An insider's guide to the perfect Chicago girls' weekend

This past weekend my friend Kaite flew into the city from her little town in the tippytop of northern Wisconsin to visit our  friend Kathleen and me. The three of us originally found each other through the magic of Instagram, drawn to our shared love of health and fitness, nature, and the trials and tribulations of navigating life as complicated late 20-into-30-somethings. We hadn’t all been together since Labor Day weekend last summer, when Kathleen and I road-tripped up to Bayfield to see Kaite’s world. That was the first weekend after I quit my job at the zoo, and so much has happened in the last eight months! It felt amazing to catch up and explore the city, and the weather ended up being spectacular, warm, breezy, sunny, 70’s and 80’s. It felt like summer! 

Kathleen and I have both lived in Chicago for a few years now (crazy!), so we basically packed our favorite things to do and see in the city into two epic days and nights. Lots of walking and adventures interspersed with wine and deep conversations on life. Perfection!

I absolutely love my city, especially in the late spring when the flowers and trees are exploding into color and the weather is warming up but just before the official crazy tourist season kicks into gear. There are endless places to go, restaurants to try, shops to visit, and sights to see, and it can be extremely overwhelming if you’re visiting for the first time! We skipped the typical tourist sights (the “bean,” Millenium Park, museums, Michigan Ave, deep dish pizza) this weekend, although they’re always fun too. Here are just a few of my recommendations for an epic girls' weekend...aka a quick snapshot of my life in Chicago crammed into 2 days.

If you came to visit me for a couple of days in May, this is how it would go...

DAY ONE || SATURDAY

We crashed at Kathleen’s condo in Lincoln Park Friday night, so Saturday morning we were up bright and early for a barre class at her studio, Pure Barre River North! We decided to walk the three miles to the studio, stopping for some coffee and passing through the Green City Market.

After a killer class in which we felt more like floundering baby deer than elegant ballerinas (omg those tiny pulses are no joke), we quickly freshened ourselves up and walked over to Beatrix for brunch! I ordered an egg white omelette with tomatoes, turkey bacon, and whole grain toast with a side of green juice and it was quite possibly the best breakfast meal I’ve ever had. Maybe anything would have tasted like ambrosia after such an intense workout...but Beatrix is a must-stop for brunch in River North! The menu is full of healthy options and the atmosphere is bright and beautiful.

We hopped on a bus back up to Lincoln Park and walked around Nature Boardwalk and through the Lincoln Park Zoo. This is my happy place, an oasis in the middle of the city, and the zoo is one of the best (and the oldest!) in the country. Plus it’s free! I might be biased, but it’s beautifully landscaped, full of historic buildings, and places a big behind the scenes emphasis on local and global conservation initiatives, animal behavior research, and education.

If you walk through the zoo, you also have to stop into the Lincoln Park Conservatory right next door to bask in the tropical wonderland of the giant palms, ferns, orchids, and flowering plants. Another one of my favorite nature spots is the Alfred Caldwell Lily Pond, a hidden oasis off of Fulletron Avenue, right next to the entrance to the zoo parking lot. It’s a historic garden featuring a Frank Lloyd Wright pagoda and even a redwood tree!

After walking a bajillion miles, we were desperately in need of another break so we stopped by Trader Joe’s to pick up veggies, hummus, pita chips, guacamole, and cheese and meandered our way over to the lakefront for a picnic! When the weather is beautiful, a lake visit is non-negotiable, and Kathleen and I have perfected the art of the picnic. Diversey Harbor is our favorite spot, there’s ample parking and unbeatable views of the skyline.

After recuperating from our hyper-active morning with a few glasses of rose and snacks, we cleaned up and headed over to Wicker Park for the evening! This is one of my favorite neighborhoods. There are so many fun boutiques, bars, restaurants, and the best people watching! We ended up going to Bluelight for after dinner drinks. I had never been there but was pleasantly surprised! It has a really fun diner themed atmosphere, board games, and delicious martinis. We ended up playing Jenga and Never Have I Ever until midnight, when I literally couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer.

DAY TWO || SUNDAY

Sunday was supposed to be cloudy and thunderstorm-y, but we woke up to another beautiful day! After some yoga and stretching at home (ouch, barre…) we met up at Frasca for a patio brunch. EPIC. This is one of my favorite restaurants for pizza, and the brunch is amazing! I got a delicous egg sandwich and Kathleen got the breakfast pizza. I can’t wait to go back with Ben!

