Here it is, the final part of mine and my husbands three part American holiday. We were quite sad to be at our last destination, which is Chicago. But we were obviously super excited to be in Chicago and to see what the place had to offer.
Day 1 -
Our flight was four hours from Los Angeles to Chicago. We landed at half past 4pm, collected our bags and then caught the train from the airport to the closest station to our hotel. The train station was literally around the corner from the hotel that we were staying in. The hotel we stayed at was the Hotel Allegro, which is in down town Chicago, so it was close to everything which was perfect for us. The hotel is decorated in a 1920's way, so its got a very glamorous feel to it. It's part of the Kimpton group of hotels, which is the same as the hotel we stayed at in San Francisco. The room and the hotel was definitely decorated better than the one in San Francisco. The room sizes were exactly same though which meant that the bathroom was also tiny, but its still big enough to do what you need to do.
We didn't get to the hotel until about 6, we had only had breakfast at the airport so it was safe to say me and Paul were starving. As soon as we were checked into the hotel we went straight out to get some Chicago deep dish pizza. We went to Lou Malnatis pizzeria, we had seen that it had really good reviews on trip advisor and it was only a 10 minute walk from our hotel. You had to wait 30- 40 minutes for the pizza to be made, as its made fresh but it was well worth the wait. We were so hungry that I didn't even get chance to take a photo of it. I've got to say its probably one of the best pizza's I've had. After we'd stuffed our faces we went back to the hotel to get some rest for the sightseeing tomorrow.
Day 2 -
I'm always thinking about food so our day started out with finding a good breakfast place. We found this place called Eggy's diner which was near millennium park. This was a nice little place, the service was great and the food was so tasty. I got chocolate chip pancakes, they had chocolate chips inside and on top of them. After we had fuelled ourself's up for the day, we set off towards millennium park to see cloud gate (a.k.a the silver bean). Cloud gate was really cool, I didn't think I would be that mesmerised by a sculpture. It was really cool being stood underneath it and trying to count the many reflections of ourselves. We took lots and lots of photos of us being silly with the bean. After we had walked around millennium park we continued on to Grant park. However while we were in Chicago they were setting up the NFL draft in Grant park so we didn't get to walk through the park and see the Buckingham fountain. We were only able to walk around it. We walked up to the Agora statues, which is basically lots of headless and armless statues. But they were really cool to look at.
When we had finished looking at the statues we walked back up to Grant park. We walked around the edge of the park so that we could get to the back of the park and get to the Lake front trail. Omg the temperature instantly drops when you get near lake Michigan. Luckily we were prepared and got ourself's bundled up in our hats and scarf's. The only thing we forgot were our gloves, however pockets worked just as well. We walked all along the trail and sat down on a bench along the way to take in the view. We did quite a bit of walking that morning, and the walking didn't stop there. After we had finished walking along the lake trail we headed to Navy Pier. The Navy Pier has under gone a big redevelopment, so Paul was quite surprised by how much it had changed since the last time he came to Chicago. Because of the time of the year we visited nothing was open at the Pier other than the food, as it was not the start of the season yet. There was quite a few people cleaning and painting there boats though, getting them ready for when the season starts. We decided to go inside and grab a hot dog, rest out feet and get warm for a little bit before setting off again. This time we walked from Navy Pier to the magnificent mile and had a look in all the shops and picked up some of the famous Garretts Popcorn.
After all that walking we headed back to the hotel to chill out for a while before getting ready to go back out. We headed back to the magnificent mile and went to the top of the Hancock tower for drinks in the signature lounge. We decided to do this instead of going to the viewing deck, as the 360 deck is on the 94th floor and the signature lounge is on the 95th floor. This meant we could get a floor higher and buy a cocktail each which cost about $15 a cocktail or go the floor below and be charged $18 per person. The signature lounge in my opinion was definitely the better choice as we got to enjoy a cocktail over looking Chicago's evening skyline. It was really weird as sometimes you could see everything and then a cloud would roll by and you wouldn't be able to see a thing! When we'd had enough of looking at the beautiful view, well ok when I decided I could no longer wait for food! We headed back down the the bottom floor, to the cheesecake factory to fill our belly's with some good food and tasty cheesecake of course.
Day 3 -
We started our day with another big breakfast! Then walked to the Willis tower, to go up to the 103rd floor to the famous glass sky deck. The thought of this scared the hell out of me. I don't like heights at all! However once I got up there and we were stood watching people, I just turned to Paul and said we need to do this right now! If we hadn't of done it right at that moment then I don't think I would have been able to do it. I'm so glad I managed to stand on the glass though, I have no idea where the sudden surge of confidence came from. We also ended up lying on it, which was a crazy idea from me for a cool photo. When we left the Willis tower we went on another pretty walk, we did the River walk. Our walk ended with us being at the magnificent mile again, which I was happy about as I had a hankering for a cupcake. I really wanted to try a sprinkles cupcake. Paul got a strawberry one, which he said was the best cupcake he'd had. I went for the chocolate chip peanut butter cupcake, OMG this was amazing and I wish we'd got more than one each!
Day 4 -
Believe it or not, we actually ended up doing everything that we wanted to do in Chicago in a few days. So today was a free day. I'm not going to lie I was hoping that we would get a free day, as I really wanted an outlet shopping day. So we went to the Fashion outlets of Chicago, this is very close to the airport. We found out that we could get on the same train that we got on from the airport, we would just have to get off a stop before the airport and then it would be a short 10 minute walk to the outlet. It was really easy to get to actually which was great and there was lots of shops to look in. I specifically wanted to go to the outlets to purchase a Michael Kors handbag that i'd had my eye on for a while. By now you have probably seen my holiday fashion haul, which showed off my outlet shopping and the bag that I'm talking about. When we finished our shopping we headed back to the hotel to pack, grab some dinner and make sure we had everything ready for our flight home the next day.
Chicago was such a lovely place, its like a mini New York but cleaner and doesn't feel as crowded. If your thinking about visiting Chicago I would say do it! But like New York you don't need a week here. So you could always visit somewhere else along the way, like we did or just go for a short break. If you do visit I'd recommend going to the Willis tower and standing on the sky deck. I would also recommend going for a drink at the top of the Hancock tower, in the signature lounge. Both of these places are great for taking photos, seeing amazing views and making lasting memories. Any ladies that are going to the signature lounge, make sure you use the bathroom while your there. It will be the best view you will most likely see from any bathroom you ever use in your lifetime!
A few places I'd recommend to eat at are Eggy's diner for breakfast or lunch. Lou Malnatis pizzeria for a Chicago style pizza. For Snacks definitely check out sprinkles cupcakes, try out there cupcake ATM machines just off the magnificent mile and finally you must treat yourself to some Garretts popcorn.
Me and Paul had such a great time visiting San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago. It was extremely tiring getting in all the things that we wanted to in the time we had, but it was totally worth it and we've made some great memories. I hope you've enjoyed seeing what we got up to in each place and hopefully it will help you if you decide to visit any of these places. For now though the travel blogs are finished until our next journey, when and where that will be is not yet known.
If you have any recommendations on places to visit please let me know, were always looking for our next adventure.
ReRe
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