On Thursday, we woke up early as usual, and after a great breakfast, we set off for the day. We started walking south on State Street and stopped at the Barnes & Noble, where I bought a magazine for my mom and spent a good half an hour or more looking at books. I could’ve been there all morning if they let me!

We walked all the way to Chinatown (a good walk if the weather is nice) and arrived there around 10.30 or so. We investigated all the chinese stores, and I bought an ice cream / cookie dough scoop for 3.99$, which is a great price considering what it sells for at Williams-Sonoma. I already had one, but was looking for a bigger one and this one was the perfect size! Now I have a teaspoon sized one and a tablespoon sized one. Anyway, by the time we checked everything out it was 12PM, so we decided to have lunch at the (original) Three Happiness Restaurant.

I had already been there two years ago with my aunt, but that didn’t stop us from making the same mistake when ordering: my aunt and cousin each ordered a huge plate of noodles, big enough to feed four people. Each. Plus, we also ordered some dim sum and a smaller dish of duck with rice. Everything was great (I especially liked the duck and the dim sum, but then again, they’re my favorite things to order when I eat at a Chinese restaurant) but waay too big. The total bill ended up being $30 for the four of us, which was ridiculously cheap, but we could’ve seriously eaten for $10 tops… let’s hope we don’t make the same mistake for the third time!

After stuffing ourselves, we walked up Canal Street looking for a Whole Foods supermarket, because my aunt wanted to buy several reusable bags that were not available in the Whole Foods that’s near the Magnificent Mile. We bought those, marveled at the great selection of cheeses they had, and then took a look at World Market and Michael’s, where I bought a couple of small gifts. Then we headed back to the hotel area for some coffee, but first we stopped to check out a condo. Yes, we’re those people who look at apartments even though they’re not planning on buying one. No, I promise you we’re not crazy. This one in particular was close to the hotel, so in a nice area; big (by Spanish standards) and a loft-like industrial feel. Given the price of that one and other ads we saw around the city, we concluded that real estate is much, much cheaper in Chicago than in the Bilbao area. If only the winters weren’t so freezing cold…

That day, we also had a chance to relax at the Caribou Coffee in front of Millenium Park. I like their blended drinks, even though they’re a bit expensive (but no more expensive than Starbucks, whatever that’s worth). We ended up going to the hotel to have dinner and then walked around Millenium Park for a bit, listening to live music.

Friday was our last whole day there, so we wanted to finish our shopping. We also took advantage of a 25% Macy’s sale; I bought a Martha Stewart Collection Cake Stand which I love. I have four cake stands now… I think that is it for me. At least until I have a huge kitchen! I was also looking for a pair of jeans, which I ended up buying for $28 plus tax at Abercrombie Kids. (Sidenote: I returned a $50 pair I had bought at the adult store when I found those. I swear they make clothes smaller by the minute though. I think it’s so small girls like me can’t buy at the kids store, because it’s cheaper and they have pretty much the same things. Also, don’t you hate it when you pick up an item that’s in the “sales” area of the store, without a tag, then go up to register to pay and they tell you “No, sorry, this is full price. Must have been in the wrong pile…” grrrr)

On Saturday, we woke up to the news that all flights to and from NYC had been cancelled. And thanked the lucky stars that our flight was fine. Although I wouldn’t have minded staying for a few more days in that swanky hotel room! We did some last minute gift shopping (Magnets! They make a great souvenir-like gift. We bought them at the Navy Pier, because there’s a whole store devoted to magnets and it has great variety and prices.) and left for the airport in a shuttle. The shuttle was great, because it picked us up right at our hotel and it was only $60 for all four of us (plus tip). We took this instead of a cab because, well, we had a lot of luggage with us… and we didn’t fit inside a single cab. After getting angry (again) at the Air France counter (that’s a whole other story… they still haven’t answered my complaint, by the way), we boarded the plane to Paris. We arrived home the next day, exhausted, but happy. It was a great trip and I can’t wait to go back!

Check out the previous posts about my trip to Chicago here, here, and here. 

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  Ours was pretty relaxed, since this weekend and the next are the town festivities and will packed with stuff to do and little sleep. Plus, my brother is going away to Belgium for the school year in a couple of weeks, so we’ll be throwing a goodbye party this weekend or the next (and celebrating my cousin’s 18th birthday, too). Hopefully this will give me an opportunity to blog about some new recipes.

I left off the other day talking about our Sunday in Chicago. For Monday 22nd, we had planned on a shopping trip, so we had rented a car with Enterprise for this purpose. Since we only needed the car for that day, and we knew we would be arriving late, we chose Enterprise because it was the cheapest rental company that had after hours drop off available in downtown Chicago without extra charges (leaving the car in a parking overnight and returning it the next morning would’ve been an extra $30 or so). We picked up the car at 8.30AM and, armed with our Google maps directions, set off to the Gurnee Mills Outlet Mall. It was very easy to get there and we arrived just when the mall opened, at 10AM.

