Feels like this blog is becoming more about traveling than anything else? Well that’s my life right now so enjoy!
So as you know from last week I had a great stay at the Hilton in Lisle, IL. Well the good food and company stayed strong through the workday on Friday where I had another AWESOME sushi meal with Christine from work! Luckily I wasn’t the only one eating it this time, so it wasn’t assumed it was for 3 people but gosh we got A LOT of food!
and yep, that boat is in the shape of a fish which I’m not certain whether it made me feel better or worse about what I was eating. You were once a fantastic swimmer and now you are going into my belly. Poor fishies. In any case we were very hungry girls and dug right in!
And as awesome as that looks that doesn’t even begin to describe the amazing weekend I had in Chicago! Since Dana and Tim were off at Josh’s bachelor party for the weekend Kara and I decided we needed a serious girls weekend! So Kara arrived in Chicago around 4ish on Friday afternoon and we got started right away! After making the journey from the airport to the hotel downtown by train which meant carrying our very very heavy luggage up and down some serious steps we checked out the map and headed to Millennium Park to check out THE BEAN!
I have been to Chicago a dozen times and for whatever reason I had never checked out the bean. I have seen some pretty cool pictures of other people at the bean and I knew it was an experience I wanted to have.
It was AWESOME!
Yep, Kara instagrammed (is this a verb?) us at the bean! So cool! And on a complete side note we walked by literally the BIGGEST FREAKING WALGREENS IN THE WORLD (well there was no sign on the door that said that but I’m going with that being a true statement for now- until proven wrong). This “drug store” had a wine store inside, self serve frozen yogurt (could you just see me everyday.. “Tim, hunny I am headed to the drug store again” AKA I am about to go stuff my face with more fro-yo because I have an unhealthy obsession with it. It had a deli inside and pretty much anything you could imagine! It was literally insane. I can’t wait to go back.
So we made our way back from the bean and decided to just randomly pick a dinner place. Well thanks to Rich’s recommendation we went straight for some serious Chicago deep dish pizza. Kara and I are both pizza lovers so I had no doubt this was going to be one hell of a meal but it proved me wrong. This was THE BEST FREAKING PIZZA ever! STUFFED and I mean STUFFED with goodness this thing was well worth the 45 minutes wait we endured.
And they didn’t just do pizza well, they did bruschetta well. Who knew that was even possible? Who knew that a pizza place was going for the record to have the highest bruschetta tower ever? Well I can tell you who knows now- Kara and I do!
So where did this magic happen at you didn’t ask but I am telling you anyway ask? Giordano’s. Delicious “famous stuffed pizza”. The history of this delicious pizza dates back all the way to the 1960’s which you can read about on their website. The pizza was even good cold- which Kara and I found out the next day when we were starving after a long day of shopping. Everything about this experience was good including the beers we had! The service was great even though the placed was packed wall to wall with customers.
We were exhausted from all of that travel so after stuffing our faces we headed back to the hotel to get some good sleep in before our day on Michigan Ave! We were fortunate enough that a few of my friends, Erin (who got engaged not too long ago) and Audrey meet up with us and they were fantastic shoppers and tour guides! We walked everywhere- up and down and all over and well… this goes without saying by looking at the photo below but I think it’s safe to say I didn’t do too bad.
My trip ended up looking like this
- 2 pairs of colored denim from Zara (mint color and coral)
- 2 headbands from LuLuLemon (so cute!)
- A pink/coral colored blazer from Nordstrom Rack
- A floppy hat and belt from H&M
- A honeymoon dress from Forever 21
Success at its finest!
Yea pretty pump to display how these outfits look on after I figure out what the hell to wear with them haha! The floppy hat was a big win- Tim really thought so when he picked me up and I was wearing it!
So after the long day of shopping and the delicious cold pizza we had for a later lunch we made some reservations at Weber Grill for dinner. I’m really glad we made those reservations (thank you Open Table for making my life easier) because it was PACKED and people were waiting well over an hour to get a table. We waited about 10 minutes. People hated us. Next time they will make a reservation though.
The food smelled SO GOOD but before we could even think about food we needed some juice. So we got a pitcher of Sangria. For 2 people. An entire pitcher. And we drank it all.
No regrets here.
Kara got this delicious looking stake and mashed potatoes which I can say with certainty because I tasted them that they were SO GOOD!
And she was certainly one hot date- so I was honored to be there with her!
I had a delicious hamburger topped with onions and cheese and everything else that could possibly clog my insides up. Oh and French fries. Which rumor has it stay in your system for 30 days. If that is true- they still taste great to me!
I also enjoyed the Sangria… all 4 glasses of it!
And in case you are wondering or because you are reading and for some reason paying attention to what I write, I had Katniss hair that day. If you didn’t already know I LOVE the Hunger Games and I think Katniss has the prettiest hair ever. So Kara played with mine a bit to make me a very impressive braided bun… check out this hair. Truly a Hunger Games hair-do.
After dinner we headed to the bar which was a ton of fun. Especially since we saw a TON of bachelor and bachelorette parties going on. There were some seriously large blow up items that were being carried around and poked into people. Eventually we realized that we were just too old for that late night craziness and got to bed before 1am!
The next morning we were determine to pack in fun before we had to head out to the airport! We decided that the Wendella River Boat Tour would be the best way to spend the very hot 90 degree morning in Chicago. It was awesome! For over an hour we got to be on the lake and learned about serious history about Chicago. The tour guide, a local girl trying to make it as an actress was AMAZING. She had every single thing memorized. I was so impressed. The funniest thing I remember was when she showed up where the big fire in Chicago started years ago and when she said “and Chicago has a sense of humor because that is where we train our firefighters”.
That’s some sense of humor alright Chicago.
There were some serious breath taking views that the captain of the boat lined us up for..
And Kara and I were just relaxing and enjoy the ride!
Although let’s be honest… we wanted a good seat on the boat so we ended up kicking a few people out of the front on “accident” by not leaving them enough space. Too bad… these Ohio girls know how to get what they want!
Seriously though I recommend this tour to ANYONE. Even if you have lived in Chicago for a while trust me- there is more to learn! It was the perfect start to our day!
Those are some mad instagram skills brought to you by Kara!
And before we headed ot the airport (and made a very quick stop at Navy Pier) we did what every girl should do…
WE HAD FROZEN YOGURT! UGH I love Fro-Yo
I got some pistachio (my new favorite) and some key lime! I topped mine with some cheesecake bites, a few yogurt covered raisons, and some heath bar! Kara got some pistachio too but got a lot more chocolate goodness and fudge than I did! It was delicious- I had a taste!
After sweating in the sun, but loving it, we hauled our very heavy suitcases up some stairs and over some bridges until we finally made it to the airport!
It was a FABULOUS trip!
I can’t wait to see where our next girls weekend will take us!
