Birthday Weekend

Wednesday in the middle of work, I had the thought that I should treat myself to a weekend in Chicago. I went on priceline and booked a Five Star hotel for cheap. I was so excited at the idea of spending some time in my favorite city.

Friday morning I awoke around 8 am and headed to the gym for a two mile jog and then I attempted to get a little Christmas Shopping done on the way home. I have vowed I will never take my children the day after Thanksgiving to shop, because it's not fair to them or me, especially with all of the people.

I got home and started packing for my weekend adventure. I packed up my car and headed into the city around 3pm. I arrived at the hotel around 4:30pm, checked in, and relaxed in the room for a couple of hours.

I made my way down Michigan Avenue and hit Victoria Secret, which was having some awesome sales and found my mom and sister-in-laws presents. I was pretty excited and after shopping for a few hours returned to my hotel room. I headed out and found some yummy dinner and went back to the hotel and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Saturday, I woke up around 8am and got ready for the day. I left the hotel around 10am and headed to Millennium park. I ate a muffin and sat and watched people at the Bean for a couple of hours. I headed to Macy's on State Street where the windows are a disappointment, but they were having some great sales, so I went and shopped, but didn't find anything worth buying. I then headed to various other stores.

Around 3:30pm my family arrived into the city and we went to the German Market and they ate some Bratwurst, Strudel, and Hot Chocolate. It was all delicious. The German Market was very packed, since it was the first day, and my family had had enough after only about 45 minutes. A couple of my friends came into the city and we went and ate tapas at Cafe' Iberico. It was delicious.

After dinner we wandered back to Millennium park and then started heading north on Michigan Ave. One of my friends asked what we should do. I thought for a moment and then suggested we go to the top of the John Hancock building. We walked a few more blocks and waited in line for about 20 minutes. We had an awesome view from our table and sipped hot chocolate. Honestly, the best view is from the Women's bathroom. I took a couple of pictures I'll post.

Sunday, I headed home early, because it started to snow. My family returned home from church and we had lasagna and pumpkin cheesecake for my birthday dinner. I got another kitchen gadget. It's a hot air popper which the top is a bowl! I look forward to using it soon.