Now, some might say that going to an outlet mall isn’t worth it, especially if you have to pay for a rental car to get there – but it was worth it for us. We needed wanted to shop for clothes, shoes, etc. and found the prices at the outlet cheaper than in downtown Chicago, and a lot cheaper than in Spain. At the end of the day (which was around 6PM – no, I’m not kidding. We were at the outlet for 8 whole hours) we had a cart full of goodies to take home. It’s the fourth time I’ve been to Chicago, and the four times I’ve gone to that mall; I’ve always bought enough stuff to compensate for the hour-long trip there. The prices at Abercrombie & Fitch are especially good, more so now that they’ve increased their prices sooo much that I no longer buy anything regular price (seriously, what is up with that? I remember shopping there 8 or 9 years ago and they had so many sales, it was ridiculous. $5 t-shirts, $10 pants… ah, the old days. Now it looks like they’ve become really popular that they no longer have those anymore…). But even if Abercrombie isn’t your thing, there’s a ton of stores which are way cheaper than usual. Especially for basic stuff that doesn’t go “out” of style.

So, on Monday, we spent money like crazy shopped. (Sidenote: when we were filling up the gas tank before returning the car, a Ferrari stopped at the gas station. My cousin was drooling over the car and the owner, very nicely, asked him if he wanted to check out the inside of the car. I think that’s the first time I’ve seen such an awesome Ferrari owner. Normally they’re very stuck up… too bad I didn’t have my camera with me so I couldn’t take a picture) (Another sidenote: we spent like 30 minutes at the gas station because we didn’t know if the car needed gas or diesel, ha). Since we were exhausted, we decided to split up so that two of us dropped the bags at the hotel and went to pick up a pizza, while the other two dropped off the car. We ate the famous Giordano’s stuffed pizza in our gigantic room and slept like babies that night. The pizza was delicious, by the way, although I initially had my doubts (it was my first time eating it, even though I’ve been to Chicago several times).

On Tuesday we went to the Federal Plaza’s Farmers’ Market only to have our plans destroyed by pouring rain. We walked to the Chicago Board of Trade hoping to catch a glimpse of brokers doing their thing, but apparently visitors are not allowed inside anymore. So we ended up at the nearby (and free) Money Museum, in the Chicago Fed. After poking around and taking lots of pictures, we decided that the rain made it the perfect day to visit the Museum of Science and Industry. So we took a bus to Hyde Park and, since it was almost lunch time, walked around the neighborhood for a bit (looking for my parents’ old apartment, which we didn’t find; and the Robie House, which we did find) before having lunch at Medici. Their burgers (the only thing we tried) were awesome.

We spent the afternoon at the Museum of Science and Industry. Although there are several types of tickets available, we only bought the general admission one; thanks to a coupon we found online and a lazy worker (his own words, not mine) we got the four tickets for $39, which is not bad at all. The Bodies Exhibition was also there, but we chose not to see it… I was grossed out by it even before my aunt told me the bodies were real, and not plastic. I mean, who would’ve thought?! They’re real! (I felt a bit stupid for not knowing…) Anyway, we had a great time; I’ve always liked those types of interactive museums. We had an early dinner at the hotel and then went to Borders for a while; I’m sad that they’re closing, but on the up side, I bought three books for $9.30! That’s just ridiculous. And then another day, I bought a dessert book for $1.79, including tax. Even more ridiculous.

On Wednesday it was extremely hot again, so we walked around trying not to melt. I found a four-pack of heat resistant silicone spatulas for $4.99, score! (I think this was at Bed, Bath & Beyond). And visited a really cute shop, POSH, where I bought a gift for my mom. Then we had a great meal at Frontera Grill. Since every time I’ve been there I’ve had to wait for an hour, or eat at the bar, or even both, I had called a few weeks ahead to make a lunch reservation. They only accept reservations for a few tables at Frontera, so they suggest calling 6-8 weeks early depending on the season.

We ordered the ceviche Trio, the  Tacos al Carbon (we chose duck), the Taquitos de Pollo, and the shrimp Quesadillas Norteñas. Everything was delicious, although I especially liked the shrimp quesadillas and the duck tacos. For dessert, we ordered the classic Chocolate Pecan Pie and the chocolate and cherry turnover (Empanada de Cereza y Chocolate). The pecan pie has always been my favorite dessert since I tried it – but I have to say, the turnover gave it a run for it’s money. It was absolutely delicious. Now I have another reason to go back!

I’m off to see a movie with some friends, so I’ll be back on Wednesday with the last of our trip and more pics, as usual.

