i.love.chi-town!

Chicago is own of my favorite cities to visit. I love the size of the city, I love the shopping, I love the food, I love the hotels, I love the entertainment, I love everything about it. Simon and I just made a short getaway trip up to the windy city on Thursday and Friday for a little rest and relaxation...and SHOPPING before celebrating Christmas with Simon's brother, Stan and his wife Taniya! A while ago, I had searched for different cool hotels in Chicago, and I came across a place called The James Hotel. This place is hip, contemporary, in a great location, and just flat out COOL. If you happen to be traveling to Chicago, you must check this place out. We left Peyton with Grandma and Grandpa Sangar, but we could've brought her along because they allow pets. That blows my mind because sometimes the average motels don't even allow pets, and this super-nice hotel DOES allow dogs. Below, you'll see that they even treat dogs like kings and queens. We had a great time in Chicago. Here are a few pics from the trip...

Yes, we made a trip to Tiffany's which happened to be conveniently located around the corner from our hotel. Tiffany's has done an amazing job in their overall branding efforts. I mean, come on...girls goes gah-gah over the little blue box. I wish so bad that I had had my camera in the store (even though I am sure they don't allow that), because of the scene I saw. In order to be helped, you actually had to wait in a line. The line was FULL of men. Once it was our turn, I wanted to try on a necklace right up front. The lady plopped a mirror in front of me, and just as I was putting it on and I was looking in the mirror, I noticed three mens' heads quickly move into view. I was no longer looking at myself, I was looking at the crazy desperate men in the reflection. I could totally tell that they were checking out what I was trying on because they probably had no idea what to get their significant other. It was hilarious.

I chose this little necklace designed by Simon's favorite architect, Frank Gehry. Mr. Gehry has several different lines that he's designed for Tiffany's, and they are all so cool. Among his many famous pieces of work, Frank Gehry also designed Millenium Park in Chicago which is AMAZING. Simon's dream is that Frank himself could design a house for us (HA)! So Mr. Gehry, if you are out there, let me know what you think about designing a house here in Indy!!!!:)

I admit that I am a huge dork, but I was trying to take a picture of myself with my new necklace on:)

Simon got a new pair of sunglasses!


Here's the sign to look for:

A shot of the ultra-cool lobby...

I loved this little display that The James had in their lobby.


Another shot of the lobby looking into the bar area...

This shot is not in great focus, but I was trying to take this myself which is really hard because I was holding it with one arm and my camera is really heavy!!

And of COURSE, we never travel anywhere without our life support...

So here is what I was talking about above. Dogs are treated like royalty here. They have a water dish and a treat jar outside on the sidewalk. How cute is that?!?!