Chicago!

Saturday, June 21: Let's Party!

6 am: The alarm sounds, dragging me out of bed. I'd spent the night before packing and deciding on party clothes with my friend, Lindsay, in preparation for Adrienne's bachelorette party. Dragging a suitcase jam-packed with a sleeping bag, a Thermarest, a fifth of Bacardi Razz, raspberry Jello and a few pieces of clothing, we loaded up the car and sped off to the train station.

8:15 am: Half an hour late, the train pulls out of the station. We settle in for a nice, long train ride to Union Station.

1:30 pm: Hampered by a few delays, we arrive in Chicago and manage to find the bus that runs past Amanda's apartment. Half an hour later, we're getting settled in and helping her set up for the party. We decorated glasses for mojitos, hung some lights and hit the streets to pick up flowers, cash and more rum.



8:00 pm: The bride-to-be arrives with the rest of the girls. We eat dinner on the roof and surprise Adrienne with a few gifts. Some nice guys take cool photos of us with Chicago in the background.







10:00 pm: We all hop into two taxis and head to the Hancock Building, where we have reservations at the Signature Room, a restaurant on the top floor. Unfortunately, we never got to eat because they require an entree per person and we had only planning to have dessert and drinks. So we relocated to the bar and watched fireworks from the women's bathroom.

12:00 am: Time to go dancing! We headed to Rush Street and found this club called The Level. After a round of lemon drops, we hit the dance floor and quickly found a small group of guys who attached themselves to our party. They bought Adrienne a shot, danced with her and congratulated her over and over again.



2:30 am: Adrienne's getting woozy...too many shots are taking their toll, so we head outside for some fresh air. Amanda makes some plans to meet up with the bachelor party at a bar nearer to the apartment, so we pile into cabs and make our way across the city. When our cab - the second to leave - arrives, we find that one of the guys had gotten sick, so the groom walked him back to the apartment. They lacked keys, however, so Amanda and her husband were heading back that way as well. They intended to let the other guys in and return to the bar, but I called shenanigans on a long night and said we would head back to the apartment, too. The walk was a mile long and most of the girls had their impossible heels off, trudging through the streets of Chicago barefoot. Another girl and I carried the bride over some rough roads to save her little toes!

4:00 am: We're back at the apartment and ready for bed. The birds' eye view of us must have been hilarious; thirteen people wrapped in blankets, scattered all over the apartment. A good time was had by all!