Where do I even begin?!?! Chicago is so near and dear to my heart. Before we moved to Indianapolis over a year ago, neither of us had been to Chicago for more than a couple times and they were all well over 6 years back. So what do you do when you live a 3 hr drive away from one of the most amazing cities in the USA??? You take FULL advantage any opportunity you can get;).
I happen to be lucky in that my job takes me to Chicago for at least 1 week every month. I spend time downtown & throughout the suburbs eating, entertaining, shopping, driving, and walking my way through one of my now favorite places to visit!
Below are 2 particular times David & I were there together- once over Thanksgiving in 2010, and the other in July 2011. Enjoy…and VISIT Chi-Town!! 🙂
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| David in front of Navy Pier |
Last Thanksgiving, our first order of business was to head to Navy Pier to get some “spiked” hot cocoa….people it was MAYBE 20 degrees out- burr!!
After, we hopped onto one of the famous Architectural Tours on the Chicago river via The Chicago Line. There are a plethora of boats & tours available so just Google it OR hop onto TripAdvisor for some recommendations.
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| Boat tour in front of the Willis Tower |
Of course after that we had to warm up before heading out to dinner. We found an amazingly delicious, and adorable Italian restaurant called Prosecco. What a fun and romantic evening out on our first Thanksgiving together as Husband & Wife, just the two of us!
The following day, we headed out from our hotel for some shopping. We stayed at the W Chicago Lakeshore. It was a nice hotel…I wouldn’t say my favorite ever but it was nice. Apparently it was an old Holiday Inn that they completely refurbished so its smaller and older but has some charm AND an awesome bar on the top floor called Whiskey Sky that overlooks all of downtown. Fun for a pre-dinner drink:).
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| The Famous Ahogada Torta!!Anyway, we headed out for some shopping along Michigan Avenue….AKA The Magnificent Mile. What fun!! Kind of crazy though since it was Black Friday but we had a blast shopping and strolling amongst the holiday lights. For lunch, we headed over to our now favorite of all time (seriously) restaurant- Xoco. Do yourselves a favor and GO HERE! This is one of 3 of Rick Bayless’s 3 authentic mexican restaurants in the city. They are all next door to each other and at this point, I have had both Xoco and The Frontera Grill- both are out of this world! Xoco specializes in mexican tortas (sandwiches), hot cocoa, pastries, breakfast….my mouth is watering just thinking about it all again!
We of course checked out the Willis Tower- up to the Sky Deck we went! Its the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere and the 3rd tallest in the world! There is a new feature that will make your heart stop- swear to god!! Its called the Ledge and its basically a glass box that juts out of the top of the building about 4.5 feet…only 1,353 floors above ground level, no biggy (yea right!) |
The next day we needed to slow down so we took it easy, then headed out to the famous Giordano’s Pizzeria on Rush street. So much fun! Our friends the Campbell’s joined us and we had a blast gorging ourselves on deep dish pizza! I must say, I am a think crust kind of gal but this is some GOOD STUFF:).
After that kind of meal, we had to walk it off a bit so we strolled right on over to the John Hancock building. We headed up to the Observatory and enjoyed an after dinner drink there. What a blast Thanksgiving 2010 ended up being in Chi-Town!!
Just this past July 2011 we headed up to Chicago for another fun filled weekend. This time we stayed at the Westin Chicago right off of the The Magnificent Mile. The location was amazing and the hotel itself wasn’t all that bad. We did have extremely poor housekeeping and the fact that this hotel was about 1 block away from a HUGE American Girl store meant that there were a TON of mommies & daughters running around- all fun though.
Our first night we headed up Rush Street to Rosebuds, another old-timer famous Chicago Italian restaurant. We were able to sit outside since it was so nice and it was great food, and even better people watching:-). We ended the night hanging around Rush street and joking around over drinks.
The following day we met up with our friends the Campbell’s again and enjoyed a fun Saturday in Wrigleyville. The Cubs won, our seats were awesome, and the company couldn’t have been better. Wrigleyville is so much fun! Wrigley field itself is a landmark worth seeing and the surrounding neighborhood is always full of people, restaurants, bars, etc. After the game we went to Goose Island, a local microbrew & restaurant where I indulged in one of my favorite’s- 312 beer:).
The next day we needed to walk it all off so we headed down Michigan Avenue towards MillenniumPark. Beautiful architecture there is this cool sculpture affectionately called “The Bean” by locals. Its really called the Cloud Gate but its really neat. It’s like a huge mirror that distorts things at certain angles…fun for pictures:).
We ended our weekend getaway at Volare. I know I have already said this a lot but man, this was delicious and I try to come back every once in a while when visiting Chicago. Amazing pastas and a great wine list! Once again Chicago, you treated us very well….until next time!! xoxo
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