Jennie's Bachelorette... Chicago Style

In just 4 short months, Jennie will officially become Mrs. Jennie Moren. With every wedding, comes a bachelorette party - and we had big plans! We started planning an out of town bachelorette party months ago, and this past weekend it was finally here! 

Friday morning Jennie, Deb, Amanda, Kathy, my Mom and I hopped a plane to Chicago for a epic mother/daughter weekend to celebrate Jennie's upcoming nuptials. Amanda and I had an itinerary ready for the weekend, including goodie bags for all of the girls. After a quick 54 minute flight, we landed at O'Hare ready to take on the windy city. Amanda and Kathy had arrived an hour earlier, so we jumped on the 'L' and made our way to the Embassy Suites Downtown Chicago. We walked into our 6 person suite, giddy and ready to hit the town. 

After making a quick Trader Joe's trip for snacks and wine, we freshened up and headed to The Purple Pig for lunch. This restaurant came highly recommend from the locals and other friends - so we were eager to get a taste. Even at 2:45pm, there was an hour wait for a table. We put our name on the waiting list, and walked a block to Bandera Restaurant for our first drink of the trip. After a couple cocktails, our table at The Purple Pig was ready! Charred cauliflower, eggplant parmesan balls, whipped feta and cucumber smear, and milk braised pork shoulder with mashed potatoes - completely incredible. It was worth the wait, and I would absolutely recommend it if you're in the area!

After wandering around, and popping into a few shops, we came back to the hotel to get ready for the night. We played a quick bachelorette party game, where Jennie had to match Mike's answers. Amanda and I had previously met with Mike and filmed his response to our questions - so we all got a kick out of watching Jennie stuff bubble gum in her mouth for every wrong answer. Finally around 9pm, we made our way to Lou Malnati's for some good ol' Chicago style pizza. I love pizza, but I really love Chicago style deep dish pizza. I may or may not be drooling right now just thinking about it! You could tell everyone was tired and hungry, because once the food came the conversation slowed down. I think we all needed a little bit a fuel to keep us going. We caught a little bit of a second wind, and headed to the Redhead Piano Bar since it was just steps from our hotel. After one drink, we were all dragging so we finally called it a night! Day 1, total success.

Day 2, our agenda started with a tour of Goose Island Brewery. This could be the deal of the century, at least in Chicago anyway. For just $10 per person you get a tour, 6 samples and a glass to take home. How can you pass that up? After listening to the Goose Island gal educate us on the history of beer , we entered the sampling room. She went through each beer individually, while we sat back cheers-ing to every glass. After sampling was over, we stuck around the pub for lunch and ordered another round of drinks. It was a perfect way to start our day.

From Goose Island Brewery, we opted to walk 3 miles to Navy Pier. It was hot, but I think we all needed some fresh air and exercise. During our walking journey, we managed to take a few detours. We stopped in Water Tower Place, where I purchased my first pair of TOMS shoes. My other sister-in-law Jen swears by them, and Amanda and Jennie had also jumped on the TOMS bandwagon. So after finding an uber cute pair, and on sale... it's was an easy purchase.

All weekend Amanda had been telling me, "you have to get Harper a Bitty Baby." After learning exactly what a Bitty Baby is (basically, it's just an American Girl doll in baby form) and making a couple trips to the giant American Girl store downtown - I gave in and bought Harper BB3. This particular model (BB3) eerily resembled Harper, so it was an easy choice to make. You should see all the clothing and accessories they sell for these baby dolls - it's mind blowing. Oh and pocket blowing too. They are a little on the spendy side, but they're just so darn cute. She's only a little girl once so why not, right?

After our retail excursions and quick stop at Navy Pier, we headed back to our hotel before happy hour was over. It only felt appropriate to crack out the playing cards, and play a few drinking games. So, that's exactly what we did. Glasses on, playing P&A in the Embassy Suites lobby. If that doesn't scream classy, I don't know what does.

A few hours later, we were ready to take on the town. We popped a little bubbly to toast Jennie, and got the party started. We started with an amazing dinner at Mercadito and downed delicious margaritas. Just a flew blocks away was Howl at the Moon, which is a dueling piano bar. The first time Mitch and I went to Chicago we loved that bar. Mainly because the beer was cheap, and the people watching was great. Buckets of 5 beers were $20, and we took advantage of that deal Saturday. We met plenty of interesting people that night too. A couple of guys loved our Mom's and even challenged Jennie to a beer chugging contest (which she won). One of them was telling my Mom and Deb how special grandchildren were. Keep in mind, he was 28 - so I'm not sure he was speaking from personal experience or if he needs a new line. When it came to people watching, there was one lone guy probably in his 60's that you couldn't help but watch. He was wearing bedazzled jeans, had his sunglasses on and had his collar popped. To paint an even better photo of him, he would sporadically drop and do 20 push-ups. We did our best to keep our distance from him, but he was too entertaining to watch.

After many drinks, and too much fun we headed back to our hotel around 3:30am. The streets were busy with other bar goers, many of them still partying the night away. We made it back to our room, probably louder than we should have been at that hour. Someone in our party (not to name names) stole a CAUTION sign from the hotel lobby and sat it right outside our door. We barged in the door, giggling and decided to play the last game on the weekend. Giving wedding/marriage advice after bar close was a genius idea. We laughed so hard at the random answers people were coming up with, even though the next morning they hardly made sense. Our Mom's were troopers and made it all the way to 4:30am with us. It was a super fun night, one I don't think we'll forget!

 

The next morning came too early, and we only had a few hours left in the windy city. I needed a little caffeine to get me going, but once I got a Diet Pepsi in me I was all good. We packed up, and checked out of our room by Noon. Since we still had a few hours to kill, we walked to the bean to take cliché tourist photos. Our trip to Millennium Park was very short, you could tell everyone was exhausted. We grabbed a quick lunch at California Pizza Kitchen afterwards, and food seemed to help everyone perk up a little. By the time we wrapped up eating, it was time for Deb, Jennie, Mom and I to hop on the 'L' back to O'Hare. We hugged the Shemon gals and declared this trip needed to be done again soon! It was time to head home and wish Mitch a Happy Father's Day and see my baby girl!

The flight back to Minnesota was easy peasy, and I finally made it home around 7:30pm. I was so excited to see Mitch and Harper, since it had been a couple days. I gave Harper BB3 and enjoyed a little snuggle time before bed. Chicago was awesome, but it was great to be home with my loves. 

Our out of town travels are slowing down for a while, which will be nice. This weekend Mitch's whole family is home to celebrate Tom & Ashley's wedding. We're looking forward to all the festivities and celebrating their special day!

Until next time...
The Helleen's