Driehaus Museum, United Center, Architecture Foundation River Boat Tour, Argo Tea, De Cero, Sable Kitchen, and Firecakes Donuts | Chicago, IL

We began day three by having breakfast at Argo Tea. I had a blueberry muffin and a black tea. The tea was so so, but the muffin was great!

Then we visited the Driehaus Museum...it was amazing! Our tour guide, Audrey, was fantastic and it was well worth the extra $5 for the guided tour. Also, the museum offers discounts for students and teachers ($10 off), and visitors are allowed to take pictures inside the museum. 

Driehaus Museum

Just your typical front door

The house was build during the Gilded Age and cost $450,000 to build during that time. Needless to say the finishes are gorgeous and the museum has done a beautiful job of restoring the home. Part of the restoration process included recreating a glass dome in the library that had been damaged, but thankfully the company who created the original dome still had the building plans and were able to recreate it. 

Dining room complete with doors hidden in the woodwork for servants to use

Study

Study's ceiling...LOVE IT!

Dome in the library...AMAZING!

Fireplace in the library....so pretty!

The second and third floors house the museum's temporary exhibitions. When we visited the exhibit was L'Affichomania: The Passion for French Posters and it explored posters by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Alphonse Mucha, and others.

Posters by Jules Chevret

Our amazing tour guide :)

Posters by Theophile-Alexandre Steinlen

Posters by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Posters by Alphonse Mucha

After the Driehaus Museum, we took the L (subway) to Randolph Street for lunch (lots of restaurant options). The L is great, but it doesn't have an abundance of stops like New York or London's subway systems so I did not find it super convenient. Because there are fewer stops, you may need to walk half a mile to get to your destination after you get off the L. Therefore, towards the end of our trip we employed Uber more often lol. 


Another aspect of Chicago that I didn't care for are the different levels to one street. A street may have three levels, but all of the levels have the same name. It can be confusing so keep that in mind when you are exploring the city.

The "L"

Street art on our way to lunch

Don't forget to "Flex your Hustle" 

We tried to have lunch at Au Chavel or the Little Goat, but the lines at both places were too long so we tried De Cero's instead. M and I both got the grilled skirt steak tacos and we shared the chorizo y tres queso nachos. The tacos were amazing, but the nachos were a little strange. They put a thin layer of chips and piled on the toppings so it was difficult and messy to eat. 

Next we met my cousin for a behind-the-scenes tour of the United Center (where the Chicago Bulls and the Blackhawks play). The arena was set up for hockey season and we saw it from the floor and the press box. We also saw the outside of the Bulls locker room, the area where my cousin works, and met some of her sweet co-workers.

View from the floor

Outside the locker room

Afterwards we took an Uber back to downtown Chicago and went on the 5:30pm Architectural River Boat Tour. It was so fun! We learned a ton about the buildings in Chicago and we were able to see them in daylight, sunset, and twilight. Such pretty views!!

Navy Pier

We had dinner at Sable Kitchen in the Hotel Palomer. It turned out to be more of a cocktail bar so the the food options were limited. We shared the pimento cheese fritters, crispy sweet potatoes, and the special that night which was a steak and fries plate. Everything was delicious; however, the sauce for the sweet potatoes is extremely spicy. So keep that in mind if you visit (I was so hungry I completely forgot to take pictures!).

After dinner, we visited Firecakes Donuts for dessert. The shop is so tiny it doesn't have inside seating, but it does have a few tables outside. After we purchased our donuts, we were debating whether to take them back to our hotel or eat them there when a homeless man approached us for money. 

Firecakes Donuts

After we declined his requested he began to badger us, got extremely close to us, and wouldn't leave us alone. Because of this person, we went back to our hotel to eat our donuts (which were not great). One thing I did not enjoy about Chicago is the abundance of homeless people on every corner. Most of them were respectful except for the man outside of Firecakes. However, encountering homeless people is to be expected in larger metropolitan areas so don't let that put you off visiting Chicago :) .