Girls Will Be Girls Shopping Getaway!

This past weekend, I was honored to join my friend Jesika on a very luxurious trip to Chicago to celebrate our 30th birthdays!  So I don't forget the details of our fabulous time, I want to summarize it here.  Being that I'm a fairly simple person, I'm guessing that I won't be doing a trip quite like this again, so I'm so grateful Jesika chose me to join her to help celebrate her 30th birthday!

Jesika picked me up at home Saturday afternoon and we drove up to Schaumburg.  Once we checked into our lovely room at  the Residence Inn, we headed off to IKEA and shopped for a few hours there, finding some great trinkets.  We shared a yummy cinnamon roll before leaving and then headed over to Bahama Breeze for a fantastic late dinner.  Back at the hotel after dinner, we stayed up until 1:30 a.m. talking and talking.

On Sunday, we slept in, had a late breakfast, and Jes got in a 5K on the treadmill before we checked out.  After a quick stop at Starbucks, we headed to Nordstrom's--The Rack and spent 4 hours shopping there!  Even after 4 hours, I only bought a cute suit, a top to go with it, a sweater and a pair of slacks.  We had lunch at about 4:00 at California Pizza Kitchen.  (All weekend I enjoyed eating lots of mushrooms, fish, veggies, and things my family doesn't usually eat!)  Then we hopped back in the car and headed toward the city.  After sitting on the freeway for an hour, we arrived at the Ritz Carlton Hotel around 7:15 to begin our Girls Will Be Girls Shopping Getaway! 

The lobby of the Ritz Carlton hotel is incredibly beautiful--of course!

It's on the 12th floor, with this incredible fountain in the middle.

When we got to our suite, we were surprised to find complimentary champagne on ice and a super yummy chocolate mousse torte with chocolates that said, "Happy Birthday!" on them on the cake! 

We were upgraded to an executive suite, 
and each had our own bathroom and powder room area and plenty of space.  
This is the bedroom.


Living Area

Every elevator at the Ritz has one of these gorgeous chandeliers.  Now that makes an elevator ride enjoyable!

We ran our wonderful bellhop, Luis, like crazy--to the car for our shopping bags, back to the room with safety pins so I could pin the hem of my pants for dinner, etcetera, etcetera. He must have made four trips to our room [on the 27th floor] before we left for dinner, poor guy!  But he was so friendly and polite.  We started talking with him and discovered he had just had his 30th birthday too, on the 8th!  So, we took this self-portrait with him, and left him a thank you card when we checked out.

Even after calling from the freeway to push back our dinner reservations, we were fashionably late to Bistro 110.  Dinner was exquisite.  In fact, we returned for lunch the next day!

After dinner we made a quick visit to the Hershey's store, and walked past the original Water Tower Place to see the window display at American Girl.  The city's holiday lights had just been lit Saturday night, and it was just gorgeous!!

When we got back to the hotel, we sat for a while in the Green House on the 12th floor and relaxed.

 When we got back to our rooms, we put on our robes and watched "Step Up," (which we thought was a great movie!) and had popcorn.  We were up until about 2:45, and I was awake until after 3:30, even though the bed was sooooooooo comfy!

We got up at 6:15-ish and went to the Carlton Club Spa for a workout.  I did 30+ minutes on the elliptical machine, which is pretty much a miracle for me since I never work out.  Then we sat in the eucalyptus steam room for a few minutes (Ohhhhhhh, ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!) and then the hot tub for a while and relaxed by the pool and in the locker room (Can you still call it a locker room when it's carpeted and has powder rooms with fancy curtains and such?!) for a while.  When we got back to the room, Jesika had several voicemails wishing her a happy birthday!

We walked a couple blocks to Saks 5th Avenue, where we had our facials at the Trish McEvoy counter.  I absolutely loved it, and could have sat there all day letting her fix my face.  I wanted to buy every single thing she used on me and then some, but the brush set alone was $275.  Ha!  So, we each bought one item.

Included in our Girls Will Be Girls Shopping Getaway package were gift cards and discounts to several nearby stores.  So, we shopped at some very expensive places, several of which I'd never even heard of.  Jesika used a $50 gift card to buy me a bottle of Burberry perfume, and bought a scarf for her mother-in-law at La Perla for a steal with that gift card.  We also shopped at Macy's, Teavana, Godiva, Lush, C.O. Bigelow, J. Jill, and more.  

We didn't leave Water Tower Place until after 6p.m. and arrived back in Bloomington just before 9:00.

As I said, it was a very luxurious trip, with some exciting unexpected blessings, lots of fun and relaxation, and I was so glad to enjoy it with Jesika!  Thanks Girl!

And, definitely not to be forgotten, is a huge thank you to my darling yummy husband who watched the kids, took a day off work, and allowed me to go!  The dishes and laundry were ALL clean when I got home, and that's better than I do.  He is THE best.  I love you so much Jeremy!  Thank you for spoiling me rotten!!