CHICAGO: Part 1

If you've been around these parts over the past year or so, you are familiar with how my blogger turned real life friendship (ahem-sisterhood) with Steph came about. We have officially had adventures together all the way from Naples FL, to Ohio, to Texas-TWICE (Houston, San Antonio, and the Texas Hill Country), and lastly as of this past weekend we added Chicago to the list.

I would say the worst part of these trips we take together is how fast they seem to go, as usual. Can't we get like three whole weeks together?! That would be really ideal. However, the best part of our trips together, and what I try to focus on, is realizing that these are only the beginning. We have so many more ahead of us (and are usually already planning for the next by the time I'm writing this), and I can thank this awesome blogging world for bringing us together and making this happen. I get excited just thinking about what is next for us! Steph and Beau will always be a part of my life and I'm (we) are so incredibly thankful for this.

So, let's get into this Chicago recap, shall we?

We stayed at the gorgeous Ritz-Carlton Chicago, Michigan Ave location.

 

 

 {views from our room}

 

 {the lobby}

This hotel is stunning, in a great location, is pet friendly, and has an outdoor bar situated in the back that has a fireplace and is really fancy. Highly recommend staying here if you get the opportunity! We were so shocked with how accommodating they were with Rocky - they had bowls and fresh water set out for him when we arrived and it was honestly really easy having him there with us!

In fact, he told us he was living the high life and prefers the hotel life... ;)

 

 

King Rocky says please arrange your luggage at the bottom of the bed so I can jump up and down easier and look even more spoiled rotten.

We all arrived really late Thursday evening, so we actually just went to a small bar where one of Beau's friends works to visit with him and have a casual night together. That casual night turned into us staying up until 4am, meeting random ladies in the elevator with questionable outfits ("WHOA LADY!"), and housing leftover cheesecake to the face like a boss (#classy) in our hotel room.

The next day, our main goal was just to walk around the city to see everything and to take our time exploring everything. Aka: be complete tourists. We wanted to enjoy our time together and not be super rushed, so we kind of just started by walking all the way down Michigan Ave. and stopping at all the "hot spots"!

 

 

One thing we knew for sure was that we wanted to get famous deep dish Chicago style pizza (how could you not?! Steph's no cheese diet wasn't going to get in the way of this!) and we were going to go to Lou Malnati's, but it was a little farther from where we were and our hotel concierge recommended Gino's East, so we decided to go there.

We actually got seated really quickly here, the service was great and the building was really cool, but we didn't love the pizza. Was it good? Absolutely! Who dislikes pizza of any kind? But we just didn't love it. Everyone has their own preferences, so if you are visiting don't let that stop you from going here.

 

 waiting for our seat at Gino's

From what I've heard though (and from some of your rec's!), Lou Malnati's is the best of the best, so I think I will be taking a trip back so I can say I tried it and compare the two. :) Yup, that's a must.

After we got our pizza fix, we explored some more by going to see THE BEAN, Millenium Park, and going into a few shops.

 {sigh...how cute are they? such Chicago studs!}

 

{can you spot us in the bean in this pic? :)}

All of these things are "must-do's" when visiting Chicago! Everything was just so beautiful. I loved seeing all the different buildings (the last time I was in Chicago was when I was in my early teens and I don't remember a lot of it) and the river.

After all of the walking around we did, we decided to go to the top of the Trump Tower for drinks and to see the view of the city because we had heard the view could not be beat. At $12 for a beer, we decided to skip the drinks and just take in the view, then go back to our room for the drink part. ha.

All of these pictures are taken from the top of the Trump Tower....one of the best views I have ever seen and let's just not talk about the pretty blue skies.

After some drinks and naps (from some of us), we ended up going to dinner at Shaw's Crab House, and Beau's friend Chris joined us here as well. The food here was great...all of us got the seafood platter (crab cake, scallops, shrimp) except Billy, and he got the fried shrimp. :)

After dinner, we decided to venture to some bars. Looking back, we hardly got any pictures from after dinner any of the nights because we were just having so much fun that pulling out our cameras seemed like a not so pleasant idea.

We went to this crazy, semi secret lounge called The Violet Hour in the Wicker Park area, where the door is hidden and it's pitch black on the inside and is pretty upscale and swanky.

The Violet Hour's house rule is this: "please do not bring anyone to The Violet Hour that you wouldn't bring to your mother's house for Sunday dinner." Dead serious.

They don't take reservations and they have no light beer, but they do have a crazy good cocktail menu. It was definitely a different experience and fun seeing.

via The Violet Hour

Afterwards, we headed to more of a "college style" bar called Trinity, where Chris's girlfriend works, and me and Steph had the time of our lives here.

We played beer pong against these recent college graduates boys and completely worked the table. Would you expect any less from us?! Why we have no pictures of this epic beer pong experience is beyond me, but I really wish I did at this point. There was dancing, more dancing, some creepers on the side, and so many laughs (oh wait, this would explain the no pictures part.)

Honestly one of my favorite times that I've had with Steph. It was like we were back in college together tearing it up on the beer pong table......which, by the way, we would have DEFINITELY done if we went to the same college. ;)

OK OK, that's a wrap for Part 1.

Part 2 includes much more goodness...trust me. Stay tuned! :)