A Little Bit of Spain

This weekend was a blast. We went to Chicago to celebrate a dear friend’s bachelorette party.  She had lived in Spain at one point and we thought it would be fun to have a Spanish themed party.  Initially I had looked up different party favors, but realized no one would really have the need for a paper fan (you know, like Flamenca dancers use) with the love bird’s names on them ~ or the other route, penis shaped straws.  Just seemed to be a waste of money.  We decided to put that toward more important things – booze and food.

We made a detour to get “THE DRESS,” which was a challenge for a couple of reasons: the bride doesn’t want anyone but immediate family to see it until the wedding & 2 it was raining.  We managed to get the dress without my seeing it and get it into the car without issue.  Off to downtown!

We got to the Palmer House around 4:45 CST and checked in.  Being from the area, I have of course been in the historic landmark, but I had never been in the rooms.  Extremely pleased!  The room was spacious and really pretty. Phew! So far so good!!   We wanted the event to be that ~ special, just like the bride!

The Palmer House is one of the oldest hotels in Chicago.  Potter Palmer had built it as a wedding present for his Bride.  So, it was sort of symbolic that we were celebrating a wedding ourselves!  I had heard (or thought) that it was one of the only structures to survive The Fire, but the original one did perish that dreadful year.  The current structure was the 3rd version (the expansion was built around the 2nd & they never lost a day of business!).  It’s breath-taking.  It’s worth walking in and going UP to the lobby (yes, ladies, up…).  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_House

We then took a taxi to Mercat a la Planxa http://www.mercatchicago.com/ for some Spanish tapas.  The restaurant is located in the Blackstone Hotel. It looks fancy too ~ but if you want to know about it, you can look up the history yourself :)

It was a little pretentious in presentation, which isn’t my preferred style, but it was a special occasion and we had a lovely view of Grant Park.

There was a table next to us celebrating a man’s 90'th birthday.  I gave him a hug on his way out.  He said that was his best gift yet.  I think he was over exaggerating a BIT.

We ate a LOT. Then, we walked to Millennium Park and showed one of the bejeweled companions (did I mention we were all wearing crowns?) “the Bean” then off to Swirl via Walgreens & Dunkin Donuts.

First, let me say…I never realized how heathenistic Hubbard Street is.  Wow.  Lots of Adult Book stores.  One right next to our club too!

The bar was nice http://www.swirlwinebarchicago.com/.  It was narrow, no cover, no line ~ 2 drink minimum and a live flamenco band.  I felt bad, ‘cause from the adverts, I thought there would be the full garb with the skirts and castanets, but it was mostly just the band.  There were a few times where one of the guys danced.  And when he did…*prrrr* 

We were sitting on top of him, so I got a fairly good look at him. Nice guy.  Married for 19 years and still going strong.  I do have to admit, I found him less attractive when I heard him speak.  I was hoping for an accent.

Before we knew it, the time was 1:30 am CST (2:30 for us).  We said goodbye to one of our Crowned Princesses and jumped in our own Taxi and headed back to the Palmer House.

Then, none of us could sleep, but that didn’t matter. T-minus 2 weeks until the big day!