Seriously. I WANT IT!

After brunch we walked through Roscoe Village, full of adorable shops and more brunch restaurants, and then made our way over to Southport for shopping. Wicker Park is good for vintage and indie boutiques, and Southport is good for specialty brand names and fun chains. David’s Tea, Paper Source, Anthropologie, Athleta, and Lululemon are my faves!

Sunburned and tired, we wandered over to Kathleen’s place again for rose and snacks on her deck. Ben met us again for dinner at Standard Market Grill, one of our favorite go-to places for amazing salads, delicious burgers, and a solid beer and wine list! I had a steak salad and a delicious Wyders Pear cider. After dinner we had to make a stop at my all time favorite froyo place, Forever Yogurt.

Aaaaand that’s how you pack three months worth of fun into two days! I think I’m still recovering.

I’m planning to share more of my favorite places and things to do here in Chicago, especially as summer gets rolling and Ben finishes school. Summer in the city is heaven!

Have you been to Chicago? What are some of your favorite things to do?

xo Anna

Spring in the City + Weekend Recap!

The tulips right now are INSANELY GORGEOUS! It's been a perfect tulip spring. I took this picture with my iPhone 4 camera, can't get over those colors.

And just like that, summer has arrived in Chicago and the entire city is waking up. It always feels like we go straight from 40s to 80s, typical Midwest climate rollercoaster!

May is probably my favorite month here. The trees are getting greener every single day, the flowers are glorious, the days are long, and on the weekends everyone is outside either brunching, gardening, or running. It’s like a big collective “exhale” after surviving another brutal winter, a joyful and calm buzz in the air before the oppressive heat arrives.

For the past few months I’ve been making an intentional effort to turn off “work mode” on the weekends and live my life. This sounds so obvious, but it’s been really hard for me to transition out of full time employee + night/weekend side hustler into full time self employed creative entrepreneur, especially since my job revolves around social media and staying plugged in and connected. It's been SO SO SO freaking hard to define boundaries and balance, even though it's been nine months since I quit my job. I was constantly thinking about my to-do list, my business, and new ideas, to the point that it was driving me insane and preventing me from really being present and fulfilled. Even though on paper I’m literally living the dream, on the inside I was still feeling desperate, stressed, and trapped in the endless cycle of “never good enough.”

After a few months of implementing a daily journaling practice, completing a session of Jess Lively’s Life With Intention Online e-course (SO worth it!), consistently working through The Artist’s Way, getting an amazing life coach Cady to help me process this huge career/life/identity transition, and slowly giving myself permission to back off and have more fun, I’m feeling like I’m finally settling into my groove and finding myself. It feels amazing! The warm weather, sunshine, and flowers are just icing on the cake. Last week was the first week I can remember NOT having any anxiety or feeling overwhelmed. I'm learning how to trust myself, let go of my ridonkulous expectations, go with the flow, and embrace being a beginner!

May has always been my spontaneous, drop everything and carpe the heck out of the diem month. Time to come out of winter hermit mode and live outdoors! This weekend was perfect.

Ben and I have lived in our apartment for almost three years, but we’ve never really connected with any of our neighbors until recently. It’s so fun to have friends in the same building as you. Friday night we met up for game night and played Ticket to Ride with wine and dinner.

Nope, this is most definitely not our house. Yet...

Saturday was the warmest day of the year so far, one of those glorious perfect sunshine-y days that beg to be spent outdoors. We ended up wandering around Wicker Park, feasting our eyes on the gorgeous gardens and old mansions and then went out for a run.

I'm finally in shape enough to be able to run WITH Ben instead of dying and feeling discouraged and frustrated. It’s amazing! And really ironic, since I haven’t even been trying to run more. I 100% credit Insanity and Shaun T for giving me insane cardio endurance and speed!

After running past lots of people cleaning up their yards, we were inspired to go to Home Depot and pick up some gardening supplies and gave our dirty concrete yard a mini-makeover.

