ENDLESS ADVENTURE, RIGHT WHERE I LIVE.
We’re ready for the ball! The interactive Bridgerton Experience in Chicago gave us a rare opportunity to dress up in a way we haven’t since prom night (and our weddings!) I, of course, wore my best pineapple costume jewelry with a glitzy green dress from Amazon. All it required was sliding the straps to an…
One recent Saturday morning, I met up with my good friends Hallie and Jamie for a quiet time of contemplation and clothes folding at a retro laundromat in Chicago’s West Loop district. JUST KIDDING! What looks like a colorful wall of dryers is actually a clever façade at Punch Bowl Social, the hottest bowling alley…
When I first heard about the 2d café phenomenon in tourist cities around the globe, I imagined stepping through a swirling portal to another dimension, trillions of cells in my body morphing and twisting, compressing into a flat paper doll. Is there anything thinner than paper? In this new 2d realm, I would sidestep to…
It’s bundle season! Shout out to our good friend José for hooking us up with these parkas from The North Face. They easily keep us toasty in zero degrees. The biggest difference between living in California and Chicagoland is obviously the cold weather, which starts around November and can last until early May. That’s a…
Are you ready for a sensory expedition through color, sound and light? This journey transports you from the grey sidewalks of Chicago’s West Loop district into a Willy Wonka-like world of wonder, complete with interactive selfie moments. Here at the WNDR Museum, touching the art is encouraged and silly dances are celebrated. Visitors young and…
“It’s funny how you find you enjoy your life / When you’re happy to be alive.” Do you recognize this song lyric? I don’t even want to mention the band because it’s an embarrassing throwback to my younger years. But it’s completely true. After the Big Panini stole two years of our lives, we dreamed…
When people think of exciting places to visit in California, they’re minds often jump straight to San Francisco and Los Angeles, two major metros know around the world. But I would contest that the towns sprinkled along California’s Central Coast, like Santa Cruz, Monterey, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo, offer an even richer vacation…
Maybe you’ve heard of Napa Valley, where vino-lovers and elites travel for a romantic (and boozy) getaway. That northern hotspot is but one of California’s blossoming wine destinations, followed closely by Paso Robles, its up-and-coming little sister on the Central Coast, 26 miles from the Pacific Ocean. Straddling the distance between Napa and Los Angeles,…
Did you grow up reading the Harry Potter books? I was never allowed to as kid, so when the pandemic shutdown first began in early 2020, I ordered all seven HP books and took advantage of the quiet evenings by catching up on the childhood cultural phenomenon I’d missed. If figured all the craziness would…
Continuing our Hogsmeade adventure at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal Studios Hollywood, we headed into the Three Broomsticks restaurant for a hearty British lunch and a sip of cold butterbeer. There they are, the three broomsticks! Our eyes immediately went up to the impressive vaulted ceilings of this rustic wooden tavern, revealing…