate Kate's birthday. We snacked and sipped the afternoon away at a restaurant off Michigan Ave and then treated ourselves to a mani/pedi.  A few of us were able to continue the party on a private racing boat, the S.S. Painkiller (and boy was it!) as we were treated to more amazing food and never-ending glasses of wine, an awesome crew and a breathtaking view of Chicago.  It is not often I get to see Chicago, never mind view it like this.

You can consider this the "before" picture. Don't we look so nice?

Do you see the Ferris Wheel in the picture below? That's Navy Pier.  I have to admit, I may never go back to viewing it in person. I much prefer looking at it from a boat. Less people. More wine.

The Tall Ships were also in town and docked at Navy Pier:

The sun slowly went down as we sailed around. It made for some great photo opportunities and I never stopped snapping away.

Have you ever wondered how many people can fit in a self-taken photo?

(You can consider these the "after" photos. Someone even offered to take a nicer picture of us and we refused. That would have ruined the fun!)

I'm thinking we could have fit one more!

As the wine flowed, I continued to take more photos. Kate steered the boat while her boatboy directed her.

Here is the cityscape as we bobbed on by.

It's a good thing the night ended, because I'd be afraid to see what any more pictures would have looked like.  Probably much like my white pants did -- full of wine.

Happy birthday Kate!