2011 . In Review

2011 has been another great year for me.  I got to experience so many awesome things and had life changing events happen.  I have so much to be thankful.  I have a great family, an incredible fiancee, and so many great friends.  My blog frequency has slowed downed a little of late, but thanks for always checking in.

I wanted to do a little recap of my year.  In my typical blogging style, many pictures, not so many words:

JANUARY

Studio trip to San Antonio and Houston...

FEBRUARY

Sara visits Baton Rouge and NOLA...

MARCH

Mom comes to NOLA for a mission trip (and Mardi Gras)...

APRIL

Spring Break trip with LSU to...Los Angeles, Yosemite, San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, Death Valley NP, Mammoth, Grand Canyon NP, Sedona, and Phoenix...

MAY - JULY

Spent the summer studying abroad in Italy.  Spent eight weeks in Rome.  While in Italy, I got to travel to the Monti Simbruini National Park, the Cinque Terre, Venice, Florence, and Sorrento/Capri.  I spent the final four days of my trip in Madrid, Spain...

AUGUST

Family vacation to central Tennessee for a lot of golf and a little bit of hiking...

SEPTEMBER

Beginning of internship at HadenStanziale...

NOVEMBER

SARA AND I GOT ENGAGED!!!!!!

DECEMBER

Trip to Illinois to visit family for Christmas.  Sara got to come with and meet lots of family she had never met before...

2011 was a fantastic year.  Hope everyone has a great 2012...

Chicago

Our last day on our journey to the north was spent in Chicago.  After four days of visiting family, we ended our trip visiting the city.  The weather was unseasonably nice.  It was about 35 degrees out which is much nicer than the usual 20-30 with gusting winds.

Sara wanted to visit 'The Bean' so this was our first stop.  We parked at Millennium Park and walked around checking out the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, The Bean, McCormick Ice Rink, and the Crown Fountain.

From Millennium Park, we walked around Michigan Ave, State Street, and by the river...

Then time for pizza at Pisanos...

After walking around a little more and doing some 'shopping', we ended the day at the Lurie Garden...

I know I have said it many times before but I need to get back to Chicago during the summer.  It is much more pleasant outside and the Cubs are playing. Two great reasons to go.  This year will be the year.

The Windy City

As I have previously mentioned, the fam got the opportunity not once but twice to go into Chicago during our annual Christmas Illinois trip.  This is a treat because I can't even remember the last time we actually made the trip into the city from the suburbs.

The first night we got into town we went directly to Chicago for the Hawks game.  That night we went to the famous Billy Goat Tavern for a beer before the game.  Cool place, very Chicago.  Pretty sure that place was crawling with mafia members.  After the game we went and stayed at my cousins place near downtown.  The next morning we went for a drive around the city checking out some sites from the car.  It was extrememly cold and snowy so we decided against riding the Blueline around without any specific destination.  We drove by Michigan Ave., Wrigley Field, Navy Pier, and Soldier Field.  And of course we got some pizza at Gino's East.

Our second trip into the city was for the Bears game.  That day we got into the city in time for lunch, pizza again, and to check out Millennium Park and the surrounding area before the game.  It was once again very cold and snowing.  Millenium Park is a very cool area, especially for an aspiring landscape architect.  Landscape architects have done an incredible amount of work in the city.  There are many more placing I want to check out in the city.  Great place.

A return trip in the summer is definitely in order.

MNF - Bears/Vikes

Abe and I got hooked up with MNF tix for Christmas.  Big surprise.  We thought all our gift receiving was done after our 'pre-Illinois' family Christmas.  Was very pumped to get to head to Soldier Field for MNF.

The tix that we got were great.  They were my cousins season tickets.  Outstanding seats about halfway up in the south end zone.  Soldier Field is different from any stadium I have ever been to.  They revamped the stadium in 2003 building onto the existing architecture.  It is a more modern design built on top of the old colonnaded Roman looking structure.  It looks a little strange from the outside but inside the stadium and the seating is really cool.  It was definitely Bears weather.  Very cold.  The announced temp in the second half was 16 degrees.

The game was outstanding.  The Bears played the best that they have in a month or two.  Offense moved the ball decently and the D did enough to get the job done.  Still a very ugly year for the Bears but I'm glad I got to see a great win against the Vikes.  The Bears got out to a 16-0 lead at half before the Vikes came back and tied it 30-30 with 15 seconds left in the game to push it to overtime.  I hate Brett Favre.  Somehow Robbie good as Gould missed a FG on the first possession in OT.  I thought the Bears were doomed at this point giving the Vikings a short field to get within FG distance but the Bears D stepped up huge sacking Favre twice.  Cutler then made a big pass for his fourth TD pass of the day on the following possession to win the game 36-30 (I'm not gonna lie, I cringed every time Cutler threw a pass but he ended up playing a great game).  Soldier Field went nuts.  It was a great time.

Great game, great experience.  Thanks Mom & Pops!

Side rant:  There were easily more Favre Vikings jerseys in the stadium than any of Vikings player.  Are these people serious?  Who is dumb enough to pay $100 for a jersey of a player who is only gonna be on the team for a year????  Especially a guy who has been on a rival team the last 15 years.  I even saw a couple Jets #4 jerseys.  Really??  Favre please go away, you are ancient.

Blackhawks/Sharks

Mom and Pops got Abe and I tickets to the Blackhawks/Sharks game two nights ago at the United Center. We had a blast even though the Hawks lost. Hockey is a great sport to watch in person. I would highly suggest anyone to go check out a game even if you're not a hockey fan.

The Hawks and Sharks are the top two teams in the Western conference currently so we got to check out a pretty big game. The Hawks completely outplayed the Sharks in the game but lost 3-2. They outshot the Sharks 47-14 which is just completely outrageous. It was a very exciting game with the Hawks coming towards our end 2 of the 3 periods. I can't believe they couldn't put more of their shots in the goal, they had the puck the whole game. That's alright though, they beat the Redwings 3-0 in Detroit last night and are gonna easily sweep the two game set with the Preds Friday and Saturday. A big lead is about to open up in the Central division.