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| Tracy & Cindy |
Tracy and I were together 3 months when we decided a weekend away together would be wonderful. The boys were at their dad's house for the entire week so we were free to have some "us" time. We wanted to be able to hole up, relax, and enjoy each others company. After getting a "new year's eve kiss" at the stroke of midnight (at a friends party) we quickly said our goodbyes and left knowing the next day we'd be off on our first official "weekend getaway". Since we were both still living in separate houses and I was adjusting to spending time with her kids we thought it would be nice to kick off the new year (2010) down in Schaumburg, IL.
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| Our Hotel Suite |
Staying at [the now named]
Sonesta ES Suites (Extended Stay) was the perfect place for us. It was affordable (about $99 per night), very clean, and had enough room to feel at home. The kitchen was equipped with almost everything you'd need to cook a meal or two including fridge, microwave, working stove-top, pots, pans, cooking and eating utensils, plates, glassware, and working stove-top. We stopped and bought some groceries and treats to get us through the three night stay. We did plan on one dinner out at
The Melting Pot - fondue restaurant. We've eaten there before, but we knew we wanted a romantic four course dinner for two and we also wanted lobster. YUM!
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| IKEA - Home Furnishings for Urban Dwellers |
We knew eventually we'd pop our heads out of our room and explore the village a little. Schaumburg, IL is a wonderful place to go for shopping and dinning. It's about 30 miles west of Chicago, but very much out of the congestion of the windy city. If you've never been to this charming village the absolute one thing you HAVE to do is visit
IKEA. This huge Swedish home furnishings store is AMAZING! You can't miss the giant blue and yellow building and the parking lot is HUGE. We walked into the store just to "look around", but then realized we NEEDED about a million things. That's how they get ya! The prices are affordable and you just can't do without wooden hangers, picture frames, a computer cart, and a bag of Swedish fish. IKEA is 3 stories tall and we spent about 4 hours in the store - it seemed like less since there was so much to look at.
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| Le-La - Giraffe at LEGOLAND |
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| Streets of Woodfield |
In addition to IKEA, right around the same area is
Woodfield Mall and the
Streets of Woodfield (which i prefer over the mall). It's quaint and loaded with top notch stores. The
Starbucks appealed to Tracy and i grabbed a Banana Berry smoothy at
Jamba Juice. We sat and enjoyed the people watching, talking, and looking at the giant giraffe made out of LEGO in front of
LEGOLAND Discovery Center. There is also an
AMC movie theater and a
Gameworks for further entertainment. We didn't go to either on this trip, but you could definitely spend some time AND money in this area.
After spending the better part of an afternoon shopping we decided to head back to our hotel to slip into something more comfortable - you guessed it - sweat pants and t-shirts. We spent the rest of our getaway just hanging out, talking, playing on our computers and Nintendo DS, watching a movie or two, snacking, and getting to know one another better. It was exactly what we needed.
Even though we have since been on several other vacations, this one will always be special to me because it was our first one together. I also love Jamba Juice and LEGOs!