I also prefer to have some sort of “routine” (maybe I’m a bit boring?),  so all of our days went pretty much like this: woke up (pretty early, thanks to the jet lag). Sometimes went to the gym/pool/jacuzzi (truth be told, this step was mostly done by everyone else but me. I think I went to the gym a total of three times, and it amazed me how many people worked out at 5.30 in the morning! I preferred to sleep, if I could). Then we had a (huge) breakfast and after grabbing our purses/cameras, set out for the day. Then we came back at around 6.30PM if we were having dinner at the executive lounge (since it ended at 7), or 9-ish if we had dinner elsewhere. If we were having dinner elsewhere, we packed a bagel with cream cheese and turkey for lunch while having breakfast (yes, we’re those people who grab food for later, sorry…); eating only one meal out a day actually saved us a ton of money. Which is always good in my book!

I’ve just realized that I’ve written a lot of words without saying anything of what we actually did/saw. So I’ll stop blabbering and get to the point. The day we arrived (Thursday, Aug. 18th) we waited around in the lounge while they finished cleaning up our room; and by the time we settled in, took a shower and changed it was already 5PM. So we grabbed a quick bite in the lounge and went out for a walk. I wanted to go to the Apple Store to set an appointment so I could get my laptop fixed, so we headed for the Magnificent Mile and window shopped for a while. We wanted to check out some stores and see if they had any sales going on, since we were going to a nearby outlet mall another day. They didn’t have a lot (bummer). We also popped into Hershey’s and Ghirardelli’s (both next to the Water Tower) and both places gave us a free sample, yay!

The next day was sweltering hot, but we still managed to walk around the whole Millenium Park and Grant Park for hours. The Crown Fountain was a hit and a nice place to cool off for a bit before continuing our walk. We also made it to Navy Pier, which was full of families but nice (and had air conditioning, which was great). Since the annual Air & Water Show was taking place the next day and they were practicing for it, we sat down for a bit and watched the practice. Watching them practice was actually more interesting than the show itself…

On Saturday, we woke up bright and early, grabbed some fruit from the lounge (and our lunches, ha) and headed out for the Chicago Line Cruises for the Architecture River Cruise we had booked. These cruises can be expensive, and the price varies depending on the company you choose, but we went with this one because it offered 50% off their normal price if you booked the cruise for 8AM on a Friday or a Saturday. Plus, if you booked it online, they knocked an additional $2 off the price of each ticket! We ended up paying $60 for the four of us (three adults, one children). Considering the initial price was something crazy like $39, I think it was an awesome deal. The tour is almost two hours long and very interesting, I definitely recommend it. Also, they offer complimentary drinks (coffee, tea, lemonade, …) and cookies & muffins, which we had as breakfast that day.

When the cruise finished, we checked out the nearby Fox & Obel gourmet supermarket. I love it there! On our last day in Chicago we went there again (looking for donuts, which they sadly didn’t have) and bought a chocolate chip cookie instead. It might have been the best cookie I’ve ever had. Seriously.

Anyway, our idea was to then watch a bit of the Air & Water Show from the beach, but they had to cancel it due to an electric storm. So we did what apparently everyone else did – went to the Water Tower Mall that’s right next to the beach when it started pouring. Now, this is when the days become hazy. I don’t recall what we did this afternoon (oops) but I think we walked around a lot and shopped for a few things. I remember we had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory that’s just below the Hancock Tower. I know it’s a country wide chain, but only my aunt and I had been there already. The food was nice, as was dessert, like always. I’d like to take a moment to point out that they have the air conditioning cranked up all the way… and it was freezing!! Why do they always do that? I mean, it’s a hot summer day and I have to carry a sweater around because I know that I’ll freeze while I’m having dinner. That’s just stupid. Plus it’s a huge waste of energy.

On Sunday, we took a long walk along the shore and, again, tried to watch the show. This time they didn’t cancel it, but apparently we had already seem the more exciting stuff while they practiced on Friday… we wanted to go to happy hour at McCormick & Schmicks (from 12-4PM on Sat & Sun) but they were closed at 1PM (so weird btw, since we saw it was open that evening and had asked the day before if they were open on Sundays). We ended up having ribs at Carson’s instead, since that’s something that we don’t usually eat here at home. Later on we walked to Buckingham Fountain and saw a lot of Quinceañeras going on. It was crazy, at first we weren’t sure if they were weddings or not, they had a lot of people dressed up just like bridesmaids and groomsmen (I just realized we might have done this on Saturday. Oh well). We also walked to the Sears Tower (or I should say Willis Tower) with every intention of going up… yeah, not really. I’m afraid of heights. My aunt and cousin wanted to go up, but they decided not to because the queue was more than an hour long…

How about you guys? Have you ever been to Chicago? Any recommendations for next time I’m in town? Or for my parents, who visit once a year or so and like to try new places to eat? Oh, and stay tuned for the rest of our trip and more details of were we shopped/ate!

