NYE 2018 in Chicago: Day 1-2

Thanks to my parents for watching Lucy & Cece for a few days, Todd & I were able to go to Chicago for a long weekend to celebrate Gina (one of my best friends from high school) & Eric's wedding on New Year's Eve.  We left last Saturday afternoon, enjoyed some time away with friends, ate some really good meals, saw Hamilton (which was amazing), and of course, had the best time at the wedding and ringing in the new year.

Day 1: Saturday, December 29

• Arrived in Chicago late afternoon & checked into our hotel, The Ritz-Carlton (same location as wedding reception)
• Dinner at The Dearborn Tavern
• Dessert at Portillo's
• Welcome Open House at Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse

Excited to head to Chicago

View of Michigan Ave from our hotel room

Beautiful Christmas tree at The Dearborn Tavern

Todd had the fish & chips...

I got a burger and we split a side of brussel sprouts

Waiting for our uber

After dinner, we stopped at Portillo's for some chocolate cake

We took it back to the hotel and ate while relaxing before the Welcome Open House at Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse for the wedding guests

Court & I with the stunning bride-to-be

Todd & I

Day 2: Sunday, December 30

• Workout at Barry's Bootcamp
• Lunch at Shake Shack & shopping at Disney store
• Hamilton at CIBC Theatre
• Dinner at Petterino's

Gina had recommended going to Barry's Bootcamp for a workout so I made my way there on Sunday morning; I was quite proud for navigating myself there and walking instead of taking an uber

Made it!

Loved all the inspirational signs messages inside

Gina & Eric met at Barry's Bootcamp so they had a sign up for them 

Waiting outside the studio room for class to start

And of course it was only fitting that I ran into one of Gina's college best friends in class

View of the Hancock building (which was right next to our hotel) on my walk back 

We had a few hours in the morning before going to lunch & Hamilton so Todd took advantage of the downtime to read for his classes that start up again next week

Lunch at Shake Shack

We had tickets for the afternoon show of Hamilton 

I was so excited to see what the hype was all about

Our seats were really good--we were in the 5th row of the mezzanine

Spoiler alert: the show was incredible and definitely lives up to the hype!

It was almost 3 hours long, including an intermission, so we had made dinner reservations nearby at Petterino's for afterwards

I had chicken parmesan and Todd had some rigatoni dish that was too spicy for me

The lighting was weird inside so this was the best we could do

Since we were done with dinner by 7:00 PM and had nothing else to do, we decided to walk the 1.5 miles back to our hotel and see the city at night; Michigan Ave was gorgeous with the trees all lit up with Christmas lights

A view from the bridge across the river

Next week, I'll have the post up about the wedding!