2008 September | Lisa's Travels

Archive for September, 2008

Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel & Convention Center Author: Lisa Sep 29

Bill and I had the pleasure of staying in the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel & Convention Center on Saturday night. This is one the better hotels Bill and I have stayed in (and we’ve stayed in many bad, bad, bad places). When you first walk in, there is an escalator to get up to the hotel lobby. The lower level of the hotel is the convention center. The people behind the desk were extremely helpful and friendly. The lobby was decorated with modern contemporary furniture. They had some great sound proofing too. Our room was on the third floor, but right over the lobby. We never heard a thing from the lobby the entire time! The rooms were fairly large, and the bathrooms had TVs in the mirrors. The TV in the room was also HD, so my husband was in seventh heaven. The bed was super comfortable too. We also had a chase lounge chair in the rooms too! If you are there for business, there was a desk to work on, and several plugins for all your business needs. We also checked out the hotel bar, Gather, and that bar was very nice also. We were there after the dinner we were there for. The staff was awesome and made great drinks. Again, the furniture was very contemporary but very comfortable. My only complaint is that parking is quite a walk away from the hotel. I lucked out that Bill dropped me off at the door, so I didn’t have to walk that far.

If you are in the Schaumberg area here in Illinois, this is definitely a hotel you should check out.

Category: Hotels, Illinois, Uncategorized | Tags: amp, area, bar, bed, Bill, business, Center, chair, chase, complaint, Convention, desk, dinner, door, escalator, floor, furniture, Gather, heaven, hotel, husband, Illinois, level, lobby, lounge, night, pleasure, Renaissance, right, room, Saturday, Schaumberg, Schaumburg, sound, staff, thing, time, walk | One Comment

Wrigley Field Author: Lisa Sep 23

Now that the Cubs have clinched their spot in the playoffs, I thought it was high time I gave a short review on why you need to go to Wrigley Field. Wrigley Field is one of those places you have to go once in your life, even if you don’t like baseball. Personally, I have been to Wrigley Field, I think, about 4 times. This last time was last Tuesday, right before they clinched.

Why should you visit Wrigley? The atmosphere alone makes it worth the trip. I have never seen such die hard fans (the only exception I make to this is Lambeau Field). Everyone was nice (even after Bill and I sat in the wrong seats). It doesn’t take much to get the crowd into the game either. All nine innings that Cubs were cheered for. We even have our own version of “Take Me Out To The Ballgame”, and I don’t think there was a soul in there who wasn’t singing. I don’t think there is a bad seat in the place either. Our tickets have been all over the stadium, and they were always good seats. You can also feel the history there. This is an old stadium, and it definitely has character.

I have only one complaint about Wrigley Field. The food stinks. We wanted to go to one of the restaurants inside, but they were closed to private parties, so we ended up eating from the concession stand. Ick and expensive.

It is great to be in a place with such team spirit. As we left the game, Cubs fans were still singing the “Go, Cubs, Go” song all the way down to the street. Now that they are in the playoffs, I can only imagine the atmosphere to get better and better.

Have you been to Wrigley Field? What was your experience like?

Category: Chicagoland, Illinois | Tags: atmosphere, Ballgame, baseball, Bill, character, complaint, concession, crowd, Cubs, die, everyone, exception, experience, Field, Food, history, Ick, innings, Lambeau, life, place, review, right, seat, song, Soul, spirit, stadium, stand, street, team, time, trip, Tuesday, version, way, Wrigley | 3 Comments

Fall On The Green, Oak Lawn Illinois Author: Lisa Sep 08

If you live in the Chicagoland area, this is something you need to do. This festival happens once a year, and it is always the weekend after Labor Day. My family and I have went several years now, and each year it keeps getting better. The best part — Its free! Yes, I said free. They have something for everyone there too. They have a beer garden and live music all weekend. They actually have two music stages! They have a food area where you can try some of the local places to eat. This year they even had a rock climbing wall!

Madison’s (my 4 year old) most favorite part of this is the firefighter display.

As you can see, Madison loved this and that it isn’t a little set up. It is huge and the kids love it! This is all she talked about all the way there. They also have bathtub races for the older kids too. They have the jumpy things too. They also had a blow up train the kids cold work their way through and huge blow up slides the kids can go down. My only complaint with this is that a lot of these had kids manning them (like 12 year olds). However, it was free so I can’t complain too much. I personally enjoyed the huge craft show that they had also!

They also had clowns blowing up balloons, a guy walking around on stilts, and face painting!