We arrived at The Honnert's household pretty much bang on time at 4pm - Matthew couldn't believe how punctual we were! As we pulled up to the house we felt like we were on set for Desperate Housewives - it was the essence of suburbia. We were greeted with wine and snacks and chatted in the kitchen and I reminisced with them about past holidays and fun times we shared together as we looked through a few photo albums. We had a tour of their beautiful massive house and then returned to the kitchen for more wine and conversation. We had a lovely home cooked lasagne for dinner sat at their dining room table where we chatted with more wine, then we sat in the lounge with more drinks, by their fireplace - it was just perfect and exactly what we had been looking forward to!

The next morning Matthew and Alicia had to go to work, so Ben and I had a nice long lie-in in our SEPARATE bedrooms (first time in 5 months!!). Then we got up and had a well needed lazy day doing washing, writing blogs, watching TV, bumming etc. We went out to the shops to get out of the house that afternoon and ended up finding that Hollister in the US is a hell of a lot cheaper than in the UK so we got a few bargains in there. That evening Alicia had to work late so we had some 'chilli-mac' and baked potatoes with Matthew and chilled in front of the TV that evening.

Tuesday was our first epic sightseeing day of the city of Chicago. Alicia had taken the day off work to spend with us so we had our very own tour guide for the day! I mistakenly thought it was shrove Tuesday so got us all excited for pancakes, turns out I was a week early but seeing as we weren't going to be with Alicia the following Tuesday we thought we'd have our pancakes anyway. After pancakes we drove to the station to catch the 9:30am train to the city. Geneva is a fair way out so took us just over an hour to get there on their fancy metallic double decker trains. When we reached the city we went and took a couple of snaps of the huge baseball bat sculpture by the station then jumped in a cab to the Art Institute of Chicago. The place was absolutely huge so we had to be fairly selective with what we wanted to see but we did manage to see a great selection of French renaissance, impressionism, modern, Egyptian, roman, architecture and digital art. So after a few hours we were art-ed out so we got our coats and went for a stroll around millennium part. We saw the big 'transformer' looking open air stadium, the fountain (which wasn't on) and the amazing 'cloud gate' sculpture AKA. 'The Bean'. I loved this huge sculpture and how it reflected the city skyline and the clouds it was stunning and really unlike anything I've seen before. We went for lunch after at this really nice restaurant in the park. It was 3pm at this point so we had much debate as to whether we should eat big now or later as we were going to have to eat again in a few hours before the theatre. Anyway we all ended up having some soup and something small and shared a bottle of wine - it was delicious! As it was such a nice day and Ben and I had bought City passes which included Sears Tower, we thought we'd make the most of a clear view of the city so we headed on over and up to the 103rd floor and saw the amazing panoramic views of the windy city. Alicia our tour guide pointed out the iconic sights in the city and we took lots of photos. We also went on the skydeck which were big glass boxed protruding out the edge of the building so you could see all the way down to the street. Ben and Alicia were a bit dubious about stepping on to them, so I went and took a running leap and jumped onto the glass which was hilarious seeing their worried faces! Ben plucked up the courage and we got some good photos. Alicia was too scared but I got her to put one foot on the deck! As we were wrapping up and getting ready to head back down we realised that the sun was about to set so we waited a little longer and saw an amazing orange sunset over the city it was so pretty. When we came back down from the tower the police were blocking off loads of the streets apparently due to falling ice from the top of the buildings. So we jumped in a cab and went to our next stop - the Water Tower Place. We had a quick look at the old Water Tower building then we went inside the new one, had a little look around and then went downstairs to the food court to get some dinner and more wine until it was time to head on over to the theatre for the show. It was called 'Working' - a musical about working life based on a series of interviews with ordinary working people. It was actually a really good, quite moving 6 man show with a great set up and stage set and some good singing. It got quite emotional at times - Alicia 'wept' a little bit!! After the show we jumped in another cab and made it back to the station in perfect time for the train back to Geneva - thoroughly shattered from a busy day of fun events.

