Chicago Vacation :: For Spring Break 2014 we took the kids to Chicago for three nights and four days. We crammed as much fun as we could into those four days and had adventures all over the Windy City. I’m going to share our adventures with you in a series of installments so you can see pictures from our excursions and maybe find some inspiration for planning your own trip to Chicago!
Narrowing down our choices for dining in Chicago was no easy task, but I knew I wanted pizza one night, and we put our dining fate into my cousin’s hands another night figuring as a Chicago resident she would know where to take us. We ate well for most of the trip! We had one poor dinner experience at an iconic Chicago restaurant, but it’s my hope that they were just having an “off night” so I’m leaving them out of my list of places we ate. For lunches we ate at the museums we were visiting, and for breakfast we had a lovely FREE buffet at our hotel each morning (which is a JACKPOT for a family of six). And then there were the snacks….we ate popcorn all weekend long!
If you are thinking about visiting Chicago then you might also want to make sure that you get a good place to stay in (after all, even though food is good, you still need a place to stay). So why not take a look at somewhere like the Crowne Plaza Chicago West Loop hotel? This way you can have a general idea of where you are going to stay and how much it would cost you.
Dining in Chicago ::
Gino’s East Pizzeria ::
When in Chicago you must eat a deep dish pizza. That’s a law, right? On the advice of a friend we stopped by Gino’s East for our pizza dinner. The kids settled for plain old cheese and pepperoni pizza and were quite happy with that, but Michael and I shared a Caesar Salad and the Gino’s East Supreme with sausage, pepperoni, fresh onions, green peppers, and mushrooms. It was so good that I’m sitting her craving it just thinking about it. Gino’s was quite an interesting restaurant as they encouraged their guests to add graffiti to all of their walls and furniture. The kids LOVED that.
Flo & Santos ::
While we were in Chicago we wanted to grab dinner with my cousin Megan and her husband Bryan, and they suggested Flo & Santos, which is a Pub known for their pizza and Polish menu items. They should also be known for having a good beer list, as we had so many great brews to choose from. The dinner was awesome, and not just because of the great food, but because we got to catch up with my cousins that we don’t see often enough. It was all too much for Henry though, who had been walking all over town that day. He crashed at the table.
Garrett Popcorn Shops ::
One of my favorite things about Chicago is that there’s a Garrett Popcorn Shop everywhere you look! We made several stops for snacks…their popcorn is the bomb!
Three Floyds Brewpub ::
I should also mention that on our way into town we stopped for lunch at Three Floyds Brewery and ate in their Brewpub, which was about twenty-five minutes away from downtown Chicago. Michael wanted to pick up some of his favorite beers since we were going to be so close and they are so hard to find in Kentucky. The lunch we had was fantastic, and we sat in a room that had a viewing window of the brewery, which the kids enjoyed (and so did Michael).
Breakfast Buffet at the Hotel ::
I just had to share a breakfast picture, so you can see how Sam became addicted to the breakfast buffet. He was a happy camper!
