This trip started with a early wake up call and a rush from the airport to downtown in time to celebrate good ole St. Patrick's Day in the windy city. I can't begin to explain how thankful we are to have friends that live in Chicago. I don't think we would have ever visited if it weren't for them. Every time someone comes to visit them they set up their kitchen island with the sweetest welcome sign and cute guest gifts. In this post I will tell you all about our quick trip and link places you NEED to check out if you end up visiting Chi-Town.
PLAY.
After quickly dropping our stuff off at our friend's apt we jumped into an uber and raced to Henry's Chicago Bar to meet all the other St. Patricks Day drinkers for an adventurous day of binge drinking green beer. The lines to ALL the bars were outrageously long and the weather wasn't so much in our favor that day with bone chilling high winds. Henry's was great because they had awesome music, pool tables, and fast service. After a couple drinks there we walked to the next bar AceBounce. This bar was underground and HUGE! It's not called AceBounce for nothing...it's actually a ping pong bar. Walking in, they had a bar which stretched across the entire back wall, a small seating section for dinning, and the rest of the floor had about 10 large ping pong tables set up one after the other. Ping pong balls were flying everywhere as everyone enjoyed the entertaining game.
No matter what date St. Patricks Day falls on, Chicago will always celebrate on a Saturday. They celebrate by dying the river green, Yes I said "dye"! They do it in Savannah Georgia as well but I've never seen it in person. Seriously WOW seeing the river so goosbumps green was so bizzare but stunning! All the bridges and sidewalks near the water were super crowded so we thought it would be smart to go back Sunday morning too take pictures. I was a little worried the dye would have faded out by that time (google said it only lasted 5hrs) but we were so happy to find it was still very vibrant in color 24hrs later. Check out this cool video of how they change the river color! They (the Chicago Plumbers Union) start the dying process at 9am, using one to two large motor boats with dye and a smaller one to churn the water and unleash the color which sets in after 45min. The dye is more or less food coloring which supposedly won't kill anyone/ anything despite making the water look like nuclear waste. Very cool stuff!
On our second day after brunch which I'll tell you about later we really wanted to check out Cindy's rooftop bar which overlooks the Bean in Millennium Park but the line literally wrapped around the lobby and we weren't in the mood for waiting. So we went up one floor to the Milk Room inside the Chicago Athletic Association Hotel which if I could describe looked like Hogwarts meets Clue. This bar was filled with pool tables, shuffle boards, botchy ball court and mini basketball shooting game. Fun fact the Milk Room used to be a speakeasy during the Prohibition!
That night we went to what I believe everyone should experience when they visit Chicago...the Howl at the Moon Piano Bar. These people are so talented! Like I explained in my previous Chicago post, they will sing anything and everything and get the whole place singing along!
On our last day we went to Willis Tower Skydeck!!! We were so lucky it was Monday and not tourist season because we were able to pay and go straight up to the 103rd floor. At the top we got a full view of the Chicago skyline which was beautiful. They had 4 glass cubes which stick out of the building where you can take pictures in. Only downside was that for groups of less than 4 had 60 seconds to experience the cube and groups of 4 or more had 90 seconds. This brought my anxiety through the roof. For the 30 seconds I was out on the glass floor it was exhilarating, but we were so rushed on making sure we all got a picture we didn't really get the chance to enjoy and take in the stunning views, but we also didn't feel like waiting in line for another 30 min. TOTALLY WORTH IT THOUGH! P.S I'm 110% sure the lines are CRAZY during the summer and holidays.
EAT.
My favorite part about traveling is eating, so lets dig in here! The first restaurant I want to tell you about is Hampton Social. This cute restaurant gives off a cozy beachy look and feel. We all ordered refreshing Frozen Rose's which were just as delicious as they looked. For lunch I ordered Avocado Grilled Cheese with Tomato Bisque Soup and Shoe String Fries...OH BABY this was hands down the BEST grilled cheese I've ever had and that's saying a lot because I'm a huge grilled cheese girl. The bread was grilled with a crispy cheese crust that made it so memorable. Mmm Mmm Mmm! The tomato bisque was the perfect touch to round out this meal, my belly was OH so satisfied. Kylie ordered some mouth watering shrimp tacos (pictured below). I didn't get to taste them, but I do remember her saying they were spicy! They also came in a double corn tortilla not flour. If I wasn't so full I would have definitely taken a bite.
The next restaurant I want to talk about is the Public House. We stopped here for brunch on St.Pats. The first thing that caught my eye were the personal beer taps they had at each booth table. We didn't use our tap because we didn't plan on staying there very long but I think it would be a neat idea since you can serve yourself and not have to wait for your waiter to bring you another drink. Here we enjoyed champagne and I ordered Avocado Toast. I've had and made my fair share of avocado toast and this one wasn't anything to rave about. Although it did taste yummy!
Last thing I wanted to share was that the Oh so cool pizza angel wings we walked up on on night! We weren't able to eat at the Parlor Pizza Bar here but for all my pizza lovers out there these wings make for a cute picture just like those in Nashville! (If you ever end up eating there let me know how it is!)
Have you been to Chicago during St. Patricks Day? If so what was your favorite part?!
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