A Weekend in Chicago

Hi! I have been a bit of an absentee blogger lately…we went on an AMAZING trip and I just had a hard time getting back into my routine after our return! But vacation mode is officially over now 😉

Although I haven’t been doing much in the “recipe development” realm, I definitely wanted to share all about our recent trip to Chicago, because it was such an awesome weekend and if anyone is considering going, I can’t rave about it enough!

Chicago is one of the major US cities that has been on my bucket list for a while now. So we mostly just went for the heck of it and to be tourists in an awesome city! We planned the trip so that we could meet my BFF, her husband and 2 daughters there at the same time, so not only did we get to explore, but we also got to do it with great friends!

We planned the trip for Thursday-Sunday evening. I will come right out and say that I would have loved to spend at least one more night there (although my bank account disagrees) but I feel like there was more to see, plus we just LOVED taking in the city life.

Thursday

We departed San Diego around 11am on Thursday morning. Such a reasonable time, right? We typically tend to leave first thing in the morning, which makes for an early wake-up call, but this was quite civil! We took a non-stop flight, but since we lost time traveling east, we landed a little after 4 pm.

Something I love to try to do when we go to new places is 1.) do it on the cheap and cut unnecessary costs when possible and 2.) experience the “essence” of that particular place. This led me to want to experience taking the “L” (their public transportation) mostly because I remember it being such a central part of the tv show ER 😉

(This is apparently my excited/nervous face about taking the train and having no idea what we were doing!)

Anyway, with that said, we decided to get a little out of our “country life comfort zone” and take the Public transportation from the airport to the hotel in downtown Chicago. While there were some minor eye-opening/funny moments, we made it to our final destination safe and sound and with a new experience under our belt! (And for a total of $5 for both of us!)

We had the divine experience of getting to stay at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. My friend that we were visiting there gets amazing rates for family/friends and it equaled out to the same price as less extravagant hotels. It may be the only time we have that opportunity, and I will take it! It was pretty darn special and I will always hold a place in my heart for that hotel! <3 

After checking into our hotel, taking in the incredible views of Lake Michigan and downtown Chicago from our window, we were pretty hungry. We went with a REAL authentic Chicago dinner choice and landed at Cheesecake Factory since it was across the street and just sounded good!

Dinner was delicious, but even better, we grabbed 2 slices of cheesecake (and a bottle of wine from a convenience store) to take back to my friend’s hotel room where we ended the night catching up and savoring our desserts!

(Side note: Cheesecake Factory’s Godiva Cheesecake is my ABSOLUTE favorite and is crustless, making it gluten-free!)

Friday

As much as we thought we would be able to rise early and get in a workout before breakfast, the amazingly comfortable bed and chilly setting on the thermostat tricked us into sleeping in until 9 am! Although that may not sound very late to some, to us that is burning some major daylight! Since my friend has 2 young girls, she had already been up for hours, so we got our booties in gear to get ready for a day of sightseeing! We all walked from our hotel a couple miles to Navy Pier. From there, we took a water taxi a couple of stops down so that we could walk a little more along the lake, and end up at an awesome park for kids. If you visit Chicago with kiddos, you’ve got to visit the Maggie C. Daley Park. There are endless slides, towers to climb, water features, splash pads…it’s a kid’s heaven for sure! 

By the time we made it to the park, it was pretty muggy and everyone was getting a little hungry, so after a little playtime, we packed it up and Ubered back to the hotel. The kids had been major troopers, but an Uber was definitely in order at that point!

One awesome thing about the hotel was that it was above a mall, and we had easy access to a food court. The food court had lots of healthy options and even a little hot bar/salad bar/grocery store (think mini Whole Foods). I was able to score a refreshing Greek Salad, a gluten-free snack/treat, and my favorite flavored water! 

We enjoyed our lunch back in the room to rest our feet and take advantage of the AC! With full bellies and cooler temperatures, we took to the streets again,  just walking around a doing some shopping. There was pretty much any clothing store you could imagine within walking distance…dangerous!

After shopping, we met back up with our friends and made some dinner plans. Although I am pretty much exclusively “gluten-free” 99% of the time, you better believe that, when in CHICAGO I am trying an authentic deep dish pizza! One recommendation I received over and over was to visit Lou Malnati’s-A Chicago classic. We decided to order the pizza to be delivered to our hotel room because that was the easier thing to do with the kiddos!

So while we waited for the pizza to arrive, I got a new hairdo! 

The pizza was all that it was cracked up to be, and while 1 piece totally filled me up, I could have easily gone back for more! 

By the time dinner was finished, it was time for the little ones to head to bed, so Travis and I headed down to the hotel bar and enjoyed their beautiful outdoor balcony for a little nightcap. It was such a lovely day! 

Saturday

Saturday started off slightly earlier than Friday, so Travis and I were able to squeeze in a quick hotel workout before taking on the town.

Here’s what we did:

400 M Run (on the treadmill)

10 Goblet Squats

10 Burpees

It served its purpose of getting our blood flowing and sweating a little. Always feels great when it’s over!

After the workout, we showered and then booked it down to the Chicago River to embark on the classic Architecture River Boat Tour. I know there are a handful of companies that do this, and they all seemed busy and popping! (It was a Saturday in the summertime after all!) 

The tour was SUCH a great way to take in more of the city and learn some of the history of Chicago. There is a lot of interesting architecture and my favorite part was all of the beautiful flower boxes and ivy. The foliage is SO plush all over the city! 

The tour was about an hour and fifteen minutes long. It was already time for lunch, and since we were on a bit of a time crunch, we went back to the hotel to our go-to food court. We ate burgers (bunless for me!) and then it was time for our next adventure! 

The event we were looking forward to the most was seeing Wrigley Field. We got to watch the Nationals take on the Cubs (and win!) and it was such an awesome experience! The park is unlike any other I have seen, and so pretty with the green wall of ivy. There is just an awesome vibe there and we had a ton of fun. 

The trip back was, well a trip…the L was PACKED and we had the 2 kiddos with us…but we survived and were able to laugh through the craziness 🙂

After the game and all of the excitement, our friends were ready to call it a night, so we headed back to the hotel bar for a drink and appetizers. We ended up walking around the city a bunch more and found an Irish Pub with a fun atmosphere (a little different than The Ritz, but probably more up our alley) and just so happened to end up in the Giradhelli shop a block from our hotel to end the night with a shake 🙂

Another amazing day in an amazing city!

Sunday

Sunday was our last day in Chicago, but we didn’t fly out until 7pm. This meant that we had a ton of time to do some more shopping, walk until we could hardly feel our feet anymore, and of course, visit The Bean. Because what is a trip to Chicago without a picture with The Bean? It was a really nice day (almost had a touch of Fall in the air) and we just felt so fortunate to be able to spend the time together soaking up as much as we could on our last day! 

Fun story: We saw Collin Jost from SNL in our hotel lobby on the last day and I geeked out a little. I was mostly just impressed with myself for recognizing him since I always assume I wouldn’t be able to notice a celebrity out of context. He does the “weekend updates” which is my favorite!

Anway…we decided to Uber to the airport to keep things mellow and ended up having another meal of bunless burgers while waiting for our flight. What can I say…it’s an easy and yummy travel meal!

We were happy to see our puppy dogs when we returned home, but missed our hotel room, our friends, and the great city of Chicago a little for the next couple of days. It’s hard to come back to reality after such a great trip!

We will just have to top it with an equally awesome trip next summer!