Last month, we spent an extra long weekend in Chicago for our 2 year wedding anniversary. Seriously cannot believe it's been 2 years already but time really does fly when you're married to your best friend! We've had this trip planned since the beginning of the year when we originally booked tickets to the Immersive Van Gogh Experience in Chicago. Hotel check in was Thursday night, we stayed at the Ambassador, which is only about a 10-15 minute walk to the art venue where the exhibit was held. 

The hotel felt grand, the renovated rooms have modern amenities and design but the building itself is old and full of character. We truly loved staying in this area and neighborhood. Including luxury mansions and historic homes like the Original Playboy Mansion (below). 

The music selection and experience as a whole was beautiful, evoking and thought-provoking. I highly recommend it. We also recently attended the Beyond Van Gogh exhibit in Milwaukee in July, both exhibits are entirely different and I believe they are organized by different companies. We thought they would be the same experience, but they weren't. If I had to pick which one did it better, it would be the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit in Chicago. There it felt like a storyline was taking place, a movie-like exhibit of Van Gogh's progression in his art and in life along with a better composition of music to go with it. 

We rented some bicycles using our Lyft app and biked our way south along the lakefront. It's a great way to see the city, however if you're biking on a hot day - it might feel more like a workout than a leisurely bike ride. Be sure to rent an e-bike if you're not into working out on your day off and your ride will feel like a breeze! Also be sure to bring reusable water bottles, we always carry ours with us wherever we travel and they come in handy for times like this! 

We rode our bikes right into downtown and stopped at Molly's Cupcakes. We heard they had some award winners and we couldn't resist. We picked up a whole dozen! We planned to eat one each AFTER dinner, and take the rest home to share with everyone. My favorites were the Creme Brûlée, Banana, and Strawberry Shortcake. Drew loved the Peach Cobbler, S'mores and Sea Salt Caramel. But every single one was so good. Since we couldn't transport our cupcakes on our bikes, we docked the bikes at the nearest station and look an actual Lyft ride home (to the hotel). 

We ordered Bonchon Fried Chicken via Uber Eats and enjoyed a night in while watching Forensic Files to wrap up Day 1 of our anniversary weekend trip.

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