Today marks two years since the chilly and gloomy October day Ben and I said our vows in the warm light of the chapel at Augustana. I'll always remember the feeling of being surrounded and enveloped by the love of all our closest friends and family. It was by far the happiest and most emotionally powerful day of my life.
So much has happened since then! We've made it through some challenging times, and are now settled into a pretty awesome phase of life. There are lots of unknowns in the future, but we're making the best out of what we have and I feel so lucky to be able to share life with my soul mate.
We've also been living in Chicago for two years now, so to celebrate our anniversary we decided to book a fancy room downtown at the Palmer House and enjoy a mini stay-cation in our city this past weekend. It was so fun to get out of the house and play tourist!
The Palmer House is an opulent and dark oasis in the middle of the loop. Very Gossip Girl. I highly recommend visiting or staying here if you ever get a chance--we found a pretty good deal on Groupon and it was fun to pretend that we were high society. There were SIX weddings going on at the hotel this past weekend, so I like to think that we were October wedding trendsetters.
Hi, husband!
The Chicago River is one of my favorite spots in the entire city, and River North is one of my favorite neighborhoods to go out and about. The views from the river are unbelievably spectacular. Last weekend was a celebration of the anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire, so they attempted to set these awesome Victorian mansion floats on fire. Apparently it was a huge to-do and then technical difficulties prevented the floats from actually burning....but we missed it anyway because we were drinking fancy cocktails.
Oh Three Dots and a Dash. Indescribable. This underground Tiki Bar has been on my bucket list all summer and I'm so glad we finally made it! Next time we're making a reservation so we can actually eat. This place is crazy busy but we found spots at the bar and enjoyed the most epic tropical cocktails I have ever seen. If I'm ever having a bad day, I'm coming here and ordering a banana daiquiri--it's literally impossible to be sad when you are holding a fake coconut with a happy banana dolphin leaping out of the top.
After a wonderful dinner at Cafe Spiaggia, we crashed early, woke up to an unbelievably gorgeous Sunday, and spent the morning wandering around Millenium Park.
Obligatory cheesy Bean selfie!
Have I mentioned how much I love this city? It has its fair share of problems and issues, but it's just so dang beautiful.
We finished off our mini-getaway with an epic brunch at Wildberry Pancakes. Something that the Loop is desperately lacking is a good assortment of brunch restaurants! It seems like everyone downtown and their mother and child wanted to eat here, so prepare for a wait. It's worth it though.
Two years down, many more to go! I am so happy I get to share my life with you, Ben. You make me into a better person and everything truly gets better and better every day. Being able to celebrate the present moment with joy and look towards the future with excitement is the biggest gift I've ever experienced.