Chicago Girls Weekend 2011

Part of my 2011 Resolutions were to be more open to friendships, visit the people I always said I wanted to go visit and go do things to celebrate life.  So, for my monumental birthday this year in February (hint: I’m mid-way through my 30’s), I decided I wanted to go do something fun to celebrate.  I immediately thought of my three girlfriends I’ve known since junior high who shared a birthday month with me, since we’d all be celebrating this year.  One of them could not attend, but it became a group of six quickly and we chose Chicago.  I’d honestly never been outside of O’Hare, as I’d changed flights there for business a few times, so I was eager to explore Chicago.

We all flew in on a Friday and most of the day was spent traveling and getting everyone settled in.  We stayed downtown at the Embassy Suites on State Street, within walking distance or a quick cab ride to everywhere we wanted to go. 

The entire group headed out for dinner and dancing in the evening, but prior to heading out we thought we’d take a detour to the manager’s reception in the hotel aka “Free Happy Hour.”  It just so happened that a large bachelor party from Ontario  and several women affiliated with a very large dental convention were staying.  We had fun making new friends and catching up with old ones.  We found a nice pizza place not too far away for dinner.  We had the cutest little waitress from Macedonia, that I now wish we’d taken some pictures there.  Then we headed to a club and found more people from the convention in town and danced the night away into the wee hours of the morning!

Saturday was our big day.  We headed to Chinatown for a morning excursion and had Dim Sung for lunch.  We explored the shops where I found some cute little Kitty Kat chopsticks for my kids.  I have recently discovered that they will try anything new in my stir-fry dishes if I say it’s an exotic vegetable from another country AND give them chopsticks to use!

We also stumbled onto a really cool shop in Chinatown that had some pieces of Dr. Seuss’ artwork.  Interestingly enough, I was with a friend of mine in Chicago who was with me in Sausalito, CA a few years back where we saw the entire exhibit in a gallery there!  Being a huge Dr. Seuss fan – I was ECSTATIC! 

Next we walked through the cutest, most photogenic Chinese bakery I’d ever been into.

Since it was Chicago Restaurant Week­ we took advantage of the prix fixe menu at Elate at the Hotel Felix off Huron. 

I had the Herb Crusted Citrus Cod with Lentils.

And a Raspberry Lemon Basil Curd for dessert.

Along with a healthy sprinkling of fine wine.  We had a wonderful time and got it for a great value on top of it. 

We then headed out for another night on the town which included a brief stint at the Green Mill Jazz Club known to be frequented by Al Capone.  The very mean looking & sounding henchmen at the door barked, “$12! No Talking! No Flash Photography! No Cell Phones!”  Three of us arrived before the rest of the group and got to experience about 15 minutes of the best jazz I’d heard live, but sadly, we knew we couldn’t follow the rules.  And one look at this man sent shivers down my spine to think about what might happen if we couldn’t.  We decided to head next door to a gay sports bar.   A completely different atmosphere, however, more conducive to planning our next few stops of the evening. 

I won’t be posting any pictures of the rest of the evening, but I will tell you it included many extra fun birthday celebration activities by our group members such as dancing on a bar, several shots, a spontaneous tongue piercing, glitter and four of us got new nicknames!  We had such a great time, I was hoarse for three days after returning home from laughing SO HARD with girlfriends.  Something I had not done in YEARS! 

On our last day in Chicago, we were able to take in some culture at the Chicago Cultural Center.  The “Peace on Earth” film festival was also this same weekend, along with a wonderful photography exhibit in the Michigan Avenue Galleries.  Finding Vivian Maeier: Chicago Street Photographer was on display along with an exhibition called Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women and Art

Lastly, we had a nice walk back down State Street to our hotel.  We crossed over the Chicago River and it was slightly misting.

This trip exceeded my expectations.  It was perfect, but I was just present in the moment, enjoying every minute of it.  Our group ended up being such a great mix and we had just the perfect amount of site seeing, shopping, exploring, culture and nightlife.  A perfect way to celebrate a significant birthday during a time in my life where I am trying to create a new chapter.