Like I told you on Monday, I just got back from a 10 day vacation in Chicago. I went there with my boyfriend, my aunt, and one of my cousins and we all had a great time. It wasn’t the first time I was there (nor my aunt’s) but it was for the other two, so we visited many of the usual places like the Millenium Park and the Science and Industry Museum. After booking our flights with Air France (which, by the way, treated us quite badly – I still have to send a complaint e-mail, actually) we started looking for hotels.

At first I looked at Priceline’s Name Your Own Price system: I had used it when I visited with my aunt two years ago, and it worked out great; we got a 60$/night room at the Hyatt Regency which is in a great location. The hotel was great and the staff was extremely nice to us even though we had booked through Priceline (I’ve heard this can give you trouble sometimes depending on the hotel and staff) and our rate was dirt cheap. They even upgraded us to a lake view room and since we didn’t have breakfast included in the rate, we bought some basic groceries and always had our breakfast in our room while overlooking the lake. Good times.

So you can see why I tried booking through Priceline first. However, the previous trip happened in September, while this one was in August. See the problem there? Even though I tried bidding for a room endless times, there was no way I was getting one as cheap as I wanted. I went to the next option: checking out hotel rates at the Hilton hotels in Chicago. Since my family is a Diamond VIP member, we would have access to a lounge which includes breakfast and enough dinner appetizers to sometimes skip dinner out and eat there (huge money saver). I looked and looked and finally struck out: a 143$/night plus tax rate for the Palmer House Hilton – booked through the Hilton website using their MVP rate. Anyone who has a HHonors account can use that rate, and a HHonors account is free! It’s great because the rate is totally cancelable, too. Oh and I swear that this not an ad for Hilton, we just thought the rate was great for August, especially since it included breakfast and even a light dinner for us. (Even if you’re not a Diamond member, paying for a room in the Executive floor so you can access the lounge was an additional 20$/night, and I think that’s a great value). Plus we were okay with sharing a room among the four of us, so we didn’t need two.

Tip: If you ever try to book a room and want the cheapest rates possible, try separate bookings for weekends (which sometimes include Thursdays and Mondays) and non-weekends. The rate is sometimes different and if you make a single reservation the website gives you the highest rate for all the nights, so you save money by doing the reservation in “pieces”.

Anyway, after booking the room (a two double bed type of room) I decided to e-mail the property to see if they would upgrade us to a nicer room, just in case I got lucky. Which I did! They were extremely nice and upgraded us to a one bedroom suite, free of charge. It probably had a lot to do with being Diamond members, but it never hurts to ask. Especially if you’re visiting for a especial occasion like anniversaries or birthdays. So this is how we got this huge room (with two bathrooms!).

Seriously, check out the pictures.

The room was bigger than our whole apartment, I’m not kidding. It was actually bigger than we needed – I think we only used the dining table a couple of times – but it had some things that were especially useful, namely:

• Two bathrooms, which was nice because it was four of us.
• A living room separated from the bedroom, so if anyone woke up earlier than others because of the jet lag, they could just watch tv in the living room.
• A wet bar with an empty fridge. Some people might prefer the typical mini bar with snacks and drinks, but the empty mini fridge was better for us because we could store drinks and food there.
• A ton of closets: we used one to store all of our luggage and keep it out of sight, another to store our clothes, and the last one to let air dry clothes after going to the pool or working out.

The Executive lounge was very big and offered a typical breakfast; no omelettes or bacon, but I don’t have that for breakfast so I didn’t mind. It included the usual fruit, pastries, bagels and toast, cereals, juices, milk, coffee, tea, etc. plus cold turkey, boiled eggs, porridge and a couple of other things. The bagels were delicious! During the day, you had water and soft drinks available, plus some type of snacks and fruit. From 5 to 7PM, there were appetizers, but you could also make dinner out of it if you wanted: it typically included two types of hot appetizers (like mini quiches, chicken wings, or raviolis), a dipping sauce with some kind of chips (tortilla chips with guacamole, or hummus with pita), crudités, and a variety of cheeses with crackers. At 7PM they cleared everything and at around 8PM they served some type of dessert, normally fudge or cookies. You could also order cocktails, wine or beer if you wanted and charge it to your room, but we never had any so I can’t comment on how they were.

All in all, we had a great stay there. The location was convenient enough; close to State Street shopping and the Millenium Park, although a little farther away from the Magnificent Mile. Since the weather was very nice while we were there we didn’t mind the walks at all though. On Friday I’ll continue with the more interesting stuff – the things we did/saw/ate while in Chicago!