Chi Town.....My Town!

My husband and I are planning an extended weekend getaway to one of my favorite cities I love to go to!  Ahhh!!......we are going to Chicago.....and we are staying in the city (as apposed to staying at my brothers place in the suburbs)!!  This makes me wanna blast the radio and listen to some Nelly!! (We going down down town baby....yo' street in a range rover Audi.....blah blah blah blah...shimmy shimmy cocoa what....listen to it pound! Ha!)

You Tube-Nelly

So sometimes on my weekends off my husband and I like to walk through our local St. Vinnie's to see what kind of junk treasures we can find! My second favorite section to browse through in the store is the book section (my first favorite section is all the dishware/ceramic stuff!).  So one day during our occasional visits, I was browsing through the books and amongst all of them I found an amazing Chicago traveling book!  The title of the book is Fodor's Chicago's 25 Best, 7th Edition and it goes through the 25 best things to do during your visit there.

Awesome book!  Highly recommend it (and would even pay full price if I had to.  Lucky for me I bought it for $2 or something crazy like that! Saaaweet!) It offers some great advice and tips about the city and even has some neat maps too!  I've checked out some more books by Fodors from the library such as Fodor's New York City's 25 Best (yes i go to the library......the books are free........AND I love anything that's FREE!)

I think I have my New York trip all planned out to a "T"..........now all I have to do is convince my husband to go with me! HA!  Anyway, since we go to Chicago often I thought it would be fun to start checking off some of the things that sounded really fun to do (I would really love to do all 25)! Since doing all 25 is not really that practical in one weekends time (well at least not on our budget) I picked out a few to do.  The book does a great job at dividing the city attractions according to location.  This is very helpful especially when you are dealing with such a big city! For example the book divides Chicago into 5 areas.  You have the south side, north side, loop, museum campus, and farther afield (things to do that are not necessarily in the "city" per say....but are worth the trip anyway). I thought the easiest way to get through some of these attractions would be to pick an area to stay at and then do as much as we wanted (and what our pocket book could afford) during that time.  Sounds easy peasy....no?  So on this trip we are staying in the north side area around Michigan Ave and will try to do most attractions that were recommended for this area! The main reason why we planned this weekend getaway in the first place is to go to a chocolate tasting tour (not recommended in the book BTW.......but who doesn't love chocolate?!?!) that I had purchased a while back off of Groupon. The tour is located near the Magnificent Mile therefore we will only be walking distance from where we are staying to everywhere we would like to go.  Amen to that because once we park our car, it will stay there until it is time for us to leave the city (parking ain't cheap in the city people)!  According to the book the top things to do in the North side of Chicago are: attending a ball game at Wrigley Field, John Hancock Center, gallery hopping in River North, Lincoln Park Zoo, Navy Pier, North Avenue Beach, Second City comedy show, and shopping the Magnificent Mile.  There are obviously more to see and do in this area but we are sticking with this book and will try to do 6 out of 8 on this trip.  So here is the unofficial itinerary (because like everything else in my life “nothing goes as planned!” Uh huh!......I am talking to you Mother Nature!)

Thursday:

• Arrive at the hotel and check in.
• Grab something small to eat.
• Enjoy the day at Navy Pier: Go on the Ferris wheel.....enjoy the views of the city from the pier (take loads of pictures).
• Enjoy a romantic meal maybe at Shaw's Crab House (or another restaurant closer to the hotel)
• Comedy show at Second City at 8 or 11 (We would see: "THE ABSOLUTE BEST FRIGGIN TIME OF YOUR LIFE Show")
• Back to the Hotel!

  Friday:

• Enjoy a small breakfast
• Go on the chocolate tasting tour (2 ½ to 3 hours) starts at 12:45                  
• Shop the Magnificent Mile (Nordstroms to use my gift card from my Bday! Hey Hey Hey! Maybe something from my wish list? I'm just sayin!)
• Back to the hotel to rest and change!
• Have dinner at Mike Ditka's restaurant (This is one of Scott To Do's found on this LIST......Ditka's Da Man!)
• Grab a drink at the 96th floor signature cocktail lounge at the Hancock building. Drinks are pricey but there is no fee to get to the lounge and the views are spectacular (so I hear)! On a clear day you are able to see 80 miles and 4 surrounding states from the perch over Oak Street Beach. And if you’re a lady the south views from the women's bathroom are suppose to be amazing (the men might want to throw on a dress and some heels to get a piece of this action! Ha!)
• Back to the Hotel!

Saturday:

• Find/Pack up the car and grab some breakfast
• Head on over to North Ave Beach and find a place to sit and watch the passersby while enjoying our coffee!
• Enjoy a day at the Lincoln Park Zoo (did I mention its free?? Yes I said free…..like you don’t have to fork over any beans to see the lions! Cha ching…..in my pocket that is! So convenient after spending lots and lots of moolah from the days prior….am I a thinker or what?!?!) Oh and we must arrive at the sea lion pool for the 2pm feeding….how cool is that!
• Say C'est La Vie Chicago and head on over to my brother’s place to enjoy a fun filled family party.

(Of course this is all weather permitting.......weatherman forecasts rain most of the days mentioned......Ugh!)

Phew is that a jam-packed fun-filled weekend or what!! Oh and I mentioned above that we are planning on only doing 6 out of the 8 attractions that Fodor’s recommended. The other 2 things we are missing out on are attending a ball game at Wrigley field (it was between this or going shopping….and well clearly I won! Ha! We’re White Sox fans anyway!) and gallery hopping at River North (sounds like a hoot of a time but I think the husband and I would embarrass ourselves!  We would be those people with our heads tilted waaayyy to the side trying to figure out what in the H E double hockey sticks is going on in that picture!  Anyways, I’m saving my art gallery V card for when we take a trip to the big Apple…..Hey, those New Yorkers are a little nuts themselves…..we’ll fit right in! Ha!) Oh don't raise that brow......New Yorker's take that as a compliment! Oh well, we'll have to see how this trip pans out!! Crossing my figures (and toesies) that we have a great time!!!

Just call me Type A ~Joanna D.

Are any of you planning a special weekend getaway somewhere??  Perhaps to Chicago like we are?? Any type A people out there who love to make a detailed itinerary like me or maybe your just a laid back person who loves to go with the flow and do whatever (I'm like this most of the time......I swear!) Maybe you've visited the Big Apple and would love to share your favorites......would love to hear all about it.....leave it in the comments below!