Chi - Town!

This past weekend, I joined Michael in Chicago (he was up there for a CLE) for a long weekend.  Some friends of mine from SMU live up there now, so we got to hang out with them on Friday.  It was absolutely gorgeous up there!

Lindsay and I met for lunch at a Beachstro Cafe right on the lake (Lakeshore Drive) then Michael, Lindsay, Patrick and I ate dinner at 27 nacional, a Latin cuisine restaurant, that was delish.  Since Michael had to be up early Saturday morning, we headed back to the hotel and had a drink in the hotel bar while a jazz band played.

Saturday, we woke up and Michael headed to his seminar while I took a jog around the lake.  Again, absolutely gorgeous day.  Here's a pic of the skyline while I was running:

After my run, I headed to the shops where I did a little bit of damage (oops! :)).  Michael finished his seminar around noon, so we met up and started walking around the area to find a place to lunch.  While we were walking, we totally saw Guiliana Rancic filming at a little bistro called Salute.   See was so cute in person!!!  I think she and I could be best friends...

After our run in with Guiliana, we ate deep dish pizza at Gino's East (again, another fantastic place to dine).  Michael was sleepy so he headed back to the room to take a nap while I embarked into my favorite place of ALL times - NEIMAN MARCUS!!  I love, love, love Neimans.  I could spend all day in there... which I kinda did :)

Then, I went and met Lindsay and Patrick in Wicker Park for a street fair. 

While I was there, I got a text from Michael saying he wasn't feeling well, and by the time I got back to the hotel (after a stop at Walgreens for some medicine), he was in terrible shape.  He felt so bad he couldn't go out on Saturday night.  Now, I had two options: (1) stay in the hotel with Michael and his sick self (yuck!) or (2) head out on the town and explore.  Naturally, I totally went out by myself.  I went to Coq d'or, a little piano bar in the Drake hotel, for dinner then headed to the 11 pm showing at Second City, which was hysterical.  I highly recommend it.  Luckily, this nice couple that I met while we were standing in line asked me to sit with them since I was alone.  I'm totally one of those people who can explore on my own and I loved it!  I didn't get home until 2 am from the show - I'm surprised Michael let me get away with it - but he was so sick he couldn't argue!

Sunday morning, I woke up and took another jog around the lake and walked around Michigan Avenue (which is great when no one else is there!).  I even spotted the Harry Winston store (in honor of my boo, Harry Winston Salem Noble :)).

I love Chicago and had a great time.  I just wish Michael could say the same... Oh well, I guess that warrants another trip to the Windy city.

@ Work on a Saturday!

Today's a big day for my team.  Something we've been working on for the past 18 mos is finally ending and it's a huge sigh of relief.  However, as a show of solidarity and team spirit, I'm at work this morning supporting their efforts.  So while great to finally wrap something up - I had to be at the office at 8 am on a Saturday - boo!  Hopefully things will wrap up soon and I can begin my weekend shortly...

While I'm waiting, let me go ahead and wrap up our trip to St Lucia back in March.  I'm about ready to blog about something else already! 

The second to last day, we headed back to St Lucia and did the ropes course in the middle of the Island.

all dressed up in our gear (note the hairnets - ew)

Michael on one of the swinging bridges

Michael on a zip line

me taking off on a zip line

The last day/night was especially fun.  Our host got it into his head that he wanted to lift the crane (obviously, there's a crane on the boat, how else would they load all the heavy toys?!?!) and wrap a rope around it so we could all swing on it.  Captain Chris lifted us all up and swung us out over the boat while we were cruising around the Pitons.  Here's some fun pics:

our host cocktail in hand

Captain Chris driving the crane

my favorite picture of Michael from the trip - Piton in the background

my Cirque du Soleil act - I'm thinking of trying out in Vegas

What an amazing trip!

Never Enough - Days Four and Five

After leaving St. Vincente, we headed to Little Tobago Cays, which is only 150 miles off the coast of Venezuala.  And it was absolutely beautiful!  Look at this water!

The whole area is a bird and fish santuary.  In fact, there was even a roped off area where we could swim with the LARGE sea turtles.  I really wish I had an underwater camera to take pictures of all the turtles we saw.  That was probably one of my favorite things about the trip. While we were there Michael and Iboth tried scuba diving for the first time.  Michael loved it - he even petted a small nurse shark on one of his dives.  I totally freaked out under the water (and I was only 20 ft below) and decided I'm more of a swimming with the turtles and sun-bathing kinda gal.  Here's some pictures of Michael about to head out on a dive/learning to dive while in the water (not so smart if you ask me):

This is where I lounged during the day while Michael was diving:

During sunset, we'd enjoy cocktails and apps on the boat after a long day in the sun:

Notice that Michael doesn't look a shade darker than he normally does...

On the second night while in Little Tobago Cays, the crew set up a beach barbeque for us with lobsters, steak, potatoes, veggies, etc.  The chef even got off the boat to cook for us on land.  It was delish...

  

Frank (the owner of the boat and our host for the week) with one of the locals and the HUGE lobsters

Sunset from land with our boat in the background

Only two more days of Never Enough posts!

Never Enough - Days Two and Three

Day Two - St Lucia and the Pitons

Day Three - St Vincente Island (where Pirates of the Carribean was filmed)

My boyfriend

Where the skeletons are hangining from at the beginning of the first Pirates movie

A couple of us went ashore to walk around the sets left from the movie.  Then we were told there was a waterfall that we should walk to; as we made our way to the waterfall (which it was one, in a loose sense of the word), a little kid yelled "Look! White people!"  I think he was talking about Michael specifically :)

Beautiful sunset

New Post Coming Soon!

Never Enough: Day 1

At long last I'm finally able to find the time to update my blog.  Last time I posted, I only put one picture up of the trip we just back from.  Instead of making an extremely long post, I'll post by day... Day 1: Alarm went off at 4:45.  Michael woke up from about two hours sleep (putting the finishing touches on some work he just had to get out).  I got plenty of sleep and was raring to go.  He was dragging.   

We arrived at the airport in plenty of time to skirt right through the Delta Breezeway at our gate and board the plane.  First class baby!!!  Before we even left the ground, Michael had a Bloody Mary, and I, a Mimosa in hands. 

After a quick layover in Atlanta, we were on our way to St. Lucia and this was the view from our plane window.

 

Here's a view of St. Lucia as we were landing:

  

It was 28 degrees when we left Nashville. When we stepped off the plane in St. Lucia, it was a balmy 90 degrees.  Being a warm weather gal, I loved it! 

It took us two hours to get through customs (yuck!). But as soon as we got through, we found the local bar to have a few while we waited on the rest of our crew.  Classy huh???

Once everyone arrived, it took us another hour to drive around the island to where our boat was.  Finally, we arrived at Marigot Bay (a beautiful resort that I would love to actually stay at) where the boat was docked.  Our staff was there to greet us - Captain Chris, Rachel and Annie (the women who did everything), Scott and Ryan (the deck hands), Chomper (the chef), and the Engineer (I forget his name).  There were 7 staff people for 9 people total on the boat - ridiculous!  So by the time we actually got on the boat, it was cocktail hour and then dinner was served in the formal dining room at 8. 

I wish I had a picture of the table at night - the girls did an excellent job with the decorations.  And the decor was different every night!  It really was fine dining at its best.

That night, we laid on the sunpad, drinking, chatting and having a grand ole time. 

Stay tuned tomorrow for Day 2!

Just a snippet of our fabulous trip...

Not a whole lot of time right now to post all about our trip to St Lucia... so here's just one picture - one of the boat that I called home last week.  More to come!

"Never Enough"