⋆˚✿˖° SPRING IS COMING, Happy March! ⋆˚✿˖° Let’s take a second and do a check in with ourselves. We’re three months into 2024 and time isn’t going to go by any slower. It’s not too late yet to chase what you dreamt this year will be for you. If you follow me on instagram you might have already seen and done this check in, if not then take some time to answer and reflect.
Let’s get into it: ♡ How are you feeling? ♡ How are mentally overall? ♡ Are you positively taking care of yourself? ♡ Have you come up with your yearly goals and intentions yet? If not, get started even if it’s just a weekly goal for now! ♡ Have you started on your goals and intentions yet? If so, how far along are you? ♡ What has made you happy so far? How can you do more of it? ♡ What has made you sad or mad so far? What can you do to make things better for yourself? ♡ Any new goals you can add? ♡ Reflect on your growth in the last two months and celebrate it. ♡ Reflect on your lack of growth and give yourself a safe space for grieving and acceptance. After, leave it behind and start over. It’s not too late! ♡ Do something you love. ♡ Soak in some sun when you can. ♡ Take a walk, even if it’s a little chilly. Find your green space, be outside for a little.
Remember it’s never a bad thing to do a little reset if needed. Let’s make the best of this year. Happy March, may it bring you lots of love and happiness ♡
MY UPDATE
I am currently sitting in an airport by a huge window and soaking in the sun rays. Even though I’ve been up and traveling since 3 AM, today life is good ♡ I also can’t wait to write a food blog after the trip! It’s been a while since I last wrote one, but I promise this one will be worth the wait. New foods to try for your next trip!
Some people will say I’ve gone quiet, but really I’ve just been very occupied with my life, wellbeing and focused on other goals/have other priorities. I’m at a good place now where I feel like I’m rested and decently caught up with life. I feel more like myself than I have in a while. I can feel SALLY THAT GIRL again. She’ll be in full effect by the end of this year. I calmed down my lifestyle to prioritize school and it’s really my main focus. That’s really the main reason why I disappeared. Michigan has this wonderful program where they’ll pay for your semesters as long as you keep up with their requirements and I’m NOT going to lose that. This is a great opportunity to take advantage of and I’m doing exactly that.
For those that haven’t really worked on your goals for the year, it’s fine cause I haven’t really either. I’ve touched the surface, but haven’t done enough yet to say there was any visible progress overall. Some I goals are in the works, some none at all. SO that’s why we can do this check in together, not feel bad and start working on them NOW! We’re human, life and other things get in the way, we don’t feel motivated, fighting the winter blues are hard, I GET IT. I’m there with you. Two weeks ago was when I finally found my motivation to really get up and be active and make sure I use my time to do things that I love and that help me. I just got out of my funk two weeks ago. I wasn’t even able to get out of it myself, my friends in Wisconsin were the ones who really got me over it and that’s okay. It’s absolutely fine to get help from those close to you that you love and trust. Sometimes what you need is love, attention and support. I will admit that I’m definitely one of those people. After all, we are just human.
I am going to go enjoy this love filled vacation now, (my friends are getting married this weekend!). Enjoy your day, your weekend, your week. And to remember to show up for yourself the best you can. ♡
Memories from mid summer to the end. Summer goes by way too fast. I would love it if we could get a little extension, maybe an extra month or two please? Birthdays to Breakaway Music Festival to starting school and to Lost Lands. So many memories ♡ Keep living life. Keep loving life.
Some of my favorite moments from April, May and June. This year is going by so quickly. We’re already have way through, insane. Slow down, so I can have more time this year please!
Yes, I know. CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. I should move there, I visit like every few months. It’s in a great area so traveling is super easy! So this a combination of food and places you can visit while you’re there. Some places are repeats from previous food alerts because I just can’t get enough. Can you guess where? Let’s get into another weekend in Chicago!
DAY ONE IN CHICAGO
First thing first, FOOD! We got into Chicago and went to Iron Age Korean Steakhouse for some all you can you Korean BBQ. It was a Friday, so it was dinner price of $29 per person. For the options of meats and sides, I thought that was a good price compared to other prices that I have seen. So you get unlimited rounds, but it’s 3 meats and 3 sides per round for the whole table. So you order more as you finish the rounds. If any leftovers remain, then you do get charged a percentage of it to your bill. We only ate two rounds. Yikes I know we’re getting weak, but you actually get a decent portion of each protein.
