Chicago Recap

If you follow along on Instagram or Twitter, you know that last weekend I was in Chicago for a quick visit. My dad surprised me with the trip as an early graduation present and we had such a fun time. We arrived early Saturday and left Sunday morning, so it was a quick trip but I have so many pictures that I figured that I would do a recap post rather than include in Friday's My Chic Week post.

We had an early morning flight on Saturday so we could spend more time in the city, which meant I had to get up at 5 AM. It, thankfully, wasn't too bad and we grabbed Starbucks at the airport, which helped a lot too.

The flight itself wasn't bad at all- I picked up Emily Ley's Grace, Not Perfection for the trip so between reading that and watching Gossip Girl, the trip was so quick.

Once we got to Chicago, we checked into the hotel, dropped off our bags, and then headed down to the Bean. I've seen so many Instagrams of the Bean that I wanted to go and, of course, get a picture. It was a pretty easy walk to the Bean from our hotel and we stopped at the bridge overlooking the water, which is right next to the Trump building as well.

This was the view from the hotel room- so pretty!

My dad was a bit skeptical about what the Bean was but it was so much fun to see in person. It is a very touristy part of Chicago but it was a lot of fun to take lots of pictures and selfies in front of it.

After seeing the Bean, we walked back up the Magnificent Mile and did a little shopping before brunch. My family always loves visiting Dylan's Candy Bar when we are in New York so my dad and I were surprised and excited to see that they have a Chicago location. We picked out lots of candy and then hung out at the hotel for a bit.

We had brunch at the Signature Room at the Hancock Building, which was incredible. The views were absolutely stunning and the food was amazing too. They had a buffet full of delicious foods and desserts and you can choose an entree as well. My dad and I both had the Fried Chicken and Waffles, which was so good.

After eating way too much, we decided to do a bit of shopping. Our first stop was Tory Burch, where I tried on and loved this beautiful dress. Unfortunately, the only size they had in the store was a bit too small and it's sold out online. Still super cute though!

We then went to Kate Spade where I found this dress that I decided to wear for my Baccalaureate Mass next month. The sales girls in Kate Spade were so sweet and it was so fun shopping there.

I also wanted to shop at Vineyard Vines and I found a few pieces that I knew I had to try on. The store was so cute and even though there was a line for the dressing rooms, it went by quickly. I wound up purchasing this dress as I thought it would be so cute for grad parties and then for my trip to Kiawah in June.

top ⎢dress

After shopping at Vineyard Vines, we walked around for a while before stopping into Kendra Scott. I didn't wind up buying anything there but I did run into Megan of Bowtiful Life. She was so nice and it was fun to meet her "in person" after reading her blog for so long. J. Crew was in the same area as Kendra Scott so I decided to stop in there as well. I was so excited to discover that the Chicago store carries the J. Crew x New Balance collection since my local J. Crew doesn't carry it. I bought these adorable striped cropped leggings and I've already worn them haha. We decided to go to Nordstrom as our last store of the day since it was close to the hotel. The Chicago Nordstrom is ginormous so we only walked around for a few minutes since there was so much to look at and so many people there haha.

We then headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner and relax a little bit after walking so much (I seriously walked 20,000 steps according to my Fitbit).

We had dinner at Lawry's, which definitely was an experience to say the least. Our food was pretty good but the experience overall was just pretty interesting. The menu is pretty limited so if you're a picky eater like I am, this probably isn't the best restaurant for you. Even though this wasn't our favorite restaurant of the trip, my dad and I laugh looking back on it.

Since we had another early flight the next morning, we went to bed fairly early on Saturday night, which was definitely a good call.

We were up bright and early to head back to Charlotte so while I packed, my dad went to get coffee from the lobby. We took an Uber to the airport and then hung out for a bit as we had some extra time before boarding began.

weekender bag ⎢purse ⎢flats

The flight was thankfully another easy one and we were back in Charlotte before we knew it. We had some pretty incredible views of Charlotte as we landed, which was fun to see as typically I don't get to see a good skyline view flying back into Charlotte.

Have you been to Chicago before? What was your favorite part of visiting? Let me know in the comments!