After I got married and started having kids, it was something we put on hold. Nursing and raising babies was time consuming and made it difficult to get away for any extended period of time. Any break I got away from the kids was spent with Scott.
Out of the blue one night in the summer, I stumbled upon a website that said Marc Anthony and Carlos Vives (Latin musicians) were coming to Chicago to perform. I jokingly texted my mom saying we should do a girls' trip to Chicago to see them perform. Surprisingly, she was all for it! She bought the tickets, booked a hotel, and we were set to go in late September to celebrate both our birthdays. Especially since my mom was celebrating her 60th this year!
The weekend finally arrived! I took Friday off as a personal day, which worked out well since it was a professional development day. We dropped Sean off at school and Evan at daycare and hit the road! It was a smooth drive until we hit the city. Man, the traffic was something else mid-afternoon on a Friday. We had stopped halfway in Kalamazoo for lunch at Olde Penninsula Brewery. Yum!! French dip sandwiches with onion rings and a pumpkin beer...great start to the trip!
We finally made it to our hotel and checked in. We decided to stay in Rosemont this time since the concert venue was in Rosemont and the city was only a train ride away.
Since I was battling a sinus infection that was moving into my lungs and on some meds, we took a nice cat-nap in the hotel room to rest up for our late night. Which was a good thing, since we were out until 1am! We showered and got ourselves pretty for our dinner out and concert!
We grabbed dinner at this great restaurant down the road from our hotel that served brick oven pizzas, Italian dishes, and these delicious little salads!
The concert was so cool! Between the people watching (the Latino culture just fascinates me), the late start, and the comedian that warmed up the two performers and spoke in Spanish the entire time (and yes, I understood 90% of what he said), we were in for a real treat!
The next morning, we were a bit slow to rise. Just kidding. The hotel phone rang saying we set a wake-up call for some un-Godly hour. Clearly, we didn't. They hadn't cleared it out from the last guest. So, we decided to get up and ready to head into the city. We grabbed Starbucks breakfast sandwiches and hot drinks in our lobby before getting in the train. 40 minutes later...hello, Chicago!
We made our way right to The Bean for some photo opportunities!
Garrett's was our next stop to stock up on popcorn for the boys back home. And we made our way down Michigan Avenue over the water, to the shops and pizza restaurants!
No stop to Chicago would not be complete without lunch at Gino's East. Nor would Sean let me come home with Lego's. So, we incorporated that in to our schedule. After a full morning/early afternoon of shopping, we needed to head over to the Lincoln Park area for our Beer Walking Tour.
It would be an understatement to say we had a good time. 6 different bars/pubs/breweries, multiple beer samples, even bacon samples at one place = an amazing time! We had a fun leader, a great group, and people willing to stick around after to keep drinking. We finally decided it was time to get back to our hotel since we were staying in Rosemont. We had an interest bus experience over to the train...one that included shots fired at the door and a smooth exit to an Uber that delivered us right to the train station. One quick ride later and we were back at the hotel.
The following morning, my mom's actual birthday, we checked out of the hotel and grabbed a delicious breakfast at a highly recommended local diner and hit the road to head home! It was a smooth drive home with no traffic and no construction!
We had an amazing time - although it flew by! I can't wait to plan our next little getaway! :)
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