First round:Spicy Pork Bulgogi, Hawaiian Bulgogi, Iron Age Soy Beef Steak, Rice, Kimchi and Veggies. Second round:Top Blade Steak, Spicy Squid, Spicy Pork Steak and Japchae.
My recommendations would be to skip out on the Top Blade Steak and go with the Iron Age Soy Beef Steak. The Top Blade Steak is very plain and simple, while the Iron Age has the soy flavor and a richer quality meat. I really enjoyed both Bulgogi meats, the Hawaiian Bulgogi and the Spicy Pork Bulgogi. I would like to come back to try their chicken options and especially their Beef Brisket.
What’s a good meal without some dessert after? Look there’s no rules to dessert, you can eat some after every meal if you really want. We’re all grown here, we make our own rules!
We had the pleasure of being overloaded with sweetness and cuteness at Kurimu! We had a small sample of their ice cream when we visited the Color Factory for my birthday back in July, so it was nice to see what the actual store had! There was a Care Bear x Kurimu Popup, so a lot of the ice cream flavors were based on the theme. We had the Black Sugar Milk Tea ice cream with Mochi topping and a Pink Vanilla cone.
It’s still summer time, so what did we do? Grabbed some rooftop drinks with a beautiful view of the city. Club Cabana was perfect for that. It’s a rooftop part of a hotel, so you might have some people in the pool, but if you bring your swimmies then you can join in on the fun! They played good music and had a good selection of drinks on the menu. It’s outside of downtown Chicago, so you don’t get the traffic or noise which was nice, you also get a beautiful view of downtown. I am a sucker for rooftop bars, eating, etc. I love the city views, it makes me feel some type of way, but a good type of way. I was obsessed with my Paloma drink made with tequila because of the Tajin rim. I vote that we get rid of the salt rims on drink and replace it with Tajin, everything would taste 5x better.
Last place to end our first day was of course **DRUMROLLL PLEASEEEEEEEE** Jolliebee!!! It’s now a mandatory visit every time I come to Chicago. I won’t post a picture because this will be it’s like 3rd mention on my blog I think? Can you guess what I ordered? If you said Jolly Spaghetti, you’re completely right. This time I skipped out on the fried chicken and got mashed potatoes instead. I can never get enough, the Jolly Spaghetti is like a drug to me. I wasn’t hungry when we got back to the hotel and said I was only going to take a bite or two. I then ate half of it, it’s seriously that addicting to me.
DAY TWO IN CHICAGO
Breakfast for this day was spent outdoors on the patio of Parlor Pizza at the Wicker Park location. We made it in time for the brunch menu and decided order something unconventional. Pizza in the morning, but make it brunch! The Eggs Benedict Brunch Pizza on the menu caught our eye, then it caught out tastebuds. The Eggs Benedict Brunch Pizza consist of three eggs, Canadian ham, baby fontina, Spanish manchego, scallions, chives, and lemon hollandaise sauce. I love how creative and different it was. I can now say I’ve had a pizza that had a sunny side up egg on it! It was delicious and I would love to come back to try other items on the menu.
A little fun fact about the Wicker Park location of Parlor Pizza, on the side of the building they have this mural of a bear eating pizza! I think it’s so cool. Here’s a picture of us from 2019. We didn’t eat there that day, but said we would come back to try it and we finally did!
Next, we made our way downtown Chicago to finish out the rest of the day. We stopped by some stores to shop on the Magnificent Mile. We had some time to kill, so why not stop by the Starbucks Reserve Roastery for some drinks? Yes, as in alcoholic drinks! The Starbucks Reserve Roastery has a total of 5 levels and on level 4, they serve alcoholic beverages. Plus you can get a seat by the windows and see the view of Michigan Street. The drinks are pretty strong and after my Roastery Boilermaker and one of the Espresso Martinis from the Espresso Martini Flight, I was feeling it. So I grabbed a Salame Piccante Pizza before we left.
The Espresso Martini Flight give you three different Starbucks Reserve® Espresso Martinis fused with global liqueurs: Orange Cacao, Molé Spice and Cherry Limone. The Roastery Boilermaker is a Chicago location exclusive and has Starbucks Reserve® Cold Brew, Koval Four Grain Whiskey, Malört, Combier Pamplemousse, Honey Syrup, Fever Tree Club Soda, Bittermens Hopped Grapefruit Bitters, Pink Grapefruit Juice, Lemon Juice, Grapefruit Wheel, Salt Tincture, Rhine Hall Bierschnaps.
