I left Florida at 10:30 am with my traveling companion, Leigh from ThemeParkMom.
I was pretty scared to fly as it had been a while since my last flight, and I had to take a Xanax (prescribed) just to get on the plane. I was hoping that I would be able to sit next to Leigh on the flight, but unfortunately, it was completely full and we were rows and rows apart. That was a bummer. Luckily, the flight was pretty uneventful and we made it in Chicago in 2 hours and 15 minutes.
When I got off the flight to meet up with Leigh she was standing with from Jaden from SteamyKitchen.com. Come to find out Jaden only lives like 5 minutes from me. Small world.
We shared a cab to the Sheraton and immediately made our way to Navy Pier to experience our first Chicago hot dog!
A Chicago hot dog consists of an all-beef hot dog topped with mustard, onion, sweet pickle relish, a dill pickle spear, tomato slices or wedges, pickled sport peppers, and a dash of celery salt on a poppy seed bun.
Ridiculously good, and I don't even like relish. What I would give for one now...
Thank you Jaden for treating us to our first Chicago dogs. 🙂
Before heading back to the hotel we made a stop at Garrett Popcorn. I had heard how good this stuff was on twitter and we just had to try it..
Oh. My. God. This stuff is out of this world! We all ordered The Mix, which is a mixture of caramel and cheese, and agreed it must be made out of crack. Drool.
We made our way back to the hotel and Leigh and I went to the Mom Central party. I had a free drink card, and I was not going to pass that up....that should be a theme for me for BlogHer09...who knew there would be so much free booze?
By this time I was wondering where my roommate Jen was and found out she had trouble getting to the hotel. All was well and she finally made it. We met in the hotel lobby and it was like we were the best of friends. It was so great seeing her! We made out way to our room and had a great view.
We sat and chatted and met up with our other roommate Deb, and then got ready for the People's Party.
The People's Party was my first official BlogHer party and it was insane. When we arrived there were so many people we were barely able to move. There was no reason to fight over swag and as there was enough for everyone (which was a good thing). While the party was fun and I met a few people it was loud and really hard to interact with anyone. Chris Mann performed and while he is cute, he was way too skinny!!
The 704 Party was next and it above and beyond a madhouse. For the first time, I experienced just how rude bloggers could be with the swag bags. Women were just grabbing the bags and running off with them before the party even started! I really couldn't believe it. At this party, I noticed a lot more bloggers that I recognized and got to meet Jessica Smith from JessicaKnows. By this time we were STARVING and Shannon, Leigh, Jen and I left the hotel for some late night grub at PJ Clarkes.
And yes, if you were wondering, we walked the streets of Chicago after midnight and did not get mugged!
Thanks, Shannon for treating us 🙂
Tammy
Sounds hectic. Overall, did you have a good time or were you dissappointed?