As an early 16th birthday present, my aunt and my mom took me to Chicago. I’ve been to Chicago before for a band trip in middle school, but I don’t really remember much of that trip and our itinerary was so packed, I couldn’t really take in the city at my own pace. I didn’t know much about the city besides the fact that it was bigger than St. Louis but smaller than NYC, so I kept an open mind. However, when we arrived, I was immediately enthralled by everything I saw from the beautiful buildings to the people, and just the overall vibes I felt from the city. I knew this was going to be a great trip.
Initially, we were in Chicago to see the Broadway musical Hamilton because I was obsessed with the soundtrack and it was the first real professional show that I really wanted to see. Our hotel was connected to the CIBC Theater where we would watch the show that night. I remember a valet driver took our car somewhere to park it, which was something I’d never seen before. I was confused because I didn’t see any parking garages around so I wondered where they would take it before my mom informed me that there are underground parking lots that they take the car to. That blew my mind a little because I had no idea there was such a thing.
Anyways, we unpacked our things in our hotel room and walked to get dinner at a local burger place that was kind of like Five Guys but so much better. I was a little intimidated by walking all over the city at first, but it is such a cool experience. The architecture and beauty of the buildings are like none I’ve ever seen before.
After we had lunch it was time to get ready for Hamilton. We went right next door into the CIBC Theater and it was such a cool experience. The inside was so beautiful that I could not contain my excitement. This was before COVID, so it was literally packed with other theater goers who were definitely way more educated than I am about all things Broadway. When we got to our balcony seats in the back, I was immediately blown away by just the sheer grandness of it all.
We watched the show, and I was fangirling over it the entire time, singing along to all of my favorite songs in my head. It’s one thing to listen to the original cast of Hamilton on Spotify, but it is so cool to see how the actors in that Chicago cast brought their own personality and rendition of the characters to life. Being able to see the choreography and emotions of the actors really brought the story to life for me and made me appreciate it so much more.
We had one more day in Chicago, so we woke up the next morning and went on an adventure to Wildberry Café for breakfast. We put the directions into Google Maps and quickly discovered that we were going the wrong way. We walked all around trying to find this place, passing a little park area in the middle of the city. My mom quickly discovered that somehow the map on her phone was turned the wrong way and we made it just in time for our reservation. The restaurant was right next to Millennium park, and we could see the pier in the distance. We ate outside because it was a perfect day weather wise and enjoyed their famous pancakes which were delicious.
After breakfast, we decided to do some shopping, so we went to probably one of the biggest Nordstrom’s and Old Navy stores I have ever seen; like there was an actual escalator in both of them and three to four floors each. After our retail therapy, we went back to our hotel, and our car was brought out from that magical underground garage and we went home.