always allison: Travel: Chicago Photo Diary

As they say, better late than never. I've finally through and edited my thousand pictures I took while in Chicago. Back in December, one of my closest friends, Marti, and I took a girls weekend to the Windy City. By closest, I mean we've known each other since 7th grade, which means we've lasted through the awkward stages, the boys and breakups, the college years, and celebrated some pretty amazing things together. During our planning, an adventurous weekend away from St. Louis couldn't have been more welcome.

During the visit, Marti and I fell in love with Uber, visited the most hipster of hipster bars, devoured a pizza pie, almost vomited at the top of the Willis Tower, attended a Prohibition Repeal Party, hit up the Forever 21 discount store, and were graced by the presence of the voice of an angel (aka Sam Smith). A direct Allisonism from this hipster of hipster bar called Estelle's, "The veggie burger smells and tastes of sawdust and armpit, and the shots remind me of last weekend." That being said, I don't recommend eating there, but if you're looking for Jameson shots and a drunken night, Estelle's is your scene.

Reception sucks in a big city with so many tall buildings so don't be surprised if your GPS directs you the wrong way numerous times. It took us about an hour of walking in circles and asking for better directions to finally track down Giordano's Pizza.

One of our Uber drivers took us past the Chicago Theater on the Saturday we were there, where they had changed the marquee to read, "Fitz and the Tantrums and Sam Smith TONIGHT." Immediately, we hopped on StubHub and were able to wrangle tickets for $35 a piece. Absolutely amazing show. If you have the chance to see Sam Smith perform live, do it.

After a jam packed weekend of going non-stop, Marti and I concluded that as much as we enjoyed Chicago, we would probably never want to live there. So, until next time, Windy City!

{Giordano's Super Veggie Pizza}

{City Streets}

{Scenes from the Allegro Hotel}

What caught my eye while booking was the decor and every little aspect of the hotel. Colorful, modern, chic. It was great calling this "home" for the weekend. Jumping on the bed and pulling an R. Kelly "after the show, it's the after party. And after the party, it's the hotel lobby" may have been slightly frowned upon but girls just wanna have fun. Nice little tidbit: if you live in the Midwest and book on their website, they offer discounted rates.