Party Crasher!

**LONG POST AHEAD**

Months ago, when it was announced that the Healthy Living Summit would be held in my hometown of Chicago, I got really excited! To be honest, it wasn’t because I necessarily wanted to go to the conference, but because DOZENS of my favorite bloggers would be coming to our fair city!

Then, the ticket website was blocked at work, I couldn’t get a ticket, and I then vowed to my bloggie friends that I would still come downtown to hang out with them the weekend of the HLS.

Fast forward a few months, and next thing I know, I’m getting invites to dinners, texts about plans, and it hit me: all my bloggie friends were coming to town THIS WEEKEND! Plans were quickly made so no one would be overbooked (totally still happened) and I headed downtown on the train to party crash the HLS.

I arrived at the Congress Hotel and promptly met up with some people whose blogs I’ve been reading for almost two years now.

First, I saw Jenn and Melissa

Then, I met a very excited Monica, who has been a person I’ve wanted to meet for a LONG time!

I also met a Hangry Heather

All these girls are just as freaking fabulous as I thought they’d be! We had a chat about how to properly pronounce my name, talked to Sabrina a bit, and waved to other bloggers on their way out. There was a yoga something-or-other and a Zumba class happening, so we took a quick group picture with Chandra,

From left: Chandra, Me, Jenn, Melissa, Heather, Monica

Jenn, Melissa and I hit the road on foot over to the nearest Whole Foods for a hot bar feast with none other than Gena! After I bandaged my feet (new shoes + 1.5 mile walk = bad blisters!) we made some salad beasts at the hot bar. Ok, to be honest, I filled my bowl with spinach and marinated mushrooms, then topped it with a variety of hot food.

I also got this spicy tuna/rice bowl, but really I just picked the tuna and avocado off the rice.

And the bloggers in action:

I pretty much wish that Gena and Melissa would just move here so we can all hang out all the time. I’d bring the cupcakes. Sound like a plan ladies?

Kristie met up with us, and we, of course, took a group picture!

No, the paddy wagon behind us was not to take us away… instead, we took a (very difficult to find) taxi to Karyn’s on Green to meet up with some more blogger friends.

Since we’d just eaten, I wanted to go just to say hi to some more of the people in town! At long last, I got to meet (and hug, multiple times) the glorious Angela from Oh She Glows! She’s just as wonderful as she seems on her blog, and it was wonderful to finally meet her after nearly 2 years of internet friendship.

Another group picture! I didn’t catch everyone’s names/blog names, so if you know them, please let me know!

Kath and Tina were there as well, and it was great to meet Tina and see Kath again. We talked Chicago, dogs, and drinks…and I was relieved to see that Tina was dressed casually as well, since many girls got very dressed up!

After some more schmoozing and chatting, I had to catch the train back to the suburbs for yet another busy day! I met Kristin for coffee in the morning, and then we both went and got our hair cut. It was great to be a bit pampered before my last week at camp. I then hopped in my car, drove for a while and magically ended up back downtown to pick up and hang out with this lovely lady:

GINA!!! We then went and picked up someone else, who it was great to see for a second time in a weekend, and headed to Whole Foods.

Gena, Gina, and I had a great time snacking (I got a honey Oikos, local peach, and a watermelon Hint water)

We had a surprise visit from Jenn, and all too soon it was time to take Gena back to her hotel so she could go to the airport. Really, she just needs to move closer. Have I said that yet?

When Gina and I first made our plan to hang out, we said we’d play it by ear as to what we’d do. When I asked her yesterday what she’d like to do, her answer was simple: “PIZZA!” So we went to one of my favorite pizza restaurants between her hotel and the airport.

Edwardo’s was one of the first places I’d had spinach stuffed pizza when I was a kid, and it’s the ONLY place that will make any pizza with whole wheat dough. I munched on a couple pizza crust crackers and sipped my Diet Coke (yes I still drink it, and I love it, no lectures please!)

While Gina pondered the menu.

I decided on getting a classic spinach stuffed pizza to eat and share with Adam when I got home, and Gina got a cheeseless veggie whole wheat crust pizza. Except for the kind of crappy service, the whole meal was honestly amazing.

The look on Gina’s face when she tried her specialty deep-dish pizza was priceless. It was a combination of utter bliss and…well, utter bliss. I had two ooey-gooey cheesy and spinachy pieces just like this:

It was truly wonderful to spend time with Gina outside of the airport, but way too soon, I had to drive her back to the place of our first meeting. She needs to move here too! She even told The Pilot that she wants to come live at our house…that’s fine with me!

We had some fun with my Photo Booth app on my phone before we said our goodbyes:

Thank you all so much for coming to Chicago and enjoying our fair city as much as I always do! It was truly wonderful to meet you all, and put faces, voices, and hugs to the people behind the blogs.

I hope you all had as great of a weekend as I did!

TGIM!

Tagged as: bloggers, Chicago, Chicago dining, dinner, dinner out, food, friends, fun, Italian, local, meet-up, out, pizza, Summer