CHICAGO!

Yup, that's right - Mr. Hess and I took it upon ourselves to have me tag along on another work trip of his this month and spend a little "QT" with each other. And, I know what you're thinking...that it was driving me nuts that we couldn't get anything done AND I was spending and not making money down here in Florida...well...INSERT MEWAH MEWAH SOUND...for once, this wasn't the case!  I knew ahead of time that March would almost be a wash with getting what we needed to get done DONE, so I embraced that and as a result, everything that HAS gotten done has turned into a pleasant surprise... ;)

CHICAGO...WE'RE HERE!

I took this pic while I was in the passenger's seat in a car, but still loved it!

Let's start with our first night there: I was SO excited to get into the city after we landed, but let me just say my welcome into Chicago was not the smoothest...

I was very excited to land and still on Could 9 that Mr. Hess has surprised me with first class seats on my flights up to Chicago - how sweet is that?!  I actually landed a few minutes early into the O'Hare airport and started walking towards baggage claim, anxious to see my man! Sadly, the excitement of landing early quickly dwindled when I came to realize I was the last one on my flight left at baggage claim - sans bag.  My ride and Mr. Hess's partner in crime - we'll call him Bar (pronounced Bear) must have circled around the arrival lanes about 50 times before finally giving up on my bag arriving on time.  They had to hurry to the arena and get to the Bulls game while I was left to raise "you know what" in order to get my bag in a timely matter.  So there I was: no ride, no bags and worried about getting to the game on time!  Luckily, our friend An came to the rescue with snacks and refreshments, because little did I know the 15 minutes planned to grab my bags turned into a 4 and a half hour wait time! YUCK!  She was very sweet and felt bad about the whole thing, when obviously nothing about that was her fault!  I could have had the bags delivered to my hotel, but I knew THAT would take even longer and no one had time for that nonsense. 

So, needless to say, I finally got my bags and it was time to head to the Bulls game!  YAY!  I always love the opportunity to travel to different cities and experience NBA games from that city's perspective.  The game was really fun and I had a great time watching while Mr. Hess worked.  It felt great to "get away" again and know we had a few days in the city ahead...

The next day, Mr. Hess and I planned to enjoy the parks, tour some buildings and take advantage of the culture that Chicago has to offer.  Unfortunately, the weather had other plans: dropping to what felt like zero and raining.  So, we had to improvise!  We took this opportunity to tour the Museum of Contemporary Art followed by shopping and finding my two new favorite stores in the city Hershey's and Ghirardelli! ;) I can't lie that Mr. Hess and I both got pretty excited about this adventure:

HOLY Hershey Bar! This thing literally weighed 5 pounds!

I'm pretty sure he could have drank that entire bottle of chocolate syrup, lol.

Ghirardelli hot cocoas - THE BEST hot chocolate EVER! :)

And..what better way to spend your time at at the Contemporary Art Museum, than remembering your time with some great photo opps?

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Self explanatory, and I'm pretty sure we're the only ones who took pictures with this.

Just a hanging out in the giant shells...

Ahhh! There you are Mr. Hess - in the rubber house...of course!

 

So, you probably get by now that we made a great day out of a rainy and cold day in Chicago.  It wasn't ideal for "touring the city," but we still had a great time together and I would love to come back to the city either in early spring, or fall one day.  I'm sure there's TONS we didn't get to do or see!

The last night before we left, we got to spend some time with one of Mr. Hess's best friends and groomsmen, Bar!  The two guys have always had a close bond and together are pretty ridiculous.  No matter what they do or where they go, there's always bound to be lots of shenanigans and laughs happening.  We had a nice dinner and went out to the House of Blues, which was so much fun!  We didn't really want to leave, but at the end of the night we were all impressed by the funny little mini "pew pew" gun that our waitress shared with us, and yes, this is completely normal. ;)

 

There they are...An "pew pew"ing Bar, so funny.

 

On the last morning of our trip, Mr. Hess and I woke up and spent the remainder of our time with Bar before we had to head back to sunny Florida - sorry guys...had to throw that in! He took us up to his new place and we had brunch at a charming little diner by the arena that SCREAMS Chicago!  The owner of this place was hysterical and told us jokes I've never heard before...mostly inappropriate for this blog, so just use your imagination on those!  But, needless to say...even brunch was FUN.  Love these two...

 

Up on the rooftop @ Bar's place - what a view!

 

Thanks for a great trip, Mr. Hess. I feel very lucky to be able to travel with you and just enjoy time together during such a crazy time.  There's still a few huge things going on in the near future, but for the most part we are now able to focus on planning a little more.  I was pleasantly surprised last night when HE suggested to start looking at where we want to register at, and loved every second of browsing so far...stay tuned to see how we tackle THAT adventure!

Thanks for reading, and I'm sure there will be plenty up and coming to read about as we enter into April.  Time sure is flyyyyying....

 

 

Until Next Time,
Presh