Hubby’s Birthday Trip: Chicago Part Deux
So dinner…was delicious! We went on a recommendation from the concierge and I highly recommend it to all of you if you’re ever in Chicago!
Tesori was fantastic! And delicious 
We started with a charcuterie and cheese plate. I was not able to eat that bread in the top right corner…or the item of food underneath it.
They even brought me GF bread! It was mock rye, made with millet and teff. Very good!
For a salad I had the Pork Belly and Kale Salad. This was my first time with pork belly and I loved it!! This salad alone is worth going back to Chicago!
This is his “This is Yummy!” face
And for the main entree I had gluten free pasta with their house tomato sauce. It was absolutely delicious. You may notice that I ate things that I don’t normally, but when in Rome you’ve gotta live it up! Hubby and I rolled out of Tesori and on our way to the next event I had planned for the weekend.
Woohoo! Hubby and I have been itching to see this production for a while, but tickets are expensive, oh, and you have to travel to Chicago to see it So we decided to take advantage of our location and see it! Unfortunately, our seats had an obstructed view (the top half of the stage was not really visible to us 
). BUT luckily, we could see everything we needed to. The production was really entertaining, but a bit too raunchy for my taste! The writers of South Park were responsible for the show so I guess it makes sense
Congrats to the winner of the Endangered Species Chocolate Giveaway!!! Annie, please email me at glutenfreemuse@gmail.com with your shipping information
What is your idea of a perfect date?? Mine is dinner and a show of sorts…yes, movies count as shows!!
xoxo
Alyssa
Hubby’s Birthday Trip: Chicago Part Un
When it comes time for Hubby’s bday, I am always at a total loss as to what to buy him. He really doesn’t NEED anything or WANT anything, and if he ever does, he buys it for himself. SO I had this marvelous idea of planning a birthday trip for him. Now, because I am a perfectionist, I expected this to be the BEST WEEKEND EVER. And it was a fun trip, but not the best ever. I’m trying to decide if we should get a redo, or just scrap Chicago…you can help me decide
Day 1
On Day 1, we arrived and checked into our posh hotel, Hotel Allegro, a Kimpton Hotel. Now, I am a huge fan of Kimpton Hotels. I find them classy, posh, ecclectic and they make you feel like you’re rich when in reality they are rather affordable in comparison. However, this was the second time we stayed at a Kimpton Hotel and we had another issue…we’ll get to that later. The hotel was centrally located in the Theater District and walking distance to most of downtown Chicago.
Here are some photos of the inside!
The lounge area
The lobby area
The main lobby. This is where they served Cocktail Hour every night. From 5-6 it is unlimited complimentary wine or beer. They also had strawberry sangrias on hand if you’d rather have that. They weren’t super cheap wines either…Cupcake brand. I was pleased
After we checked in, we decided to go see some sights before our Off Broadway musical that night. We went to Millenium Park for a tour of the exhibits::
We loved all of the exhibits they had!
I think this was the top of the amphitheater.
The bean! Also known by its official name, Cloud Gate.
More bean
The outdoor amphitheater. I would love to go to a concert here!
This one was really cool The towers were made of like a plexiglass brick and there were large screens inside showing videos of faces. The water spouted out of the mouth and when the water stopped, the eyes opened and they smiled. Very interesting artwork!
We also got to go to Argo Tea (I’ve seen their bottled teas, but never a storefront) and it is pretty much our new favorite beverage bar! It was like the Starbucks of Tea
We fell a little behind on our schedule and raced back to the hotel to change for our dinner at Tesori. When on vacation, I hate being rushed to get dressed because I always want to look my best. I mean, who doesn’t want to look like a model when they’re in a big city?? Well, in my haste, I threw on a pair of 3 inch heels (hot pink, I might add) because they make my legs look pretty smokin’, but I neglected to properly train my feet in these heels. Also, I think that I’ve bought all of my heels a half size too big. Well, Hubby is dragging me through the city and these pumps are flip flopping all over the place. I finally am able to flex my foot in a particular fashion to hold the shoes in place and this results in what feels like my skin ripping (after 5 blocks of this foot flex maneuver). I tell Hubby, “I think my feet are bleeding” and when I look…they sure are! Completely exasperated, I take my shoes off (and almost threw them into one of the solar compactors on the street) and walk barefoot for 2 blocks in Downtown Chicago. I got over my fear of disgusting city streets pretty quickly! We popped into a CVS and bought a pair of flip flops which I proudly wore for the rest of the night.
The whole ordeal left me a sweaty, bloody and stressed out mess. Plus, what is up with my deodorant no longer working?? I wear Hubby’s now and it isn’t even strong enough…WTF pits?!?
So dinner…
Will be covered tomorrow Have you ever felt super stressed on vacation?? What kind of deodorant do you use?!?
xoxo
Alyssa
Em’s Graduation Part II
After lunch, we headed out to dinner to reunite with some friends! We had a great time and I can’t wait to see them again. We then drove up to G-ville for the UF graduation! It was crazy busy up there. I was so proud of my little sis
It was an early morning! We all look very tired
Stalker photo!
It was actually a fairly small class, but it took a LOOOONG TIME!
I was proud of her for just being able to walk in those shoes!! I would have broken an ankle
The festivities were great and we headed home. The next morning, Hubby and I got up bright and early and started our drive to my in-law’s house. We rented a teeny tiny car…can you guess what it was?
Can anybody say Fiat 500?? It was like driving a clown car
Next item on the agenda?
My first Airboat Ride in the Everglades! It was a lot of fun I saw 5 alligators, 3 turtles and 2 snakes. I did feel bad about making so much noise in their home though…
What is the last vacation you took? Have you ever been on an airboat ride?
xoxo
Alyssa
Endangered Species Chocolate Review and GIVEAWAY!
I was so excited to get these in the mail! I love Endangered Species Chocolate and everything their company stands for. I also love that 10% of their proceeds go to protecting endangered species, humanitarian efforts and conservationism. Great company and even better chocolate! I really love their dark chocolate because it is so smooth and silky. Perfect after dinner snack and dessert. Their milk chocolate is purely decadent and delicious!
They also keep changing the flavor profiles up on me! Dried fruits and nuts are my favorite, so I really enjoyed trying these bars.
I ate this chocolate like I never had chocolate before I just couldn’t keep away from it!
And my next favorite thing to chocolate??
Here’s the full list, according to votes placed at Run Hundred–the web’s most popular workout music blog.
David Guetta, Ne-Yo & Akon – Play Hard – 130 BPM
Jason Derulo – The Other Side – 128 BPM
Jennifer Lopez & Pitbull – Live It Up – 128 BPM
Robin Thicke, T.I. & Pharrell – Blurred Lines – 121 BPM
Emeli Sande – Next to Me – 95 BPM
Porter Robinson & Mat Zo – Easy (Radio Edit) – 128 BPM
Maroon 5 – Love Somebody – 121 BPM
Fergie, Q-Tip & GoonRock – A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All We Got) – 130 BPM
Carly Rae Jepsen & Nicki Minaj – Tonight I’m Getting Over You (Remix) – 126 BPM
To find more workout songs, folks can check out the free database at RunHundred.com.
A new playlist!
Ok, back to the chocolate! Who is interested in winning $20 worth of chocolate for themselves?? How to enter:
- What is your favorite use for chocolate?
- Which Endangered Species flavors would you like to try?
**Winners must live in the Continental US…sorry **
Giveaway closes out on Friday!! Good luck!
xoxo
Alyssa
Em’s Graduation!
Hubby and I took an awesome trip home to FL to see my little sis graduate and visit our parents. We had such a great time and did I mention, I love the beach? Well, I do That’s the Florida girl in me!
We started the trip off with a boat trip to Crystal River with my dad, sisters, and his boat. It was a cloudy day but we loved it!
I had fun in the car making this ridiculous InstaEdit photo I think I look pretty good!
My mom took us to lunch at a fantastic Italian restaurant in Hanibal Square in Winter Park, FL. I ordered a delicious salad!
Gail, my grandmother, ordered the egg soup. It was gluten free as well!
My mom spent the lunch making Hubby feel uncomfortable That is her favorite past time when we are around!
I also ordered a salmon carpaccio and it was fabulous.
More to come on our trip in another post! What is your favorite trip as of late?
xoxo
Alyssa
Lunch at Coco’s Bistro
We decided to show some friends around town and headed to Coco’s Bistro to show off a great restaurant in Dayton! Our friends are moving here in a few weeks and we are SO excited to have them nearby!
I ordered the Cabernet Steak Salad and it was delicious. It was also Gluten Free! The waitress said she had to eat gluten free as well so she was able to navigate the menu for me with the utmost of ease
The salad was wonderful
Well, my grandparents have been visiting all weekend so I’m pooped! We are watching the movie Butter, ever heard of it? Great cast! I hope it is as good as the contents of the film
And congrats to the winners of the Qrunch Burger giveaway! Ani D and Kristen, please email me at glutenfreemuse@gmail.com with your mailing addresses and I’ll get those coupons out to you!
What is the best lunch you’ve had as of late?
xoxo
Alyssa
Qrunch Burger Review and GIVEAWAY!
Boy oh boy was I excited about viewing this product! Going gluten free was not too bad 5 years ago, but finding veggie burgers was impossible! Why do all veggie burgers need to be made with wheat based products? Well, thanks to Qrunch Burger, this is no longer is a problem!
Quinoa has always been a favorite staple of mine and is also incredibly healthy. I remember reading about it when I went gluten free and discovered that it was the world’s perfect source of protein containing all 12 amino acid chains. Most proteins have 5-6 chains and it is rare to find all twelve in a single food source!
Qrunch was kind enough to send me some coupons for free burgers to give them a try! I immediately went to the store and found them in the organic freezer section and we had them for dinner that night.
We decided to try the spicy Italian and they were fantastic.
We popped the burgers in the microwave frozen and microwaved them for a few minutes while toasting up some GF bread and assembling a kale salad.
I topped our burgers with these pickles because I’ve been seriously underwhelmed with them. They are flimsy and have no crunch…I guess we’ll put them on burgers to spice things up!
The kale salad complimented the burgers nicely
Awesome meal and the burgers were great! Fantastic consistency, filled us both up and left us completely satisfied. Thank you, Qrunch for sharing this awesome product with us! We will be buying more! And check it out! Qrunch even made the news
Qrunch Tops the Charts on Taste Tests!
And now here is your chance to try Qrunch burgers! Two winners will get a free box of Qrunch burgers! (Or at least a coupon to buy some for yourself!)
To Enter:
- Leave a comment after visiting the Qrunch website telling me which flavor you want to try most
- Tell a friend about this giveaway by posting on another blog!
Good luck! Giveaway closes on Saturday!
Xoxo
Alyssa
