Chicago Trip: Day 1-2

I love Chicago. 

I went there last week for a mini-vacation and while I knew I would have fun, I was surprised by just how much I loved being there. I planned the trip with my cousin Jackie and we did everything we wanted to do - a food tour, going to "the ledge", seeing the sights, relaxing and more. We did so much that I needed to split my Chicago recap into two posts!  

We left Saturday afternoon and after a short two hour flight, we landed in Chicago and headed over to  our hotel, the Intercontinental | Magnificent Mile Hotel. We got upgraded to a suite and it was SO NICE. Like we had to take pictures and then throw ourselves on the bed in giddiness kind of nice. Plus the hotel was downtown and felt like it was in the middle of everything, which we definitely took advantage of. 

On our first night, we went to Andy's Jazz Club & Restaurant for dinner and you guessed it, a show. It's the first and only jazz club I've ever been to but I thought it was pretty amazing. I loved the food (best ceviche ever!) and the music (Annalee & the Midnight Sons was my fave act of the night) was great too. We splurged on a lot of food good throughout the trip but I think dinner-wise, this was my favorite spot. 

The next day, we walked A LOT. We've been telling everyone that we probably walked about 5 hours in this one day and I really don't think that's an exaggeration. First we walked to Millennium Park which was supposed to be a 20 minute walk away from hour hotel. But of course we kept stopping to take pictures about every 5 minutes so it took much longer than that. I was not prepared for the gorgeous architecture in Chicago. I wanted to capture everything!

But eventually we did make it to the park and saw -- THE BEAN! It's officially known as Cloud Gate but it really does look like a bean. 

From there, we walked to another part of town to meet up with.. our food tour group! We did the Gold Coast and Old Town Tour with Chicago Food Planet and it was so much fun! We had a great guide, there were only 9 people and in addition to trying different kinds of foods, we learned a lot about Chicago itself. Our first stop was at Lou Malnati's for deep dish pizza which is a MUST if you are ever in town. 

Next we went to TeeGschwendner for tea and The Fudge Pot to sample some toffee. Both great but I liked the toffee best. 

Then we went to Old Town Oil and The Spice House. I've never seen so many different kinds of olive  oils, balsamic vinaigrettes and spices all in one place. I saw a bunch of things I wanted to buy for cooking but I was too lazy to lug it back home. 

Our last stop was Delightful Pastries for pierogis and macarons. Both were tasty but I still think Laduree macarons are the best! (I might be biased.) From there we headed back to the hotel for a massage and then got dressed up for a fancy dinner at ...  

Michael Jordan's Steak House, which was right inside our hotel. I'm not even a fan of steak and everything I saw looked mouth-watering good. Especially what I ordered. I usually always have room for dessert but after that dinner, it was straight to food coma. So I was more than happy to go back, change into my pjs, get into bed with a book and relax. Because our next day was just as busy, if not more so! 

Check back tomorrow for part 2 of my recap!