Staycation

Hello Friends!

Happy day after the Chicago Marathon! Congratulations to all the runners! Super special shout out to those I know and who kicked-ass. So proud of you!

Today is the day I tell you all about a GLORIOUS weekend I had with some of my very favorite people. We were out celebrating LIFE, MARRIAGE & Friendship. I honestly am already planning the next Staycation. If ya’ll weren’t aware we live in Chicago. To say there is lots to do here is a massive understatement our Staycation covered about .025% of what to do in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs but I’m going to share and encourage everyone to do this.

Friday began pretty straight forward. Last minute packing (duh…) a shower and trying to clean a but of my house that was upside-down. Before we knew it we were headed to our first stop of our staycation a tour in Oak Park of Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and studio:

Now. Let’s just stop right here. This guy was a pure genius and interesting to learn about. He lived beyond his means “hand to mouth” I believe was the phrase he was the epitome of “fake it to you make it” and his home life even was a bit scandalous, something about getting caught in Europe with a mistress, but ANYWHO this guys is famous for good reason as his ideas were… spectacular. This house features a playroom my kids would kill for, a studio that his breathtaking, and some hacks (e.g. painted plaster that looked like bronze and granite) to make it look like he had boatloads of money. He was a design-with-purpose type guy all about an experience and let me tell you I had to pick my jaw off the floor several times during this tour.

If you follow my photography page on Facebook you may have seen these. I didn’t get too many of inside the studio – it was hard not to get people in my shots and I wanted to do FLW justice. I highly recommend this tour – click here for website. We also took the walking tour where you get this cool looking phone thing to walk around stunning Oak Park this phone talks to you and tells you about several houses near his home. I’m sure there was great information but I was more concerned about taking a few pictures and missed a lot it…lol guess I’ll have to do it again!

After this experience we ate a local fav spot – the Blue Max and headed downtown to our hotel:

Kimpton Hotels host a wine hour with a featured red and white. We grabbed glass (or two) each and headed off to dinner at Proxi.

Proxi is one of my new favorite restaurants. Small plates, great cocktails. We loved the shaved zucchini, elote something or another, and some sort of fish in a coconut curry sauce. You can check out the menu here – their Gin and Tonics are pretty and tasty and I quite like their champagne ice cubes.

After dinner we headed to London House for drinks – the view was spectacular.

We stumbled into our hotel and took a snooze before my favorite part of the weekend SPA DAY. Saturday we took a stroll to Target to come back and have brunch at Sable (yum!), followed by a nice walk to the Gold Coast.

My dear friend and I were treated to a spa day at the Waldorf Astoria and holy.oh.my.god. Was it ah-mazing.

Mark, my masseuse, ripped my back apart in the best way the whole time I was just like “I’m so grateful, I’m so grateful” – Truly lucky – I highly recommend him, he just got all the knots and I smelled like a lavender leaf when I walked (glided? hovered? flew? IDK it was graceful and I was butterfly-like) out of the room. They treat you so well at the Waldorf, they have fabulous products (Oribe! My fav!) for use and the very best coconut water while you wait in the resting room.

After our massage we had an hour of relaxing followed by a facial. Jenny was amazing, the room was quite and my face felt pampered I even fell asleep at one point. I came out literally glowing. I cannot wait to go back. Thank you thank you for booking this for us boys!

After our Spa day we were so hungry. Walked in just in time for wine hour, ran upstairs and headed over to Eately. I’ve probably never eaten so much bread before in my life and olive oil.

On Sunday my wonderful husband got up early and took a nice walk with me along the river. Chicago is such a beautiful city. We enjoyed the beautiful fall flowers and super quite landscape. Chicago is such a beautiful city and it was wonderful to walk hand and hand with my soulmate taking in this beautiful place we live.