When I heard where we were staying and that there was a large mall nearby, I immediately pulled out my smart phone to look up what stores where there. I let out a squeal when I read the words "Vera Bradley" and decided then and there that we had to track down this store since I was on the quest for the perfect sunglasses case - to coordinate with my purses, of course. :)
If you can't already tell, I like to shop, so you can only imagine my great delight when I discovered that there were two malls within miles of each other right by our hotel. Oh joy! I just had to convince my fellow travelers that this would indeed be fun.
The Oak Brook Mall is an outdoor mall. Yes, outdoor - in Chicago no less. It's November and cold and windy...but we just had to find that Vera Bradley store. So off we went in freezing temperatures all around the mall until we finally found it - and we just happened to park the farthest away one could. Kathy was so frozen that she actually wanted to go inside the store and stay there! So I didn't really have any trouble convincing my companions to peruse the store for a while. :)
Though shopping at this particular mall is a bit miserable during the winter, it is very pretty. There were Christmas lights everywhere. I loved it!
After failing to find the perfect sunglasses case (but no worries - I will find it in Indy!), we retraced our steps and willingly followed Dad into a pen store to thaw - I mean, to shop for ink. Kathy had never been so interested in a pen store in all her life! We encouraged Dad to stay as long as he wanted, but alas, we couldn't stay until closing....
By this time, dinner sounded wonderful, but we had to walk outside to satisfy that desire. So, after trying to get our bearings and being very grateful for the security guard who showed us the shortest route to our destination, we arrived at Maggiano's. And you won't believe where they seated us! Right by the heater!!! I guess it was all those icicles hanging from our ears... Needless to say, Kathy was very happy with this seating arrangement!
It was a lovely place. I loved the pretty dishes, warm-from-the-oven bread, and delicious food. We even ordered a gourmet piece of pumpkin cheesecake to split between us. But we had to have a photoshoot before we cut it up. It was almost too pretty to eat - at least for the girls!
The rest of the evening was spent at our hotel room relaxing and talking with one another. On Saturday morning, we enjoyed further conversation before attending our friend's noon wedding in Wheaton, Illinois. What a lovely, God-honoring ceremony! We were so grateful we were invited and that we made the effort to attend.
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