Last year on Mother’s Day, I surprised my mom with plane tickets to Chicago, Illinois on Memorial Day Weekend! Since this was her very first flight within the country, I decided this would be the perfect first trip together because Chicago was definitely on her list of places to visit.
Giordano’s
After landing and settling in our hotel room, the first thing we did was try deep dish pizza at Giordano’s. I personally am not fan of deep-dish pizza; however, the pizza we ate was AMAZING.
Cloud Gate
Magnificent Mile
It was pouring rain on our first day in the city. We didn’t realize how long the Magnificent Mile actually was, so we ended up walking nearly 3 miles back to our hotel in pouring rain. FUN!
Chicago weather is unpredictable. The next day, the sky was clear with the sun shining into every crevice of the city. My mom and I crammed 3 days worth of visiting tourist attractions into 1 day…it was hectic.
Yolk – South Loop
Luckily, our hotel was next door to a well-known breakfast spot called Yolk. My mom never experienced eating at a breakfast restaurant prior our trip and she very much enjoyed it 🙂
We purchased a City Pass and a 1-Day Bus Pass the day before (to avoid the long lines the next day) and we roamed around the entire city for nearly 13 hours. You can imagine how tired our legs were by the end of the day.
Field Museum of Natural History
Chicago Architecture River Cruise
Chicago River
Samoa and S’mores Cupcakes from Molly’s Cupcakes
Navy Pier
That night, the Navy Pier was celebrating their 100th year and we concluded our night watching the centennial fireworks show.
Surprisingly, the only restaurants we dined in in Chicago (other than Giordano’s) were breakfast spots. Our flight back to LA was around noon, so we decided to catch our last meal there at Wildberry Cafe. This is where I had the best pancakes I’ve ever tasted – Signature Berry Bliss Pancakes.
Agora Sculpture
Chicago has breathtaking architecture and I plan on visiting the city again to experience more of the night life. Having to cram our activities into one day (due to rain) was definitely tiring and I would not recommend it. Since it was Memorial Day Weekend, there were many tourists and the lines for tourist attractions were insanely long. Overall, it’s such a beautiful city and I wish I had more days to explore.
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