While in Chicago I was able to earn 6 new Foursquare badges! It actually made the trip even more fun by trying to earn various badges by wandering around the city. Here’s a little break down of the badges that I earned while on vacation.

On Location: This is a special Chicago only badge that you can earn by visiting places in Chicago that were featured in different movies. You have to follow Explore Chicago to be able to earn the badge. I earned this badge on my last day in Chicago at the Lincoln Park Zoo!

Photogenic: You earn this badge by checking into 3 places that feature photobooths. This was a surprise as I didn’t expect to unlock this badge while checking out Wrigley Field.

Historian: This is another special badge that’s offered by The History Channel. You need to just visit 2 locations that they’ve tagged. I earned this badge by visiting The Field Museum & Soldiers Field. Wrigley Field was on the list as well but I had already earned the badge by then. I do think they should up it to 5 checkins.

Overshare: I wasn’t surprised to earn this badge as I was checking in all over the place! You earn this badge by doing 10+ checkins in 12 hours. I received this badge when I went out to dinner Saturday night at Ada’s Famous Deli.

Superstar: A simple badge to earn by checking into 50 different venues. I received this badge when I checked in at Henry’s Hot Dogs.

I’m on a boat!: I think you can figure this one out. I checked in at Shoreline Sightseeing and earned this badge while doing a boat tour of Chicago.

I think Foursquare has added a new layer to vacations. They were fun to begin with of course but with the added “scavenger hunt” feel that is Foursquare it’s added a different element and way to have fun when visiting a new city or special event.

I’m holding out hope that SDCC will offer special Foursquare badges like SXSW did this past year.

Sunday was my last day in Chicago and we spent most of that time at Navy Pier. I like hanging out there because it reminds me of the Inner Harbor. Of course the water there looks 100x better than the water here in Baltimore but as far as the shops and what not, it’s very similar.

While there we went on an Architecture River Cruise. The weather was perfect for it as the sun deceided to show itself on my last day in town. The tour was about an hour long and was pretty educational. I love going on boat tours when available. It’s a nice break from walking around and it’s a different way to see a city.

Our tour guide was really fun and knew his stuff when it came to the buildings and the various designs and influences. He reminded me of Hugh Laurie for some reason. He wasn’t British or anything but there was just something about him.

Here are a few more pictures I took before we headed off to kill some time at The Lincoln Park Zoo.

Since we were getting short on time we didn’t get to see much at Lincoln Park Zoo but some of the animals where out and about.

That pretty much summed up Sunday. It was a quiet day. It was nice to just relax a bit before getting on a plane to head back home. Friday & Saturday were packed full of stuff to do so Sunday was a nice change pace!

Of course I took a ton of pictures and I hope to share them over the next few days but you can see the rest of Chicago here.

After a wonderful tour of Wrigley Field we stopped by Lucky’s Sandwich Company which is located at 3472 North Clark Street for lunch.

The name might sound familiar as Adam Richman of Man Vs. Food stopped in to take on their food challenge. The challenge is to finish three of their overstuffed sandwiches and fries in an hour. Once you start you can’t leave the room, including no bathroom breaks.

Here’s a video from the Man Vs. Food episode:

None of us took part in the challenge but my friend’s husband is thinking about giving it a try. He was able to finish one sandwich in about 7 minutes. Of course one is a little different as three of their sandwiches equal about six pounds of food. Yes, six pounds. They’re pretty awesome sandwiches though and only cost around $7 each. You defiantly get your money’s worth and won’t leave hungry! I picked the Turkey & Cheese.

Don’t let the picture fool you. It’s bigger in person! If you find yourself in that area of Chicago I highly recommend stopping in for a bite.

The original plan on Friday was to visit one of the local zoo’s but since the weather was crappy we checked out The Field Museum instead. I was pretty excited to visit since the museum is home to Sue. Who’s Sue? Sue is the largest, most complete, and best preserved T. Rex Fossil yet discovered! How kick ass is that? Here is some more information on Sue:

Sue stands 13 feet high at the hips and 42 feet long from head to tail. One of the only pieces of Sue that is not mounted is her 5-foot-long skull, which is too heavy to be placed on the steel armature that holds together her more than 200 fossilized bones. In its place, the Museum has installed a cast replica. Sue’s real skull is on display in an exhibit on the second-floor balcony overlooking Stanley Field Hall. Here, visitors can get an up-close view of Sue’s massive head, as well as some insight into the mounting process and the story of how Sue ended up at The Field Museum. In addition, visitors can view animated CT scans of the skull and touch a variety of casts of Sue’s bones, including a rib, forelimb and tooth.