I have never had a boilermaker before nor did I know it existed, so I was a little confused about the separate shot glass. I was wondering if you take it separately or if you poured it in the drink. I did a quick google search and read that you’re suppose to take the shot then chase it with the main part of the drink which is a warmer beer. I did that exactly and I was not expecting the taste at all. The main glass had a lot of grapefruit flavor, but it was more of the bitter grapefruit rind flavor. My reaction is actually pretty funny, so enjoy the video below hahaha. No drink went to waste, I just chugged the rest and chased it with some sour power strips that I got from the candy store before.
Surprise! Believe it or not, but we don’t only eat. We actually do non food related activities too. Over the many, many years that I’ve been visiting and making trips to Chicago, I’ve never taken a boat tour before. So we found one to go on! There’s plenty of different boat tours, but we did the Shoreline Architecture Tour at Navy Pier. We chose the 7:10 PM time slot and it was perfect for the sunset behind the city. I actually learned a lot of interesting things about the different architectures that are in downtown Chicago. I like learning things like that so it was very worth it in my opinion! Plus beautiful views.
On the way home, we stopped by this diner drive thru place (looks like Sonic, but older) called Superdawg Drive-In. We saw it on the way back to our hotel on day one and said we would try it out. What caught our eyes were the two huge hotdog people with laser beam eyes. One was dressed in a caveman or circus muscle man outfit and the other was a hotdog lady in a dress. That was pretty cool to see. Fun fact: Superdawg Drive-in has been there since 1948 making it 74 years.
DAY THREE IN CHICAGO
We went over to Little Vietnam on Argyle Street, the Vietnamese town for Tank Noodle. I wanted to try something other than Phở. I already knew that it’s pretty good at Tank Noodle, so I went with the Bún riêu. Bún riêu is a traditional Vietnamese soup with rice vermicelli noodles. This one had shrimp, pork, tofu, quail egg, pork cake, pork blood, tomato, onion, green onion, shrimp paste, cilantro, crab paste, and pepper. I would have to say Tank Noodle has the best Bún riêu out of the other restaurants that I have tried it at, but nothing beats my mom’s homemade version of it!
On the way back to our cars, we quickly stopped in First Sip Cafe and ordered the Ubae Nior Latte. It was such a cute decorated cafe with black walls covered in plants and lights. Then around the register there’s a bunch of different teacups hung up and gave it a very dainty feel. I thought that was super cute. The picture may not look as appealing, but it was a really good drink. I would order it again! It’s a black tea with activated charcoal latte, sweetened with Ube or sweet purple yam.
The Museum of Ice Cream was our last stop. Back in July we came across it, but it wouldn’t be open until the weekend after. I first found out about the Museum of Ice Cream through some friends when they were visiting New York, so I was excited to find out about Chicago opening one up since we couldn’t fit it in our NYC trip earlier in the year. I wouldn’t say this museum is made specifically for selfies and photo opportunities, but more for you to learn about ice cream while tasting a bunch of different versions! You can definitely get your photo ops in though. I’ll do a separate blog on the Museum of Ice Cream and my experience there. All you need to know is that we ate 6 different ice creams going through the museum and everything’s pink!
Another weekend spent in Chicago, a lot more places explored, and still so much more that it has to offer. I can’t wait for the next trip and the places/foods that we’ll try next. Very soon, I’ll be writing individual blogs on the Museum of Ice Cream (Chicago) and the Color Factory (Houston and Chicago) and my experiences there as well as the various locations visited! You can follow me on socials or you can sign up to receive email newsletters on new blogs that I post right under here.
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Stay hungry in both your stomach and heart until the next adventure!
Yes, you read that right, it’s our time to shine! Grand Rapids has a lot different options when it comes to food and drinks and there’s always something new coming. Even though I’ve lived here my whole life, I’m not even close to trying everything, but it’s one place at a time. Follow me into a two day foodie/drink weekend! #GREats
On Saturday, I met up with my friends at Butcher’s Union for some food and drinks before work. Butcher’s Union is one of my favorite places to go, it’s so cute in there and the servers are always friendly. We enjoyed some Brussel Sprouts for our appetizers, which is my favorite appetizer there. Then I got the White Chicken Chili. (Yes, I only got soup to eat. If you don’t remember in the last post, I really don’t have much stomach room haha) I did wash it down the a nice Watermelon Mojito. It was the perfect drink to end the summer weather and season with.