Wednesday Ben and I went back into the city for round two of sightseeing with our City Passes. First we went to Shedd Aquarium and saw a beluga whale and dolphin show, we saw penguins, lots of fishies, a shark and amazon exhibit, a really crap Happy Feet 4D show, and had an absolutely awful lunch at the crappy little canteen! Next we went across the road to the Field Museum and spent some time wondering round the eclectic mix of exhibits including Sue - the most complete T-Rex skeleton/fossil, an Egyptian Tomb, and various other animal and historical things. We were still pretty tired from our epic day before so after a couple of hours we were done with walking around and decided to head back and took the long train journey back to Geneva. That evening we were due to go see The Kings Speech at the cinema with Matthew and Alicia, however when we got back Alicia's friend and her husband were popping over for a few drinks and nibbles and wanted to talk to us about England as they are taking their first 'vacation' ever there this summer and wanted some advice about what to see and do. So we ended up having quite a few glasses of wine and chatting the night away, and when they left we carried on drinking and chatting with Alicia and Matthew until we were tired enough for bed. It was a really good evening. Thursday morning I awoke feeling the effects of all the wine and was not at my freshest however we had another fun filled day of sightseeing in the city with Alicia who had taken another day off work to spend with us. So we had some breakfast and got the same train back to the city. We had one last thing to do on our city passes - The Museum of Science and Industry. We spent the morning looking at the science of tornadoes, tsunamis (how apt right now!), earthquakes, electricity, light, force etc. It was all very interactive and hands on which made it all quite fun and interesting whilst educational!! We had a journey through space looking at 'hubble' the huge satellite narrated by Leonardo Di Caprio in the big omnimax theatre which was really interesting. We did lots more which was fun for us at the time but boring to list in this blog! When we were done looking around and were rather hungry we headed back into the city centre and went for lunch at one of Alicia's favourite places - the Attwood Café which was quite a fancy restaurant in an 'historic' hotel! We had a really nice meal (with NO wine!!!). Then we went on our own little photographic sightseeing tour. We stated off in Macy's and saw the pretty Tiffany Domed ceiling made up of over a thousand pieces of glass. We also saw the famous 'Walnut Room' where they apparently have a huge Christmas tree during the festive season. We then carried on and saw various old buildings and architecture, we went inside a few and saw murals, Italian gold leafed interiors, staircases, and various other interesting things all courtesy of our USA guide! We then went for a swift glass of wine at Palmers House Hotel which was an old 'historic' hotel where Matthew had his prom. It was beautifully decorated lounge/bar so a nice treat and way to end our time in the city. We had a bit of a rush to catch the train but made it just in time. When we got back Matthew made us some amazing steaks that were cooked to perfection. We then all chilled out in the lounge in front of the fire and caught up on a marathon of American Idol.

Friday we had a well needed lie-in again, poor Matthew and Alicia had to go to work again though. Ben and I did some washing, watched TV, packed our bags and then drove to the shops to get postcard stamps and a thank you present for Matthew and Alicia for having us. When we got back we caught up on our blogs until food was ready. We had an early dinner of Chicago pizza and salad and then we had to get going as we had an hour's drive ahead to go see our first Ice Hockey game. It was pouring with rain and a very miserable night. When we got there we got a beer, took a few photos (one of which we would use and frame for the thank you present), and got settled ready to see the Chicago Wolves! The build up was good fun getting us all going with music playing, watching the players warm up. The singing of the National anthem was interesting for us to watch as everyone put their hands on their hearts, turned to face the American flag and all sung their hearts out. There were fireworks after and everything - it was all very patriotic! They then wheeled out this huge wolf shaped arch way and as they announced the players they skated out through the arch which then shot out fire flames - it was all very extravagant! The game was so much fun to watch it was very fast paced and we weren't always sure as to what was going on but we had a great time. We were shocked about how violent the game was though with the players constantly slamming each other into the walls and quite a few punch ups - the game even finished on a huge fight that the refs let go on for ages before interfering! During one of the intervals the mascot wolf was throwing T-Shirts into the crowd and Matthew caught one for Ben! It was a really fun Friday night and nice to spend the evening and have fun with both Matthew and Alicia.

Saturday morning we had a morning of Skype - first we spoke to Alicia's eldest son Andrew who is currently living in China. Then we chatted to my family for ages which was nice for everyone to catch up finally. During the skype session Ben snuck out to get the photo printed for the thank you present which worked nicely! When we were all done skyping we drove into the 'historic' town of Geneva to do a little shopping and mooching around. We first went to 'The Little Traveller' which was a really cute shop of about 30 rooms each selling different things from jewellery, to chocolate, to clothes, to wine, there was a tea room which Mum, Alicia and I visited many years ago, there was food and wine tasting - I loved it! Alicia then made us go and buy some 'famous' popcorn from this little shop to eat with our movie later that evening! As we walked through the town we saw a 'FREE WINE TASTING SIGN' outside this little wine cellar so we popped inside for a little vin rouge and Matthew bought a few bottles of wine. We then went to the Stockholmer and got some lunch and 'the best fries in town' - they were rather good!! Oh yer and it was snowing - the nice little flakey pretty kind of snow so that made the cute little town even more picturesque! We had to head back home after lunch as Alicia had a meeting that evening - she didn't want to go as she wanted to spend enjoy the cosy evening that we were having with us as it was our last night, but she had to. We chilled out for the rest of the afternoon and later on for dinner Matthew cooked us an amazing maple glazed pork dish which was delicious - so tender and juicy! We had a few glasses of wine and we settled down in front of the awesome huge TV, cranked up the surround sound, whacked on the fire and watched Avatar with a cup of raspberry coffee and a baileys - it was amazing! Alicia's meeting didn't go on too long so she got back in time to snuggle up with us and watch the last half of the film.

Sunday 6th March it was time for us to leave the lovely Honnerts, their wonderful house, and the fabulous Chicago. For our parting breakfast Matthew made us waffles which we ate with strawberries, maple syrup and peacans, and some coffee and juic. We then gave Matthew and Alicia our thank you present which we had made up in a little 'English Garden' themed basket with flowers, wine and English breakfast tea! We then bid our farewells and hit the road again. We had a fantastic week in Chicago and were so grateful to have had the chance to spend it with the Honnerts and have a bit of 'family time' and get spoilt and over indulged with food and wine and great company - we were really quite sad to leave!