Of course we checked out other exhibits while we were there like the Grainger Hall of Gems, The Ancient Americas and the Ancient Egypt exhibit that featured 12 mummies. We spent a good part of the day there, arriving around 10:30ish and not leaving until around 2:00. Some of the exhibits were interesting but some weren’t. They had a complete area that featured stuffed wildlife and that’s something I’d rather see alive at the zoo. Of course many years ago it wasn’t that easy and you needed exhibits like that to teach and learn from. It just seems a little outdated now but that’s only my opinion.

All in all we had a great time though and I’m glad I was able to see Sue up-close & personal! Here are a few pictures from the visit and you can view the rest here.

As always I’m going to break my vacation down into a few posts!

On Saturday my friends and I went on a tour of Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs. We picked one of the earlier tours, 11:30, thinking that maybe there wouldn’t be a crowd. We were wrong. I believe we had 65 people in our tour group!

The tour started off by showing a video that featured some of the great Cubs players and other information about Wrigley. After the video ended we made our way out to the bleachers. It was pretty amazing to be in such a historic ballpark. It’s very different from the modern home of the Orioles, Oriole Park at Camden Yards. I was actually surprised though at how well the stadium looked for being built in 1914. Of course upgrades have happened over the years like the suite boxes that were installed for the 1990 All-Star Game. While in the bleachers our tour guide shared some personal stories as well as filling us in on the history of the park including what the various flags atop the stadium stood for.

After the bleachers we made our way to the visitor clubhouse. A fun fact about the tour guide is the fact that he actually handles the visiting team and sometimes even has to sleep in the clubhouse. He actually has a locker and an air mattress on hand just in case. The clubhouse is pretty small and I can’t imagine fitting a baseball team, let alone a football team, in it. It’s amazing that they do! In order to make things easier on the staff the visiting players lockers are put in numerical order. Another interesting piece of information is it takes the visiting team 3 minutes to get to the field from the clubhouse. When Wrigley hosted the NHL Winter Classic it actually took visiting hockey team 5 minutes to make it down to the field.

On the way to the Cubs clubhouse we stopped at the media box and took in the view. It’s pretty neat to see the ivy wall in the outfield and the rooftop bleachers that are set up on various buildings across from Wrigley. We made our way down to the Cubs locker room where everything was actually set up since they would be returning from an away trip soon. We couldn’t get close to the lockers though since they were roped off. Since we had such a large group we had to do a drive by as far as the locker room went. There wasn’t enough room for everyone and after the locker room we walked out into the dugout. It was pretty awesome to be sitting the same dugout that some of the Cub greats had sat in at one point in time. The view from the field is pretty breath taking. We were able to take pictures in the dugout and in the roped off area which was basically the warning track area in front of the dugouts and behind home plate.

I had a really great time on the tour and loved learning the history of such a well known and loved ballpark. I hope I’m able to make it there for a game in the near future!

You can see the rest of the photos from Wrigley Field here.

I wanted to update everyone on the Happy Cow “Fiona Bag” that I bought.

While in Chicago over the weekend I used the bag for pretty much the entire trip. I’m beyond glad I bought this bag! It made the trip 10x easier. I didn’t worry about leaving my bag somewhere, I didn’t have to dig around to find my camera or cell phone, my shoulders didn’t hurt from carrying around an overstuffed bag and of course I was able to take with me just what I needed for the day. The two pockets are the perfect size for your camera and cell phone and all the zippered pockets give you plenty of choices on where to keep your money and cards.

By the end of the weekend both my friends were saying they needed to get a bag like this. It might not be for everyday use, I still love my various purses, but for a vacation it’s great. I’m even more excited about using this bag for San Diego Comic Con.

Thanks Happy Cow for putting out such an awesome bag!

Thursday night I’ll be leaving Baltimore and heading to Chicago for a long weekend visit with my BFF. I’ve been looking forward to this trip for a few months. After my sister’s wedding I need a little mini-vacation of my own!

We have a few things planned already. Saturday we’ll be going on a Wrigley Field Tour which I’m really excited about. One day I will get out there for a game but I guess this is the next best thing. Afterwards we plan on spending most of the day downtown. I hope to be able to visit The Field Museum. The main reason I want go there is to see Sue. Who’s Sue? Sue is the largest, most complete, and best preserved Tyrannosaurus rex fossil yet discovered. I love dinosaurs and this would be a real treat. I’m sure we’ll hit up Navy Pier and the other Chicago landmarks on Saturday before we go on our Weird Chicago Tour. There’s a group of 16 of us going on this tour. It doesn’t start until 10pm and it’s about 2-3 hours long I think. This means Saturday is going to be a long day!

Friday we might try to visit a local zoo but that depends on the weather. Right now it looks like a good chance of rain but hopefully that will change as we get closer to the weekend. If it does rain we might move the museum to Friday.

I almost forget to mention that Saturday night we’ll be staying at The Palmer House Hilton downtown. We were able to get a really good deal ($89 a night) and couldn’t pass it up. Plus who wants to drive home at 1am after a ghost tour? Not us.

