Mid-America Tile Chicago Architectural Tour

One of the perks of being a kitchen and bath designer is that our vendors, suppliers, and distributors are often hosting events to launch new product lines, thank us for our business, or having a networking event.  Over the winter we attended a casino night, in the spring it was a March Madness party, a summer barbeque pig roast, and last week we even held our own party, but last night was probably the most fun event we’ve ever been to.  Mid-America Tile celebrated their new partnership with Ragno tile by inviting about 50 industry professionals to go on a Chicago Architectural boat tour.  There was food, wine, and a tour through Chicago guided by a lovely woman named Sarah and the entire Designers Point team went.  As you can tell by the photos, we really enjoyed taking an afternoon/evening off and spending it out on the water.

We started out at Burnham Harbor next to Soldier Field; the late afternoon sun and the light breeze coming off the lake were perfect.  We munched on sandwiches, wraps, and mini quiches and drank wine while looking at Soldier Field and the city skyline.  Once the boat took off, we headed out to Lake Michigan, and the waters got rough; as a lifetime lover of water and boating, I really enjoyed the bounce and chop of the boat, but it stopped when we slowed down to head into the Chicago River via the lock system.  Our tour guide was entertaining, funny, and incredibly knowledgeable about Chicago, its history, and obviously the architecture.  As we went through the city, the sun went down and the magnificence of the city was pretty awe inspiring.  I think my favorite thing about Chicago is how it is considered a working-man’s city, or a blue-collar city, but it has such fantastical architecture and creativity in artwork, fountains, and landscaping.  The entire tour was three hours long and we had a wonderful time; the atmosphere was laid back, fun loving, and respectful.  If you ever have a chance to take an architectural tour through Chicago, do it on a late August evening and bring some of your favorite people, it’s definitely one of my favorite experiences in Chicago!