Sunday, April 29, 2012

Chicago (Part II) & Nashville

About a month ago I spent a couple of weeks in Chicago, Ryan came up to visit for a long weekend in the middle of the trip.  The first day with Ryan we did some sightseeing as I mentioned in the Part 1 post.  Day 2 we got up, grabbed Starbucks and headed to the Wendella Architectural Boat Tour.  If you are ever in Chicago you must do this, it's really neat.  It's a great way to see the city and learn about all of the cool buildings and the history. However, get there early to line up if you want to sit on top deck.

This is Ryguy and myself sitting on the boat, about to take off for the tour. 


The Wendella ticket office and boat loading dock are right under the Wrigley Building (again my fav).


Another view of the city from the first half of the tour...


These buildings are SOOOO cool! They are completely round and have a parking garage in the bottom of them.  Apparently the only way to park here is by backing in to your parking space.  I'm convinced by my husband, my father in law, and especially my own father that guys are OBSESSSED with backing in to parking spaces.  When is the last time you saw a girl do that just for the heck of it???... I wonder if a bunch of men live in these condos??


This is a view of the city towards the end of the tour, anyone spot the Batman building? :) 
On the far left you see a parking garage and that was also used in the last Batman movie.


 This tour rocks and it's really cool to see all of the neat types of architecture in the Windy City and see the differences in them from what decade/period they were built in.


Chicago weather is very bizarre because one minute it's blue skies and gorgeous and then fog rolls in and its cold and dreary.  This is what happened after the boat tour.  We went to lunch at Lou Malnatis afterwards for some deep dish and then wandered around some more.  After getting tired of the cold we headed to see Katniss in the Hunger Games and went to dinner at Wildfire near our Hotel. I guess you could say we were worn out.

At the end of my time here I had a friend's bachelorette party coincidentally planned in Chicago. I didn't stay for both nights just one but had a blast.  We started the day shopping and then in the evening headed to the Beauty Bar which I think we were a bit skeptical of at first.  You pay $10 for a mani and a martini, too good to be true if you ask me!


This place is AWESOME.  It looks like an old timey beauty parlor turned into a bar.  I wish so bad that we had this in Atlanta. 


After this we headed to dinner at Carnivale, which was delish and I highly recommend the skirt steak (Amaazzzee).  Then we headed over to Moe's Cantina which is a bar not a mexican restaurant. It was really fun and they had great music on with the music videos in the background to each song (love that!). Things got a little crazy with the bachelorette and crew but we had a ton of fun.


Our friend Stephanie came all the way from Arizona for the party.  Random fact, Steph and I were random roommates at college orientation the summer before our freshmen year.  We then pledged the same sorority and later lived in a big house with 6 other girls. 


If you know me, you know that I like to bathe in perfume.  So of course when I went to the ladies' room and saw the attendant had a TON of perfumes to use and freshen up with I HAD to use one. Apparently Coco Channel Mademoiselle was an imposter fragrance because it smelled sooooo bad and was way too strong. Never will I be tempted by bathroom perfume ever again. 


My friends Haley and Rachel being funny...


Rachel's awesome sister Emily who is our Chicago tour guide, she's so fun. Her and her husband have a place in Bucktown in Chicago and I wish I could blog on it, it's a really cool townhome in an awesome location.



The lovely bride Lindsay and I who is getting married to Clark next weekend, Cinco de Mayo wedding, woo hoo!!!! I think I caught a picture with her while she was in the middle of a solo dance with her lollypop :)


Enough about Chicago... time to give a southern city some love... NASHVILLE

The next weekend we packed up and headed to Nashville for my friend Rachel's Stock the Bar party and other friend Brooke's baby shower. We stayed with his friends Wes and Abby who have a precious 2 year old and a 4 month old.  Ryan claims he is scared to hold babies but he got a lot of practice in this weekend with Miss Olivia and Little Miss Emma loved her some Ryan....



Saturday I hit up Homegoods/TJ Maxx in Mt. Juliet and scored the mother load, well not really but I just found a lot of pretty things. Then I ventured off to Brooke's baby shower for her little girl Reese due in June. We ate, opened presents, gossiped chit-chatted, and got crafty.  This was our 1st baby shower for our group of friends from college and my friend Katie made the comment "baby showers really are more fun than wedding showers".  I might have to agree with Katie on this one.


We also decorated diapers for Brooke for her middle of the night feedings & changings.  This was really funny because we could write or draw anything we wanted.  I have a feeling that Brooke is going to get a lot of laughs in the middle of the night. 

After this we scrapbooked pages for Brooke to later in fill in with pictures.  It was also decided by my friend Haley who loves to scrapbook (as do I) that we are going to have a scrapbook weekend in Atlanta at my house.  Basically what it will entail is lots of wine, food, and going through old pictures... geesh we are getting lame old. 



My sweet friend Rebecca can sew, monogram, and applique and so I had her applique this pink seersucker cross onesie for part of Brooke's gift.  So cute and little, let me know if anyone wants my friend's info.


That night we headed off to East Nashville for our friend Rachel and Jaime's shower.  East Nashville is a bit transitional but it has some beautiful old homes and some even have a view of the Nashville skyline.

My friends and I trying to get a picture with the skyline/sunset in the background.


 Now with the bride, all of these girls were bridesmaids in my wedding too.


Myself and the lovely bride to be...


All the girls with the bride to be and the groom, love this pic...


The house we were at had awesome outdoor space, one of the porches had an old bathtub filled with potting soil... of course this was a perfect picture opportunity...


Rub-a-dub-dub....



Anyways, we had a great time at the party and I can't wait till the next one. Time with friends really is good for the soul.





This is the most random posting ever mostly with pics of my friends and it's really long, major apologies, all caught up now though. :)



I visited a cool home store near my house last week and hope to post those pics next time. ]




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