As we approached the end of the school year, I knew that Larissa could use a vacation after the end of classes. As it happened, my good friend Brennan Summers was thinking the same for his wife, Jennifer.

So about a month or so ago, Brennan and I started planning for a weekend in Chicago. He wanted to keep it a surprise, but I knew it would be difficult for me to prevent Larissa from guessing that something was up. Remember, this is the woman who guessed not one, but both of the gifts I got her for the wedding, not to mention the gifts for Christmas.

Still, I was willing to try - I knew that Larissa would really enjoy the weekend, especially traveling with such good friends.

Week after week, Brennan and I would exchange emails, do research, keep a tab on prices, and work out our itinerary. One of our planned activities was to attend a Cubs game. The weekend was sold out, but I was able to find some tickets on eBay for decent seats at a reasonable price. Because I had to pay with PayPal, the tickets were shipped to my verified address at home, and that almost ruined the surprise.

Larissa asked, "What are these? Are these tickets to something? Are they something we will do with Jen and Brennan?"

I thought, "Game over - she knows!" Fortunately, that turned out not to be the case.

Thursday morning, before leaving for work, I left Larissa a note on the counter - "Pack your bags for 3 nights - we're going to Chicago for the weekend! We'll pick up Jen and Brennan at 6:30!" A little later in the morning, I got a very excited phone call from a very surprised Larissa.

The trip was a lot of fun - it included a Cubs game:

Chicago style deep-dish pizza at Gino's East:

A trip to Shedd Aquarium:

And a trip to the top of the Hancock Tower:

All in all, it was a great trip, and a great surprise.