One Chicagoland Girls Getaway Finishes, Another Begins

We had a perfectly relaxing day at Hotel Arista, enjoying the spa, food, and amenities. 

It was time for the Midwest girls’ getaway with my friend Lynn to end, but not before we explored more of the hotel and Naperville, Illinois.

I slept very well on the king bed in my spacious suite. It was a shame I only had it for one night.

Lynn and I met with Barb Hocker of Hotel Arista at Lavazza Café, which was a short walk through the hotel to the City Gate Centre.

We refueled with lattes, muffins, and yogurt, and talked about the hotel, which four diamond and a Preferred Hotel, as well as part of the Kiwi Collection.

After we finished breakfast, we toured City Gate, which also included the Tap Inn Pub & Carvery. Barb also showed us the golf simulator and I got to take a swing at it.

Lynn and I went back to our suites to freshen up for the rest of the day.

Carmia Stanovich, Director of Sales for the Naperville Convention and Visitors Bureau, picked us up and took us on a brief tour through her city. I was surprised at how much there was to do there and vowed to come back and explore.

Before heading back to the hotel, we stopped for lunch. I was pretty excited at the name of the restaurant, White Chocolate Grill.

As you can imagine, the motto at this restaurant is “dessert first.” We didn’t quite do that, but we did keep our eye on the dessert menu when ordering lunch.

While everyone else got salads, I decided to go with two of the items the restaurant was known for.

I started with the Tomato Gin Soup. I happen to love gin, but even if I didn’t, that bit of juniper made for a wonderful and unusual taste.

For my main course I went with the Veggie Quinoa Burger and it was fantastic, filled with vegetables and flavor.

With my burger I had a side of the Israeli Couscous. It was sprinkled with pistachios and was yet another dish which was unusual and tasty.

Choosing dessert at White Chocolate Grill was no easy task. We were able to narrow it down to two: a brownie sundae made with a (white chocolate) blondie and the restaurant’s signature White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake. Both were delicious.

Carmia took us back to the hotel. Lynn’s flight back to New York wasn’t until the evening and we were able to get a late checkout at Hotel Arista so we had some time to chill at this beautiful hotel before leaving for the airport.

The Midwest adventure was over for Lynn and I when I dropped her at O’Hare in Chicago, but it wasn’t quite over for me. Soon after Lynn’s flight left, my mom arrived from Florida.

We headed straight to her favorite hotel, the Palmer House Hilton in downtown, where we had some very special things planned for the next day.                                                                                                                           

Midwest Girls Getaway Continues in Naperville

My friend Lynn and I had a wonderful time in Southwest Michigan, but it was coming to an end. We packed up our things at the Inn at Harbor Shores, said goodbye to the beach, and hit the road.

Before we left St. Joseph, we stopped at Café Tosi. The breakfast was so good and fresh the day before that we wanted one more for the road. 

We had started our Midwest adventure in Chicagoland and we were heading back to check out some more. This time or stop was in Naperville.

It was mostly a scenic ride around Lake Michigan to get back to the Chicago area. Naperville is outside of the city and a town I had not yet visited.

I was invited by the Hotel Arista, a four-diamond boutique hotel with one of my favorite things – a full service spa.

We were immediately impressed with the contemporary design of the hotel, which was the first to be LEED certified in Illinois.

The managers at the hotel had gone out of their way to make us feel welcome. Lynn and I each had our own suites and they were stocked with surprises, from local beer to snacks and even a Hotel Arista phone charger.

My suite was especially comfortable, with a large bathroom that had a modern soaking tub in the middle. (I always give bonus points to hotels that have bathtubs.)

We dropped our things and headed down to the Arista Spa and Salon. We were given robes to change into and then champagne to enjoy while we waited for our treatments.

After our very relaxing massages, we continued the mood up to our separate rooms for naps.

It was nice to have the chance to take a break before dinner.

Hotel Arista had invited us to dine in their Sugar Toad restaurant. Like the hotel, the restaurant was about contemporary and fresh, with a big variety of flavors. 

Even the bread was warm and inviting.

The Butternut Squash soup was fantastic, but I resisted the urge to finish it as I knew a lot more was coming.

We shared an order of the Shaved Brussel Sprout Salad and while I loved the concept, the sherry vinaigrette was not the right choice to grab onto the Brussel sprouts.

For our main courses, Lynn had the Beef Tri Tip, which was served with sunchokes and a tasty sauce. I went for the parpadelle special. 

It was wonderful, with mushrooms and butternut squash, in a lightly creamy cheese sauce.

We were pretty full, but we shared the brownie with fruit and ice cream for dessert.

After dinner, we headed to my suite for a bit to and shared a drink. I had a glass of the Southwest Michigan wine we had brought with us from our last stop and Lynn enjoyed one of the Two Brothers Beer. 

It was the last night of our girls’ getaway, but before we said goodbye, we had another full day ahead of us.