Sunday, August 15, 2010

Healthy Living Summit - Friday Fun

Whew!  It was a whirlwind first day in Chicago!  I was up about the same time I usually get up for work.  I gobbled down a bowl of puffins with strawberries and milk.

 Greg and Clyde brought me to the airport. 
I got there early enough to get a Skinny Vanilla Latte (my fav!)

and read more of Eat Pray Love...
I arrived in Chicago right on time and Jen landed RIGHT after me (she was flying in from NJ since she was up there this week) and was literally 3 gates down, so that worked out perfectly!
We caught the "L" train into the city.  It kind of took a while, but it's cheap ;)
We arrived at the Congress Plaza Hotel around noonish.
We checked in to our room and took a second to decompress...
Then met up with Katie to have some fun in Chicago!!
First up was lunch, as we were absolutely STARVING!  We hit up Fox and Obel, after Katie raved about how good it was :)
The place was really cool!   They have a neat gourmet market with all sorts of specialty food and then an area where you can order food and sit and eat.  I got a spinach salad that had green beans, apricots, goat cheese, and pecans.  Really yummy!
After lunch we decided to walk around.  We were right near Navy Pier and Jen hadn't been before, so that was our first stop.
We even got our picture taken with a huge piece of macaroni!
Us at the end of Navy Pier!
Great view of Chicago Skyline from the pier.
Next up was a bee-line to some FRO-YO.  Cuz what would a blogger meet-up be without it ;)
On the way we passed a building that has stones/bricks from every state.  I paid homage to my home state and had a picture taken with New Hampshire!
On The Magnificent Mile we saw some pretty insane street dancers:
One guy jumped over all those people bent over!
Finally we made it to Berry Chill.
I had Pina Colada flavored fro-yo with raspberries, strawberry, and pinapple. It was SO FRIGGIN GOOD after walking around on a hot Chicago day!!
Ugh, see how hot I was??
Mmmmmm.

We headed back to the hotel to get ready for the first HLS event- the Open Sky Cocktail Party!
All ready to go!
Here's our little crew ready to head over in the hotel lobby.  L to R: Rachel, Me, Jen, Katie, Kendall, and Sana.  They are awesome and I hung out with these ladies a lot throughout the weekend :)
Crazy cab ride over...hehe.
Ready to go in!
We had the third floor of this place.
Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, we might have been the first people there.  Fashionably early, I say ;)

Shot of our table while we consumed some delicious food!

It soon filled with bloggers though!
Tina, Kath, Heather, Caitlin, and Meghann kicked off the weekend (worst picture ever, sorry!)
I dove into the food and had some chips and spinach artichoke dip, hummus and a pita, a veggie quesadilla, mozzarella and tomato skewer and some salad.  I also got a mini turkey burger:

I met soooooooooooooo many bloggers that it was a little overwhelming!  But awesome!

(Arnold picture)
Me, Jen, and Anne P!  First time meeting Anne!  Love her :)

Kendall and I.

Also saw a bunch of familiar faces...
Emily, Me, Jen.  Charlotte people represent!


It was a total blast! 

0 comments:

Related Posts with Thumbnails