Of course the best part of the trip is just being able to visit my BFF. We don’t get to see each other often obviously so we’re really exciting about this!

I think most of us ladies out there can agree that carrying a purse around can be a huge hassel. Even if you carry one on the small side it’s still a pain to carry it around and it’s very easy to set your purse or bag down and forget about it.

Well, I think I’ve found a pretty awesome and stylish replacement for the typical purse. Meet the Happy Cow Belt Bag. If you’re a fan of “Burn Notice” you might recognize this bag as something very similiar to what Fiona uses on the show. I went ahead and ordered one and it’s beyond nice. The leather is very soft and there are plenty of pockets to hold what you need. There are two “larger” pockets to be used for a camera and/or cellphone plus a few zipper areas for cash and cards.

The main reason I ordered the bag was because I didn’t want to carry around a purse while at Comic Con. I didn’t want to have to dig around in a bag for my phone or camera but I still wanted something fun and cute, not just your typical “fanny pack.” I wanted everything to be within reach since you never know what you might see or who you might run into. I don’t want to carry anything that I don’t need to carry since I’ll have enough to lug around with all the free bags and what not that you receive at an event like this. Using a hip bag will keep my hands free and I’ll always know where my bag is, around my waist!

I haven’t actually used the bag yet but I plan on making use of it when I go to Chicago next week. I really am looking forward to using it and I’ll be sure to type up a follow up post afterwards.

Foursquare is one of the newest social networking websites. It lets you share your location with your friends and via Twitter. It can seem a bit stalkerish but it’s fun and not really creepy. It’s pretty easy to use as you just “check in” using your mobile device while you’re out and about.

Foursquare is such “the rage” now that some companies and even cities are awarding special badges for checking out various locations. What’s a badge? It’s just another fun aspect of Foursquare. You can earn all sorts of badges for doing a variety of things like checking in while on a boat or for visiting 25 new places. There are a large number of badges that you can earn. You can find a list of all of the Foursquare badges here. It’s updated on a pretty regular basis and even has inactive or closed badges.

Anyway, back to the title of this post! If you live in or visit Chicago you can earn some special badges via Explore Chicago. You do need to follow them on Foursquare in order to earn the badges, keep that in mind. At the moment you can earn three different Chicago related badges. They are: Chicago Blues, Celery Salt & On Location.

Chicago Blues centers on the blues music scene if that wasn’t obvious enough from the name of the badge. In order to earn the badge you must check in at five of the approved locations. Don’t worry; there are 17 different locations to choose from including the Historic Site of the IL Central Depot: The Black Ellis Island, Roosevelt & Indiana and Rosa’s Lounge.

Celery Salt is all about the Chicago Style hotdog. I can already taste them! As with the previous badge you must check in at five different locations. Again you have a decent list to choose from which includes 12 different locations ranging from Wrigley Field to Portillo’s.

The last badge you can earn centers around films that have been filmed in and around Chicago and gives you a few choices. Your choices are “The Blues Brothers,” “Dark Knight,” Chick Flicks in Chicago, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “High Fidelity.” In order to earn this badge you must pick ONE movie-themed experience and again check in at five different locations that are on the list. A few of the locations are Daley Plaza, The Auditorium Theatre, The University of Chicago, Navy Pier, The Art Institute of Chicago and Smith & Wollensky Steakhouse.

I think I might try and earn the Celery Salt badge on my next trip out to Chicago. I think featuring something like this for a city makes it a little more fun and make it feel like a scavenger hunt. Plus it’s an easy way to get people to visit parts of the city they might not even think about checking out otherwise!

Even though I’ve only had my Southwest Visa for a few months I’m only a few credits away from my 2nd free flight. Yes, my 2nd. I earned my first free flight pretty much instantly thanks to the bonus offers that they had going on. I believe right now I’m only 5.5 away from my next free flight and I have until 2012 to earn the rest of the credits. I’ll earn 2 credits in May when I go to Chicago plus I’m pretty close to getting a credit for spending X amount on my Visa. I know I’ll have no problem earning that next free flight.

I’m already thinking about where to go. I’ve never been to Vegas and my Aunt has a timeshare out there I could use. I figure if it’s free a might as well fly somewhere I wouldn’t be able to afford normally. I was thinking maybe San Fran. I’ve always wanted to visit there as well. Alcatraz is on my “Must Visit” list. You know me, always a flare for the oddball stuff. Plus it just looks really nice from the pictures I’ve seen. I could save it and use it go to Spring Training one year too. That’s another thing I’ve always wanted to do and while it wouldn’t cost much to just pay to fly down there, any savings is good! It would probably allow me to stay an extra day or so.

Ah, so many places to go and only one free flight coming up.