On Sunday, I went on a food and drink adventure. Every place was so good and I had very good company! 😉 It started at Royals, this cute little brunch diner. It was a recommended by another one of my friends and he was not wrong at all. The food there was very good and the drinks sounded delicious! I unfortunately went out to brunch hungover, so I wasn’t ready to start off with some drinks at our first stop.
Our seconds stop was to one of my favorite rooftop bars here in Grand Rapids, Haute at New Mertens Hotel Rooftop Bar. It’s has the perfect view 360 view of our downtown and the drinks are always good. The menu changes through out the year, so it’s never the same drinks, which makes it so fun to come back. They are open besides during winter, but a cold fall night? No problem, they have space heaters, fires and before the pandemic, blankets. There’s just something about having drinks while the sunsets in downtown. This visit, the drinks are customizable spritzers. You choose your base, then they add champagne and fizzy water and there! Your drink is born! We got the Lillet Blanc.
We went to a candle making bar after the Haute, then decided to check out this new restaurant for dinner that opened called Tupelo Honey. It is so cute inside and out and the drinks and food are just as pleasing! We couldn’t have a Sunday funday without a mimosa, so we each got the Sweet and Tart mimosa size mega of course! A grapefruit with blueberry puree mimosa. It’s exactly like the name, very sweet and tart. They also use paper straws here and WE LOVE THAT. I really wish I wasn’t so hurt cause I definitely would have ordered another drink to try. This won’t be my last time here though, but let’s get to the food!
So everything sounded so delicious, we went in on Tupelo Honey. In the video, are only the appetizers that we ordered. We got the Fried Okras, Crispy Brussels, and the Mac & Cheese Bites. They were all so good and mouth watering. I’ve just discovered Okras this year, so I had to those, but the Mac & Cheese Bites were my favorite. Who just doesn’t like mac & cheese?? Everyone that has gone here recommends their fried chicken, so for the main entree I ordered their Fried Sweet and Spicy Chicken sandwich. It comes with a potato bun and have NEVER tasted any buns like it. Please use potato buns for every sandwich and burger now! These buns will change your life. Anyways, the honey sriracha on the sandwich was really good. It lives up to the hype!
I was so full this day, when I got home at 6 pm, I took a big food coma nap. I’m pretty sure the nap lasted 4 hours. I had a lot of fun though and it was such a fun adventurous day with my friends. Three things that I love, my friends, food, and drinks. It’s all just L O V E. Like I mentioned before, there’s so much more for me to try here in Grand Rapids, so expect more of these! There’s so many places already and there’s still more coming in and I think it’s so awesome. Very lucky to be in a growing city! I love Grand Rapids, I really do. Until next time though!
FUN FACT: Grand Rapids is also know as Beer City in the United States! We have tons of breweries here, so I’ll introduce some of my favorite places to you guys soon!
Charcuterie board and tubing, that’s how we do it for birthdays. There’s a place in Newaygo, Michigan where you can take your tubes or kayaks and just float along the Muskegon River. It’s about 4 fun hours in the sun if you just let yourself float naturally. I’ve actually never been tubing like that before and every time my friends go, I’m stuck working the whole day. I finally got the day off and let’s just say I took advantage of it haha. Let me tell you about my first tubing trip.
Hello, hi! I should start off with some facts about me, I don’t know how to swim, tread water, and struggle with floating, I am only 5 feet tall, and my skin sunburns very easily. This is Kona and I before we left to go tubing. (No dogs were harmed, Kona actually doggie smiled every time he got picked up) We’re alive, well, and sober. My friends also roasted the fuck out of me the rest of the day for dressing like a hooters girl LOL.
I would also like to add that my tube was very comfortable and I would recommend it to anyone who is trying to last minute find a tube. Where I live, river tubes are sold out everywhere and I was lucky to find this ducky tube on Amazon and have it shipped to me the day before the trip. Plus, who doesn’t like a big floating duck with sunglasses? Some cons of it being camo is that it gets hot in spots and the dragonflies on the river thought I was a tree so I was surrounded by them. I’m terrified of bugs, so trying not to abandon ship and drown was a challenge.
