Weekend Trip Ideas for 2021: Chicago - Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit! (Day 1)

by - 7:00 AM

 Ambassador Chicago - Hotel

Last month, we spent an extra long weekend in Chicago for our 2 year wedding anniversary. Seriously cannot believe it's been 2 years already but time really does fly when you're married to your best friend! We've had this trip planned since the beginning of the year when we originally booked tickets to the Immersive Van Gogh Experience in Chicago. Hotel check in was Thursday night, we stayed at the Ambassador, which is only about a 10-15 minute walk to the art venue where the exhibit was held. 

Ambassador Chicago - Hotel

Ambassador Chicago - HotelAmbassador Chicago - Hotel

The hotel felt grand, the renovated rooms have modern amenities and design but the building itself is old and full of character. We truly loved staying in this area and neighborhood. Including luxury mansions and historic homes like the Original Playboy Mansion (below). 

The Original Playboy Mansion - Chicago, IL

The next morning, we ordered room service for breakfast at 7am. I was able to get some remote work done on my laptop before the food arrived, and it was so nice! I love getting able to do my day job from different places, especially with a view like the Chicago-style buildings and rooftops from our hotel window. Drew ordered an Impossible Sausage, Egg, Cheese, and Sriracha Breakfast Sandwich with fruit and an iced coffee. I also got fruit with orange juice, a greek yogurt and avocado toast. We also nabbed some croissants for snacking later. 

Breakfast - Ambassador Chicago - Hotel

After breakfast, we got ready and headed out for the day. A Friday in the city! Our first stop: the Immersive Van Gogh art exhibit. We were so pumped for this and it did not disappoint. 




The music selection and experience as a whole was beautiful, evoking and thought-provoking. I highly recommend it. We also recently attended the Beyond Van Gogh exhibit in Milwaukee in July, both exhibits are entirely different and I believe they are organized by different companies. We thought they would be the same experience, but they weren't. If I had to pick which one did it better, it would be the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit in Chicago. There it felt like a storyline was taking place, a movie-like exhibit of Van Gogh's progression in his art and in life along with a better composition of music to go with it. 


After spending maybe 3 hours at the art gallery, we stopped by a few stores to do some shopping, picked up some lunch from Del Seoul, a Korean Street BBQ restaurant that has a variety of crazy good Korean-Fusion tacos. We got their Bulgogi Banh Mi, BiBimBap, the Sesame Chili Shrimp Taco (one of their signature items), and the Sambal Fish Taco. This place came highly recommended by a friend and it lived up to the hype. Everything was sooo good. We took our food over to Lincoln Park for a picnic and enjoyed lakeside views and prime people-watching. 


We rented some bicycles using our Lyft app and biked our way south along the lakefront. It's a great way to see the city, however if you're biking on a hot day - it might feel more like a workout than a leisurely bike ride. Be sure to rent an e-bike if you're not into working out on your day off and your ride will feel like a breeze! Also be sure to bring reusable water bottles, we always carry ours with us wherever we travel and they come in handy for times like this! 

We rode our bikes right into downtown and stopped at Molly's Cupcakes. We heard they had some award winners and we couldn't resist. We picked up a whole dozen! We planned to eat one each AFTER dinner, and take the rest home to share with everyone. My favorites were the Creme Brûlée, Banana, and Strawberry Shortcake. Drew loved the Peach Cobbler, S'mores and Sea Salt Caramel. But every single one was so good. Since we couldn't transport our cupcakes on our bikes, we docked the bikes at the nearest station and look an actual Lyft ride home (to the hotel). 


We ordered Bonchon Fried Chicken via Uber Eats and enjoyed a night in while watching Forensic Files to wrap up Day 1 of our anniversary weekend trip.

Subscribe via email so you don't miss out on Day 2 next week!

You May Also Like

4 Comments

  1. Looks like a beautiful trip! Your stay looks amazing, and the food looks yum!
    xoxo
    Lovely
    www.mynameislovely.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. This exhibition sounds amazing.
    I would love to see it. I think my sister saw the exact same one in the south of France few years ago.
    And theses cupcakes look delicious.
    xx
    Margot
    https://troughthepasturesofthesky.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. That exhibit looks amazing. I'm so glad museums are back open now! And omg those cupcakes look amazing! xx

    mia // https://beautiful-inspiring-creative-life.com/

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a nice place to stay! it looks like you had so much fun, it's such a great exhibit too! And those cupcakes - yummy!

    Hope your week is going well :)

    Away From The Blue

    ReplyDelete

Comment here!


*Disclosure: This blog and its posts contains links that are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, our blog earns a small commission. At no cost to you! Our blog features these products because we actually use them and not just because of the commission, however the commission does help us pay for our blog hosting fees. We know you trust us and that's why we want to be transparent. Whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you. If you choose to do so, we definitely appreciate it!