Chicago Visit for a Girls Weekend

Planning a Chicago visit?! Here are some of my favorite stops and sights that you should visit!

In the middle of August, I had the chance to join 6 other fabulous food and creative bloggers in Chicago, Illinois for 3 full days of learning, sight-seeing and relaxation. I’m so glad we held the Lift Blog Retreat in Chicago.  I had never been to the popular city and was so shocked at all the fun things to do! Let me share a few of my favorite things we did to help you plan a trip to Chicago. 

THE HOTEL: 

After our planes landed we headed off to our amazing hotel the Le Meridien Chicago – Oakbrook.  Our stay was more than perfect!  The Le Meridien did more than welcome us and made sure we had everything we needed.  The hotel was only about 25 minutes away from the city and was right next to a large shopping mall and restaurants. And let’s talk about that wall!  It just screams…take a picture with me! 🙂

THE ATTRACTIONS:

 Our first day in Chicago was a day of sight-seeing. Make sure you get the Go Card. Go Card is available in many major cities and is great for a stress-free time in Chicago. The Go Card saves you about 55% on entry to 20+ greater Chicago landmarks and attractions, it many cases you can even bypass the long lines.   We visited the SkyDeck which is on the 103rd floor of the Willis Tower.  Once to the top you will have an amazing 360 degree view of the Chicago Sky Line…it’s beautiful and so high! 🙂  While on the top floor we stepped out onto“The Ledge” which is a plexiglass cube that hangs out 1,353 feet over the city.

 We also visited Millennium Park & The Loop  right in the middle of Millennium park is the ever popular “bean!”

THE FOOD:

While were were walking around the The Magnificent Mile we made absolutely sure we stopped by Garrett Gourmet Popcorn. I’m warning you now…the Caramel Crisp with Cashews is seriously addicting!

For lunch we stopped at Giordano’s Pizzeria and ate some delicious deep dish pizza –  I have never had a pizza with the sauce on the top and my goodness….maybe I have been eating pizza wrong my whole life?!  For dinner we had the chance to join Earls Kitchen + Bar in Lincoln Park for a tasting of some of their most popular menu items!  The food was amazing. I even tried curry and a few other dishes I had never tasted before and I loved it all.

THE LEARNING:

Sight-seeing and delicious food aside, my favorite part of our trip was just sitting down and learning and talking with other bloggers.  Our day filled of learning and brainstorming together wouldn’t have been possible without a few of our sponsors!  We were so excited to have some fabulous sponsors that helped make our retreat even more amazing.

Shutterfly supplied some great personalized notebooks, notepads and mason jars.  Our notebooks were filled with notes and our glasses were refilled time and time again! 

 

Consumer Crafts: gave us a fun gift card to keep our creativity going even after the retreat. 

PrismaColor :supplied some really fun pens and colored pencils that were great for taking notes and doodling!

We only did a few of the things the great city of Chicago has to offer!  I hope one day to make it back and pick up where we left off!  What are some of your favorite stops in the windy city?

Special thanks to the following sponsors for helping make our retreat an amazing experience:

Le Meridien Oakbrook – Chicago 
GoCityCard from the Illinois Board of Tourism
Mazda
Earls Kitchen + Bar
Shutterfly
Consumer Crafts
PrismaColor