Girls' Trip to Chicago!

One of my favorite traditions is the girls' trip to Chicago that my friends and I take.  It is so fun to bundle up, wander around the city, and laugh until it hurts.  This year was no different.

We like to stay at the Palmer House and the tree in the lobby is unreal.  It is such a beautiful tree.  Actually, the entire hotel is beautiful.

We left the hotel with the Christmas Market being our first stop!  We were all ready for some gluhwein!

There she is!  We like to arrive at the market just before it starts to get dark.

The gluhwein stahl was our first stop, naturally.

I sent this picture to Ken to let him know that we had arrived!

The ladies sharing the table with us asked if Michelle and I were sisters. This always happens.  Our bantering back and forth for sure says sisters!

There may have been a moment when Jill broke out her new selfie stick that includes a tripod.  The shenanigans were quite funny.

Christkindlmarkt stahls

I love how the stahls say Germany and the buildings say Chicago.

There are so many choices on items to buy!

The Christmas atmosphere only increases as it gets dark!

We all agreed that the best treat at the market is the candied nuts.  We stopped off and bought a ton before bidding farewell to the market.

Katie may have tipped the guard a dollar to take this picture.  Michelle and I might have been embarrassed!

We left the market to drop our gluhwein mugs off at our hotel.  Ken was in town for a business trip and met us in the lobby bar for a drink.  The Palmer House had a chorus that was singing Christmas carols.  It was pretty amazing.

It was so nice to see Ken for a drink, especially since he had been gone since Sunday.

After drinks with Ken, he walked with us on his way to meet his colleagues for dinner.  He walked with us all the way to Millennium Park where we said goodbye.  

The Millennium Park tree is so gorgeous!

We went into Tavern at the Park for dinner.  We enjoyed dinner and then played around with pictures by the tree.  I had gotten a new phone with a portrait mode and we had to pose for some pictures.

We had a view of the skating rink during dinner and we loved watching people fall, I mean skate.

This is such a gorgeous tree!

Michelle looking so innocent in her tree photo!

Jill, loving her new beanie

Katie, who almost fell getting this picture taken

Me, so excited that it is Christmas time!

We decided that we wanted to go to Pops for Champagne for some wine and started towards State.  We saw a guy with a rickshaw and asked him how much.  Katie said she had $20 to spend and he quoted us at $12 per person.  We all laughed that it would cost that much to go one mile.  We bailed on the rickshaw and walked the mile with our own little legs.  Guess who met us at Pops?  Ken!  

We stopped off at the Wrigley building tree for a few photos

Silly girls

After Pops, we ended the night in the hotel lobby bar.  It was such a fun day with great friends.  We woke up on Friday with plans to enjoy lunch at Lou Malnati's.  We shopped around and enjoyed drinks around town.  Jill's husband Brian was coming in for a work trip, so we met up with him later.  It was a low-key relaxing day.  

The Chicago skyline is so beautiful

Chicago at night.  We were so lucky with the beautiful weather!

We stopped off for craft cocktails at CH Distillery.  The Christmas themed drinks are amazing!

We ended the night eating candied nuts in our pajamas and flew home the next day.  It was another successful girls' trip complete with a ton of laughter!