Our building is ancient, poorly maintained, and I think of it as "gross," but I'm sick of complaining, feeling resentful that I don't have an updated kitchen etc, so I'm going to take ownership and make the best of what we have right now! I've been craving outdoor space, so now I have a tiny corner on the front porch where I can sit in the mornings to drink coffee, listen to the birds, and journal to start my day with stillness and peace! I'm going to start coming to you from Behind the Fern up there on the porch ;)

On Sunday I went to my favorite fitness studio The Barre Code for a big meetup with some other girls from the Chicago Tone It Up community. We were treated to a killer interval class, free socks, fun swag, and a free week of classes! 

Afterwards we headed out for brunch and mimosas and I ended up making several new friends and talking for hours. I feel so incredibly lucky to live in a big city where I can network and meet other women with similar goals and perspectives. I’ve made so many amazing friends through Instagram since I started my health and fitness account almost two years ago! Kind of like online dating for girlfriends...haha.

I also devoured this amazing book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, over the weekend. It’s all about how to simplify your life by letting go of possessions that don’t “spark joy” so you can live more spaciously and stop being bogged down with clutter and chaos. This book came into my life at the PERFECT time. My mind has been feeling so calm and clear lately, and I want my home and work space to reflect that. I can never feel calm or focused and I think it’s because of the clutter. We always complain about the lack of storage space in our apartment, but in reality we just have too much unnecessary stuff!

I can’t wait to start purging and de-cluttering our apartment! I’ll keep you updated on how it goes…

Did you do anything fun over the weekend?
What's your favorite part of spring?

xo Anna

p.s. TODAY (Monday) is the last day to order Mother's Day scarves from the shop! I've added a convenient "Ready to Ship" section for the designs that are just waiting to be gift wrapped and popped into the mail :)

indoor spring: 2013 Chicago Flower and Garden Show

Before I share more pretty flower pictures, I'd like to do my blogger duty of acknowledging that Google Reader is going away. I've been a daily GR user since 2009 and I just can't believe them when they say that "usage is declining"! I'm usually supportive of Google's world takeover mission but I don't like how they're manipulating everyone into using Google+. 

Well, anyway, if you're a Google Reader user you've probably found an alternative by now. I've started using Feedly and I love it so far. It takes a little bit longer to load on my computer sometimes but I think it's actually better than GR in that it's easier to organize your blogs and read one at a time.

Another popular option (especially for fellow bloggers) seems to be Bloglovin'.

If you're a Bloglovin fan you can follow me by clicking the link below!

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Ok, on to the post!

This weekend Ben and I ventured downtown to check out the 2013 Chicago Flower & Garden Show at Navy Pier. My uncle's bulb company Doornbosch Bros. is responsible for the spectacular tulip displays and since we now live in the city we had to take the opportunity to visit him and my cousins at their bulb booth and experience the gorgeous colors!

 

Since it seems like we are stuck in a perpetual Narnia-style winter here in Chicago, it was SO refreshing to get to see some flowers blooming. If you've read my blog for any stretch of time you know that I love taking photographs of flowers, so I left Ben on his own to wander around the exhibition hall while I spent a good amount of time geeking out and taking tulip portraits!

Each of the 8,000 bulbs were individually planted in a little pot last fall, left in a cooler to simulate winter, "forced" to grow and bloom in a greenhouse last month, and then painstakingly planted in these raised beds!

The hundreds of fellow spring-starved people at the show were all magnetically drawn to the spectacular tulip displays. 

It was an interesting challenge to photograph flowers under harsh spotlights!

Pink tulips are my favorite, can you tell?

The tulips with feathered stripes are called Rembrandt tulips and were highly prized back in the Tulipomania days of the 1600's. Originally the color variations were caused by a virus but growers have developed a way to mimic the coloring patterns in healthy bulbs.

I like hyacinths better than tulips because they smell so good!

If you're interested in planting tulips in your yard, look for large bulbs from an authentic Dutch supplier. Planting season for tulips and other early spring flowers (daffodils, hyacinths, crocus) is in the late fall (October/early Nov) before the first frost. Plant bulbs in clusters of at least 12 for the most dramatic effect! You can plant summer flowers right now. Here are some more planting tips.

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse of spring! Maybe someday we'll see some flowers growing outdoors too...I say as it actually snows outside.

Do you have a favorite flower? 

(Tulips are nice but I really love big fluffy summer blooms like peonies and dahlias the best).

Have you ever tried planting bulbs?