Walnut Room and Chicago Day - Part 1

On December 20th, Melanie and I went downtown for a mother/daughter day of elegant dining and a little shopping. We had an fun-filled day that was absolutely memorable. We got up early, took the train in. We bought our tickets in the station, Melanie was worried we wouldn't be able to buy them on the train. It was good we did, they had instituted a $3 per ticket surcharge for buying on the train! Who knew! At the downtown station, we stopped briefly into Bath and Body Works, one of our favorite stores! Then across the way to Jamba Juice to buy Melanie a little morning treat. Then a cab ride to Macy's and we rushed in and hurried up to the restaurant to wait in line for the pager to eat. Or so we thought. Last time we were there was in 2005, where we stood in line for nearly 2 hours and then got a pager for about 45 minutes after that before getting in the line to get seated, which was another 25 minutes. Well, things have changed and this year we walked right up. No line. No waiting. It was 9:30 am. We had expected to get lunch. So, we got a pager with a time to page us at 11:00. We went to explore the store and see Santa.
View from the escalator:Now, Melanie thinks she is too old for that, but I disagreed, so off we went to the line for Santa.
Again, last time, this line was about an hour, this time, 2 minutes.
Here she is with Santa, looking a little uncomfortable:
So the pager went off and we went down to the restaurant, spent less than 5 minutes in the line and was seated. The tree is stunning: I look at the time and it's only 10:50am. Oh, well, I figure by the time the food arrives, a good appetite will have worked up. We were seated right next to the tree! Here is Melanie at the table (read the last post for the picture with both of us.)
This is the ornament right next to me:The fairy princess came around and sprinkled magic dust on us to make wishes:

Our lunch was fun. The food left much to be desired. I understand now why the long lines are gone. The setting was beautiful, we felt so special and it all looked so elegant. The food has gone downhill since it was Marshall Field's. That's too bad, but we decided that our tradition will be to go to a new elegant restaurant each year.

More tomorrow! I'm off to bed. Have a wonderful day everyone!