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Hello Darlings!!!
Much to my chagrin this is my first post for the new year. But I’ve been busy with home improvements, upgrading the blog, traveling; you know just living life. It hasn’t been all rainbows and sunshine! I was in three, yes three, different car incidents: an uninsured driver hit me, than someone hit the rental car I was driving while waiting on my car repairs (a hit and run in front of my house they did not leave their information) and I hit a parked car. Let me explain that one. I was driving my husbands truck, a Suburban, which I’m usually pretty good at maneuvering but I thought Obama (that’s what we named our Suburban, yes we name our cars) had more room but alas he did not.
The end of 2019 hit hard, literally. I was defeated for like a day, than I bounced back. After all I have a fabulous life to lead. We can’t let a few bumps in the road derail this freight train.
Our Trip to Chicago
2020 began with a little/big trip to Chicago aka The CHI. I say little because we were still state side and it was a quickie. Big because this was a surprise and a sports bucket list trip for my husband.
I enlisted my brother-in-law Dre (seated at the head of the table in the pic below) to help me with my little the surprise. He agreed to be apart of my ruse. We came up with a “boys trip” to Chicago for a Bulls game. Let me just say I’m not surprising anyone, with anything, ever again!!! Whatever I do moving forward for anyone, you’re going know about it and you’ll be happy with your gift, whatever it is.
Trying to keep this trip under wraps (and not have it turn into a real boys trip) was no small feat, I failed. I inevitably hurt some feelings, which wasn’t my intent, but feelings were hurt nonetheless. The whole purpose of the trip was for my amazing, hard-working, incredibly deserving husband to have a once in a life time experience. Mission accomplished despite the drama. He had a blast and that’s the only thing that really matters. He saw his beloved Bulls fall to the Boston Celtics but we checked another item off the old bucket list. Yay us!!
We stayed at the Godfrey Hotel.
The Godfrey is an amazing little boutique hotel in the heart of the city. I was looking for something fancy but not uber pricey for me and my boo thang and the Godfrey fit the bill. The room was spacious, clean, well designed and well furnished. Clearly I enjoyed jumping on the bed. Shh don’t tell the Godfrey.
The Godfrey has so many cool amenities:
Spa, rooftop lounge, private meeting spaces, fitness center, complimentary shoe shine for the business traveler. One of the cooler amenities (no pun intended) were the party igloos; yup igloos. You can rent an igloo for several hours. It comes with bottle service of course.
We didn’t rent the igloo but we did have drinks at the rooftop lounge; which was very swanky. We also took pictures at the entrance of the lounge which was super sexy, am I right?! The staff was very friendly and helpful. A light went out in my bedroom and the facilities staff came up right away to fix it. On at least two separate occasions the room looked like a tornado hit it. You would have never known because the house keeping staff was so amazing. They even provided my brother-in-law with a microwave; upon request of course. So to say they were accommodating would be an understatement.
The good times didn’t end at the Godfrey. We visited all the touristy spots you can imagine, The Bean, The Chicago Theatre, The Riverwalk and strolled the Magnificent Mile. We drove by the Gold Coast. It was cold. The walking part of the tour had to end at some point.
Obviously we had to try the local fare. And what’s Chi-town known best for other than Michael Jordan (the greatest basketball player who ever lived just in case you were born in the 90’s and you’re reading this); DEEP DISH PIZZA!!!
We visited Gino’s East and Giordano’s.
Both deep dish pizzas were delicious. But if I had a gun to my head and I HAD to choose, Giordano’s would win. Why didn’t we visit Uno’s, because there just wasn’t enough time. It’s on the to do list for my next visit to the Chi. We also stopped by Portillo’s for a “Beef”, essential a cheesesteak sandwich. It was yummy I’d go back.
VS
We did dine out like grown-ups on two separate occasions. The most noteworthy was our visit to the original Morton’s Steakhouse for dinner. I can’t take credit for this, Dre planned the whole dinner. The food was amazing.
Funny story after all our exploration and a nap, we wanted to go out for drinks. We found a lounge, Tantrum. The name wouldn’t suggest this lounge was different from any other run of the mill lounge in any major city, right?! Wrong, it was in fact a gay lounge. As I entered, I thought my goodness there sure are a lot of girls out tonight, glad I’m married… LOL Moral of the story read the fine print.
The Look
I purchased my whole look from Amazon.
Shoes (similar)
I used my new favorite, the Honey palette, from Urban Decay on my eyes.
I used the Black Opal foundation sticks Truly Topaz (face) and Beautiful Bronze (contour) to beat my face into submission. So let me tell you I love these sticks. They are amazing for traveling, totally full coverage. Be warned they are a little on the heavy side so I loosen them it up with Mac Cosmetics, Face and Body foundation. I’m shade C7. I finished the look with Lime Crime liquid matte lipstick, shade Red Velvet on the lips. I love these lipsticks, I literally have 10 lipsticks. Does anyone want to see my makeup kit? Sound off in the comments. I’ll probably show you anyway one day soon.
Until next time loves…
Andrea
XOXO
Photo credit: Me and Dynamic Duo Images.