Lisa E Freedman, My Journal Through Life, is the Home Base & Blog for LF Media Ink, a Boutique PR/Marketing Company specialized in the Arts, Entertainment & Travel Industries. Enjoy!
Lisa E Freedman, My Journal Through Life, is the Home Base & Blog for LF Media Ink, a Boutique PR/Marketing Company specialized in the Arts, Entertainment & