Congratulations to our two winners ~ Matthias for the two United Club passes and Ben won the $25 Visa gift card! Thanks for reading my blog and following along on my travels!
To celebrate my sweet hubby’s birthday, we used our SW companion pass for the last time this year. (But no worries, I’m already working on one for the next two years). We traveled to Chicago, the windy (and very COLD) city! Chicago, here we are…the two in the center back of the photo above, with me in the pinkish coat. This is the iconic “Cloud Gate” aka “The Bean” in Millenium Park, downtown Chicago.
The Southwest Companion pass is one of my favorite things – a companion flies with you free, paying a nominal fee of $11! How do you get this great benefit which lasts the year you receive it and one more?! Voila…the Chase Southwest business/personal credit cards, which give you 50,000 points each after spending $2,000 on each card within three months. Chase is offering the premier and plus versions right now with the 50K point offer and each one has the business version also. Now is the perfect time to get it because you will have it for the next two years! See millionmilesecrets.com on how to best utilize these fantastic cards!
We used Hilton points to stay at the Hilton Suites on Magnificent Mile. They gave us early check in because of our non-stop SW flight early arrival (flight cost about 28K points and $23 for both of us). The hotel cost was 50K Hilton points, with a value of $277. That’s lots of points, but it’s in a great location. The SW flights would have cost $473, so we got a $750 weekend trip for $23 – not bad! And we got free breakfast and late check out our last day.
Here’s a view from our corner room…
The food was amazing in Chicago. I had checked with a foodie friend on where to eat, and she recommended The Signature Room on the 95th floor of the Hancock Building!
We got a seat right by the window, as requested when we checked in for our noon reservation!
Looking straight down…
White hot chocolate, with chunks of dark chocolate, it was sooo good!
My husband is a mandolin player…!
We walked down Magnificent Mile and there were HUGE shopping crowds!
This is the glass staircase in the Apple Store, which cost one million dollars (just the stairs)! One of my son’s friends did some work on this store.
Chicago River…
Macy’s State Street, nine stories and an entire block, in a building on the National Register of Historic places. My husband complains that all the floors are women’s clothes, except one (he’s right too)!
The Chicago Cultural Center was built in 1897, the first library in Chicago. Now it’s a center for free cultural events, with two huge domes. This Healy and Millet designed dome is 40 feet wide, with 50,000 pieces of glass!
A really magnificent building…
The sun was really trying to shine…
And of course, you have to eat Chicago pizza, and this is the best we’d heard. But we ordered in because we just couldn’t walk another step!
Chicago was a fun city to visit, and we did stay warm all bundled up! It’s easy to reach via train from either Midway or O’Hare.
This will be my last post this year…many thanks for coming along on all my journeys and see you next year with some amazing posts about “down under.” G’day mates, I’m really stocked, eh!?! Here’s wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday season!