Take Me Back: Chicago, IL

Back when Jason first started at Southwest (June 2011), we took a trip up to Chicago to see my cousin get married. I've been thinking back to this trip lately as we are headed to see her sister get married in less than 2 weeks.

We had a day to explore before the wedding festivities started. We started by walking around Millennium Park. We watched a bit of a concert at the Pavilion and took pictures at "The Bean". You can really spend a lot of time just walking around here!

 We walked along the lake to the Buckingham fountain. After this, we took a stroll around the city and ended up at Gino's East - one of the main contenders for best deep dish pizza. I was honestly more a fan of Giordano's Pizza, but don't really like Chicago-style at all...WAY too much cheese. 

 

 

 

Grabbing a drink at the Signature Lounge in the Hancock Building is a must as it affords some great views! We didn't get a chance on this trip, but I had been before and I loved it. The drinks ARE pricey, but I do think that it is definitely worth the price of admission.

 

 

If you have time, a nighttime "booze cruise" is also a great way to see the beautiful skyline.

 

 

 

The wedding was great and spending time with my family is always nice. We had to get up REALLY early the day after the wedding to catch a flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico - the embarking point for our Southern Caribbean Cruise. I'll be detailing the cruise ship and ports between our other current travel posts!



Chicago, IL, Minneapolis, MN and Las Vegas, NV

Jason and I have been doing a bit of travel separately due to work. I was in Chicago for 5 weeks and got the chance to explore the northern suburbs (haha) and I ventured into Chicago a few times - once to go to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field with my coworkers! That was a lot of fun - the stadium is SO TINY!

For my last travel adventure for work, I went for a week-long trip to Las Vegas! This was a really great way to end my time with Protiviti AND I got to meet up with some high-school friends that I hadn't seen in ages. I'm not a big gambler, but it was fun to watch and absorb the Vegas lifestyle. Of course I did a little shopping there though! "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas", so I'll just leave it with the fact that I had a great time!

For my last trip, I went to Minneapolis to have a fun girl's weekend! What was great about this trip is that we all got there for FREE! Thanks to Jason's buddy passes, the girls were able to fly standby as well. We woke up and set off to kayak in the lake system near Emily and Jake's place. We just had a great day exploring the area that they live in. We also go to meet some neighbors that supplied us with a DELICIOUS meal full of homemade pizza and LOTS of wine :) We had much to celebrate: Rebekah's upcoming wedding, Brittany's move to OKC and house purchase, Emily's promotion, and my new job!

The next day, we went to brunch and walked around a little festival that was taking place. Everyone here seems to always be outside when the weather is nice (which is definitely was - especially compared to Texas!). After this, we ventured to Mall of America. That place was insane! Brittany and I rode a rollercoaster - in a MALL! I can imagine how useful it is to have an indoor mall of that magnitude when it's literally -20 degrees outside.

Stolen from Brittany's Blog :)

http://kbmccalltx.wordpress.com/

Overall, it was a really great trip and I'm so glad we all got to make it there for nothing!

Why I'm Blogging...

I have always had that "travel itch" and I was blessed to grow up in a family that allowed me to satisy it. I love experiencing new cultures and new food and making great memories along the way. Some of my favorite places that I've visited are: Italy, Hawaii, Sonoma, St. Lucia, Barbados and Puerto Rico.

When I met Jason, he hadn't had the opportunity to travel very much, so he didn't understand why I NEEDED to explore the world. Luckily for me, that changed when we went to Hawaii for our honeymoon. We both fell in love with the scenery (who wouldn't?) and welcoming people we met. From that point one, we both became passionate about travel.

This year, Jason was offered the opportunity to work for Southwest Airlines in the audit department. This seemed like an ideal job for many reasons, but one of the great benefits is...FREE FLIGHTS! Now, it's not as easy as it sounds, and I'm sure we will run into some hiccups along the way, but we are beyond excited to start exploring the US.

We've already had the opportunity to test out the system with a few trips. We made our way to Chicago for my cousin's wedding and we also went to Austin to visit some good friends. Both trips were pretty seamless, so I'm hoping that trend continues!

I wanted to start this blog to document all of our "Non-Rev" trips and to remember our experiences. Please stick with me as this is my first blogging experience!

I'll leave you with some great memories from those trips to Chicago and Austin.