Hello there! Gosh, it's been a whole week since my last post. This week has completely gotten away from me but I'm happy to be home and back to blogging. Last week was a crazy time of preparing for a weekend getaway in Chicago!

I'm in St Louis and although Chicago is only a 5 hour drive away, I had never visited the city. Gina from Maddy James invited me to come to town to model a few pieces from her exquisite new autumn line so we took the little ones to my mom's house and Pj and I hit the road on Friday afternoon.

We checked into The Whitehall Hotel shortly after 3pm and unpacked before heading out to explore the city. The Whitehall is a beautiful little boutique hotel in the heart of the Magnificent Mile. It was built in 1928 and has been enjoyed by Katherine Hepburn, The Beatles and Sophia Loren! This hotel originally had 3 luxury apartments on each floor. Read about the fascinating history here



We walked several blocks away to find The Billy Goat Tavern, founded in 1934. The Billy Goat is known for cheap, good pub food. There was a funny old guy behind the bar who yelled at us as soon as we came in "Hi! What you want? Double cheese da best!" So I said "Double cheese it is!" and he shoved us down the line to wait for our food. Although the service wasn't very friendly or relaxing,  it was fast, cheap and yummy.



After dinner, we found a free trolley to Navy Pier. We had no idea that they even had such a thing!



Navy Pier was way more awesome than we expected. I have never seen any of the great lakes and was not expecting Lake Michigan to be so beautiful and so big! The water was this gorgeous blue-green with little waves and lighthouses. Its like a little ocean! In Missouri, we have these awful muddy rivers so it was quite amazing for us to see. A huge storm rolled in over the city while we were at the pier. By the time it started raining, there was Pj and I and two guys hanging out in the rain. They kindly offered to snap a pic of us together.



Pj really wanted to pet a seagull. He told me a silly joke that goes "Why do seagulls live by the sea?...because if they lived at the bay, they'd be "bay-gulls" (say it out loud)



 


We walked back to the hotel from the trolley stop, stopping at Trader Joe's. I had sushi and wine in bed and watched the Travel Channel till I crashed.





Stay tuned tomorrow for day two of our amazing weekend in Chicago!



My fab dress is from Tatyana Boutique via Modcloth