Vegas Baby! (maybe)

Last year, before my fabulous birthday in Chicago with Mon and Christy, I decided that i wanted to do something "big/special" for my 25th birthday. Yeah i know, 25 isn't that big of a milestone, BUT my golden birthday was when i was 4, and im pretty sure my mom had absolutely not idea what a "golden birthday" was so i kinda lucked out. Now Juj, his birthday is June 30th-that means his golden birthday will be when he turns 30 and that's a big milestone, again... sorta.

So I would really like to go to Vegas this year for my birthday. Its a lot harder said than done, specially with Juj working part time we have very little discretionary income. But i really want to go.

The plan is that the gang- Juan, Maria, Christy, Mon, Juj and I- would all try to go but making it budget friendly, because honestly, no one of us is balling out of control.

If there is one thing you should know about me is that I'm a planner. I like to plan things. I like to know what we are doing, when we are doing it, who's going, what time, etc etc. Though i do like spontaneity, i don't like to leave big things to "chance". I want to get all of the possible Vegas entourage together to further discuss the plans, what dates, etc etc.

As a planner, I've been doing some research. I started looking at hotels, reviewing attractions, checking on flights. As of now a round trip non stop from MKE to LAS is at 255 (incl tax). Not bad. BUT it could get better. I want to find the air fair more along the vicinity of 215-235. I know in the scheme of things its only 20 dollars cheaper but that could at least cover any luggage we would need to check. As far as hotels, we have yet to decide if we are going to do a 2 queen for 4 of use or try to get a suite for all 6 of us, either way we'll do even Steven- making it more affordable for everyone.

Wish me luck in my planning endeavours. I'll hopefully be able to say that i celebrated my 25th birthday in Las Vegas (Baby!)

SuperDawg!!

On the second night in chicago we decided to take a drive out to SuperDawg. Juju saw this place on an episode of "diners drive ins and dives" on food network. Im a fan of chicago syle hotdogs and im pretty sure Chicago makes them the best. So we called for our car to be take out of the parking structure and entered the address into the GPS and set off.

It was actually fater than i expected. Im glad we had the GPS otherwise we might have gotten lost. I took us about 20/25 mins to get there on the expressway. I was worth it though.

Superdawg is super cute, i know super corny, but it was. It was very retro looking and the fact that i was a drive-in really helped out with the retro feel. We both got superdawgs, which come niftly packaged in the box below. My box felt very heavy for its size, it was just about rounded off on every side. Once i opened up my box i found this.... One really squished bun housing a real good tasting hotdog.

The box comes packed with a bed of french fries, a grilled green tomato and of course, the superdawg. They were awesome, i love the taste of uncommercialization. Like when you have a burger whose flavor you dont immediately associate with a company, like, a whopper always tastes like a whopper. Don't get me wrong, i love whoppers, but i know what im getting (or at least what to expect) everytime i order one.

I digress, we split a chocolate malt and headed back to the hotel. We had to be up the next morning to check out and head home.

Our trip to chicago was a nice change of pace and a perfect way to celebrate my husbands birthday.

DreamSeats

After doing some shopping on Michigan avenue, we decided to eat lunch. Juju wanted to eat at the ESPN zone. Neither of us had ever been there. So we walked in and it was basically the biggest sports bar i had ever seen. We got asked if we were there to eat or play. Eat- we were both starving, and i think we had a very lite breakfast at Starbucks that morning.

The hostess, who had a thick accent asked something along the lines of blah blah seat? and i said excuse me? and she repeated herself blah blah seat? I didn't want to asked her to repeat herself again, specially since the last time really didn't help much. So i nod my head and smile and say sure. She then proceeds to walk us over to the Dreamseats. That's right. Dreamseats. If you've never been let me explain. They are basically individual leather recliners with a pull out desk-like tablet that serves as your table. They have built in cup holders and of course they reclined. Oh and did i mention these bad boys were situated in front of a monster screen the size of the entire wall? Floor to ceiling sports coverage everywhere.

Here juju is enjoying a 32 oz cold one, at 1 in the afternoon. I mean hey, i guess we were sorta on a mini vacay- why not? I also enjoyed a drink with lunch. We eat our delicious burgers and juj had another beer.

The nice thing was that we a) were walking and b) had nowhere to go. So bring on the drinks right? I mean it's 5 o'clock somewhere.

The Hubby's Birthday

This was our first official trip as husband and wife, well not counting our honeymoon- That would count as your first trip as newlyweds.

When i was planning our honeymoon we thought about spending the night in Chicago, seeing that we were flying out from O'hare, on the day of we got back to-well, um reality. Juju thought it was a great idea, he actually wanted to stay at the W Chicago Lakeshore. I looked into booking us a night but that came to a screeching halt when we found out we would be spending upwards around 300 dollars to stay there a single night. So we quickly put that idea to bed and decided to have my sis and bro in law pick us up from the airport and drive us home.

Juju was pretty bummed about this. I was the voice of reason in that decision. 300 dollars for a single night?!? I was totally not interested in shelling out $300. With that said, i felt bad, believe it or not. I mean i had chosen our honeymoon location and juju pretty much went with it. And all he wanted was a single night in Chicago.

I bet you think i caved right?

Wrong!! I actually went online at wor- ehem, at home, and started searching for deals at the W for Jujus birthday- which wasn't until the end of June. Lo and behold i found a room upgrade for 2 nights with a lake view for around 360. I know what your thinking, not that good of a deal... but um yeah sorta it is. For one, its 2 nights instead of 1 and in all honesty, i would have paid that and much more for juju.

I tried keeping it a surprise for as long as i could, i literally booked this trip in April. I eventually had to tell him so he could request his days off from work. So here are a few pictures from our Chicago trip.

Our view from the hotel. To the right is Navy prier.

The weather forecast was sunny and warm and instead it rained, it wasnt cold, but i wasnt prepared for rain at all. Still downtown chicago was beautiful.

I like how little juju looks compared to the world around him.