The Magnificent Mile Chicago

Here's my last post about my trip to Chicago this past August! I went adventuring downtown & The Magnificent Mile shopping area with my friend Nikki's mom (not pictured because she doesn't like her pictures online but she's a fabulous, gorgeous woman!) No lie about the mile part, we walked for miles! I even got to go into Barney's New York for the first time, which is my dream store thanks to my love of Gossip Girl novels & the influence of Blair Waldorf since middle school. The place was like heaven & I was entranced by the nice aroma of perfume & leather. They had a huge collection of Celine bags. I hope to own one one day but right now I'm having too much fun spending my money on travels! I did some serious damage on my credit card though regardless at American Apparel, Juicy Couture, & some other places.  I also went to the famous Sprinkles Cupcakes for the first time ever. It was so crazy how much attention I got for carrying around those cupcakes. Everyone who saw me carrying them asked me what flavor I got & I even had a few people ask me if they could just smell them. It was ODD. I didn't really understand until I went to visit the old Playboy Mansion & sat down in front of it & took a bite of one. They are soooooooooooooooo gooooooood. They are so rich in flavor & just exquisite. I can't wait until I can taste another Sprinkles Cupcake. After visiting the mansion we walked around & took pictures in front of the Yayoi Kusama x LV display which is fantastic & visited the Water Tower. I am so thankful to Nikki & her family for showing me the city in such a short amount of time. Without them I would have not enjoyed Chicago at all. When I think of the great times I had there I will always think of them. 

La Bomba Place Chicago

My favorite place to eat while in Chicago was my friend Nikki's relatives restaurant La Bomba! They make authentic Puerto Rican food & everything I tried tasted amazing! I ate the jibarito (the first meal pic posted) which is a type of sandwich where they use plantains instead of bread. I don't remember what the rest of the food was called but it was all heavenly. The Kola Champagne tasted like cream soda which I happen to be a big fan of. If I'm ever in Chicago again I will definitely eat here again & I recommend anyone who's in the area to check it out!! 

La Bomba Place Official Website

Navy Pier

Here's a nice long picture post to make up for my lack of posting. I know it's taking me forever to post all of my adventures in Chicago from August but I am almost done! So as posted earlier after Skydecking it with Nicole we pretty walked to The Bean and then after that we walked all the way to Navy Pier in the rain. Needless to say we trekked the city of Chicago like champions. The Pier was a nice little touristy spot with lot's of cruise ships (hence Pier!), a theater, shopping area, & fun little chain restaurants. After we got there it started raining and thundering heavily so we didn't stay very long but the pictures pretty much sum up our time there. We walked around for a bit & then headed back to Nicole's parent's home on the Metra. I'm really thankful to Nicole for taking me to the main tourist spots  in Chicago in one day, since before I was staying with her the person I was staying with for five whole days did not show me anything at all. If it wasn't for her I wouldn't have seen anything. She's a real friend.

The Bean

After getting our pizza at Boni Vino's (see previous post!) Nicole took me to the famous sculpture in Millennium Park called Cloud Gate created by an Indian born British artist named Anish Kapoor. Yes I Wikipedia-ed it! Cloud Gate was nicknamed The Bean obviously because of it's shape. The Bean reflects the city's skyline. It was an awesome piece of modern art. Nicole & I had a blast taking silly pictures with our reflections on the underside of it & the outside! 

Boni Vino Pizza

My friend Nicole was showing me all of the tourist attractions in the windy city when we stumbled upon a little, inconspicuous pizza place called Boni Vino's. At first we were a little hesitant but soon realized that we had made a great decision in choosing this place. Our waitress was top notch, a super nice lady who told us about a great pizza deal & helped us avoid buying a ginormous pizza between the two of us. I also got to try a Chicago brew beer called Goose Island which was delicious. It was perfect with my sausage & garlic pizza. Although it wasn't the "deep dish" style, it was still the absolute best pizza I ever had while in Chi-Town. It's a few blocks away from the Willis Tower so if you are ever in that area of the city, I would definitely recommend it. 

Sears Tower

Back to the Chicago posts! Here are pictures from the Sears Tower Skydeck or now known as the Willis Tower. It was seriously badass. The skydeck is 103 stories high & you could see all of Chicago from the top! Stepping onto the skydeck was crazy cool. It was so hilarious & so scary though because this Asian tourist dropped her digital camera on the skydeck right when I was on it and everyone went silent ... you could hear people going.. "OHHHHH no she didn't!!" Hahaha. Fortunately the skydeck is not that sensitive, the glass did not break, & I did not fall through the sky hahaha. :-P 

P.S. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture from the outside of the tower!

METRA

My first METRA ride with my girl Nicole. If you don't know the Metra is the train in Chicago! It's a lot bigger then the subways & has an upstairs as well as a downstairs. There was a ticket man just like in the movies. Since there is nothing like this where I am from it was a neat experience for me. 

UNO's

Before I went to Chicago many people recommended Uno's Chicago Bar & Grill to me because it is well known for awesome deep dish pizza. My friend & I were looking for a place to eat dinner & we came across it, so we decided to dine there. Well those people who told me about it were correct, their deep dish pizza was delicious!!! I enjoyed it even more then Lou Malnati's. If you're in Chicago I definitely recommend this chain restaurant! I got the sausage pizza which is my usual choice of topping. The top was delightfully gooey with cheese & even had a layer of sausage inside as well! Pizza heaven!!!

First Party Night in Chicago

On my first weekend in Chicago I went to a Victoria's Secret party for members. I'm not a member (If I didn't live in Japan I would be!), but I went with someone who was. We got there about 30 minutes before the party was ending so it wasn't particularly interesting or different other then the music was louder & there was a cool DJ playing awesome mixes. I bought way too many pairs of yoga pants to wear to work. Then I met up with my friend Nikki & her sister Yvonne & they showed me where the real party was at. It was a Sunday at a bar called Blue Light & it was poppin' all night long! I only paid $20 for a wristband to drink for I don't even remember how long it felt like forever haha. Great night, plus I ended up switching from a sketchy situation to staying with Nikki for the rest of my trip so I was very blessed. 

LOLLAPALOOZA - Saturday Storm

Around 3-4 P.M. they put a pause to Lollapalooza due to a heavy storm. I was super worried that they would not re-open because I had not yet seen any artists I went for. I mainly only went to see one person in particular.. The Weeknd! Thankfully around 6 P.M. (which was when The Weeknd was supposed to play) the festival re-opened & they scheduled all the bands to play an hour later then the original time! Cheee!

As soon as I got inside I rushed to the stage The Weeknd was performing at. It was extremely muddy but at that point I had endured a lot of rain, a little mud wasn't going to matter to me. I met some cool girls from California while waiting for him to start. They were really nice & helped the wait time pass quicker.  :-) The Weeknd was better live then on record which is saying something considering he sounds amazing on record too. Abel Tesfaye you are so talented & I ♥ you. :3 One of my top favorite artists, ya'll should definitely check him out!