Chicago & Finding My Inner City Girl

This summer has truly been a ball of excitement. Preston and I vowed to travel as much as possible over the next few years, and that’s exactly what we’ve started doing. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to take this and a couple of other business-esque trips with me this summer due to school and military, but undoubtedly, we will be hitting up these places again. Especially Chicago. The windy city captured my heart more than I’d ever expected it to–from public transit to basement apartments to people walking dogs everywhere–I fell in love. And seriously, I felt like I was straight out of 101 Dalmations with so many people walking their big, beautiful dogs in parks and on sidewalks in the middle of the city.

My main reason for making the trip was to attend a wedding photography and business workshop with the ever-fabulous Jasmine Star–more of which I’ll be sharing with you next week. But for now, I wanted to share some of the personal adventures I had while in the city. I feel as though the architecture of a city is a form of self-expression in the same manner that styles of clothing would be for a person–and well, Chi Town’s architecture sure said a lot about her personality. I loved the warehouse feel and the straight-out-of-a-movie city feel, and so much more…

The fog was pretty enchanting. One evening as we were driving through the city, it was so thick that it looked as though there was a large fire and smoke was engulfing the streets. Nope, just fog. Mysterious fog. (:

Another thing I wasn’t particularly expecting the city to woo me with, its food. But oh, let me tell you about the food. Chicago knows how to brunch, my friends. My tastebuds were flirted with at every meal. I snapped some shots at one of our brunch spots, Birchwood Kitchen because it was just too cute…and delicious. We ate on the back patio hidden amongst busy city streets, but you would have never known it by the quiet and greenery out back. Birchwoood Kitchen, you’re a charmer, you. 

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen my post that I bought a freshly juiced green juice FROM A WALGREENS. Not super hating on the South, but I sure do wish trends like this would pick up more in the deep south. Freshly made juices in convenience stores are a luxury I’ll keep dreaming about here, for now.

The photo to the left below was that Walgreens. It used to be an old bank in the city that Walgreens bought and converted into one of their stores and the architecture inside was just breathtaking. 

Can anyone identify the building to the right below? I couldn’t, although the men working on the street as we were taking a stroll told us that people pass and take photos of that building all of the time. I assumed it must be from some movie or show that I just couldn’t recognize. So, I snapped too. (:

More fog, and pretty street art.  And this last one is just for funnies, because that’s a Nikon in my hand. Happy, happiest Friday, my friends! Stay tuned next week for more photos from the actual workshop.