Ladies Weekend in Chicago

Mama and I headed to Chicago this past weekend to meet a group of friends. This group met on a bulletin board a few years back and we’ve been friends ever since. From time to time we chose a place to gather and meet in person.

We stayed in Geneva at at bed and breakfast. Geneva is about an hour out of Chicago and is the most charming town. We took advantage of the great downtown and shopped until we dropped. When we weren’t shopping, we enjoyed socializing with each other.

I’ll start with the inn. It was built as a family home in about 1830 and now is a B & B. Now-a-days they host a lot of weddings and other large events. The Saturday that we were there, they hosted a murder mystery dinner. The guests all arrived in 1920’s attire. On Sunday, a large group of Red Hatters had brunch. It was fun to see the ladies arrive in their red hats and purple dresses.

Here are some shots of the outside of the inn and the grounds:
This tent was huge inside and would be perfect for dancing.
Wouldn’t this be a great spot to get married?

The inn was chocked full of antiques. Here are some inside pictures:

This was in the breakfast room. In the old days it was probably an outside porch.
All of us loved this sink.

Here’s the table that they set for our Sunday brunch.
I would never think of using cherry tomatoes in a centerpiece, but it worked. They also scattered them throughout the boxwood that was on top of the table.

Now for some pictures of my friends. You couldn’t find a nicer group of people!

Here we are at breakfast on Saturday. After fueling up, we hit antique shops, thrift shops, and antique sales. We shopped until we dropped!
Post shopping we took a break before dinner for some wine and socializing! Here is Donna and Debbie sharing a laugh in the parlor.
Mama and I on the grounds of the inn.
You may recognize this sweet lady. On the left is Donna from Designs on 47th Street and her beautiful daughter.
Lorrie is from Arkansas.
Miss Char is from Michigan. We came from all over to see each other!
Here we are at brunch on Sunday morning. The food at the inn was really good.
We went to downtown Chicago on Sunday to see some of the sites. We walked down Michigan Avenue, went on an architectural boat ride, and then went to the 99th floor of the Sears Tower.

On the boat!
The shape of this building really caught my eye. The cars look like they could roll out of their spots at any second.
The architect designed this building so that the building around it would be its decoration.