The river was a smooth ride besides some random big rocks and logs, but you could easily maneuver yourself around those. About half the time the water was shallow enough for you to get off your tube and swim or walk in the water. There was plenty of times that I could get off my tube. My friends and I brought coolers just filled with food and drinks, we even packed a charcuterie board for the two birthdays that we were celebrating. Fanciest water food selection ever. It was just *chefs kiss*. Well I started to drink a little more than usual since the sun was beating down on me and guess where I decided to fall off my tube? Yep, a deeper part of the river. Only my luck LOL. I could touch the bottom, but the water was up to my neck and getting back on the tube was a struggle, if only it stopped there. Turns out I drank way too much and I ended up throwing up and falling asleep right after for the rest of the trip. I held on the my friends hand for the last 30 minutes as I was slowly waking up super drunk, but hungover. TYPICAL SALLY. Thankfully, my tube was big and I’m just small, so I was sleeping beauty on a river. I did get sunburn after just recovering from my Colorado one. I’m really surprised that I haven’t gotten sun sickness yet, these sunburns are pretty bad haha
When I was alive during the trip, I did get video footage and I’m working on making a video, another hobby that I’m trying out. At the end, I was able to gather myself up and pack the cars. We just all went back to my friend’s house and grilled up some hotdogs and hamburgers with asparagus, tried to sober up so I could be fine for work the next day. What a day it was. I absolutely love my friends and I would risk my life all over again to go with them ♡
I’ve always dreamt about last minute traveling where you spontaneously buy a flight and leave within 48 hours. Well… I did just that! I booked my flight the day before leaving and spent that weekend in Denver, Colorado. It wasn’t as stressful or exciting like I always fantasized it out to be, but it was worth the experience.
Going on a flight all by yourself is pretty boring and I did not properly prepare to entertain myself for 3 hours. I assumed that I would fall asleep on the flight and was I wrong. Don’t ever assume that, that’s where I messed up haha. What I DID loved about being awake during the flight was seeing clouds. I don’t think I will ever get over how beautiful it looks up close. When my dog passed away, I read a book and on one of the pages it talks about how each dog has their own comfy cloud to sleep on. So I just imagined my little Koko rolling around in the most perfectly soft, cotton candy like cloud bed. I definitely teared up at the thought. I let myself dream for a little that I was so close to her and her cloud home. Just a sweet little moment.
Time for my favorite part of the trip:THE HIKE.GRAYS PEAK. Oh my… I’m so proud of myself for not giving up even though I wanted to so bad. I don’t even know where to begin with the story. So I do not work out at all. I think the last time I worked out at the gym was August of 2019. I also had a dry cough the whole weekend that would hurt my sides whenever I coughed. So I’m already going into it busted up and not physically ready. Oh, did I mention that the hike was a fourteener? YEAH, YOU READ THAT RIGHT. Elevation of 14,278. When I said I wanted to quit, I wanted to jump off the cliff and rolled back down to car as a shortcut. It was such an experience though. I can’t decide if it was good or bad yet hahah We left our airbnb at 3 AM to drive there, got there around 5 AM and started hiking. This hike was suppose to take 5 hours all together, up and down. It took our group 10 hours to complete. We dropped like flies, we took tons of breaks, goats wanted to beat us up, hikers kept giving us false hope with how close we were, MAN. My lungs were struggling and the weather was so confusing. There was snow on the mountain and it was windy, but I was in my tank top while the guys were all in their hoodies. It’s the middle of July, my body was never so confused before. The elevation and basically doing knee to chest lunges up got me. My little legs were killing! I told the guys to go ahead of me and if I caught up, then I did, if not so be it. The last hour or so up, I hiked alone and only could walk like 20 steps before having to stop to breathe. I met this very cool hiker though and honestly, he gave me an awesome pep talk about finishing, so thank you guy! By the time I met up with my group I was 5 to 10 minutes away from the top so I had to finish it. Everyone was right, the view is so worth it. I was just way too tired to take decent pictures and kept thinking about how I had to hike the whole thing to get back to the car. LOL. Hiking down was probably harder and you just have to pray that you have strong ankles. Did I also mention I did all of this in some training nike shoes? Not prepared at all! The walk back was killer cause it was at least 93 degrees. I got so sunburned in the last two hours. My shoulders and lips paid their dues the hard way. I actually had a lot of fun with my group though and just proud that I made it. Would I do it again? Honestly, probably not LOL. One time was enough, maybe ask me again in a couple years.
5:30 AM Sunrise
The rest of the trip was a lot less exercise haha. I did have the opportunity to skydive while I was there, but I have no idea why I decided not too. So I do regret that, but it’s okay. That can always be added on to the next trip. I met some new people on the trip and strengthened my friendship with others, so I’m very happy that I went. I’m ready to plan the next one!
SALLY♡THINGS 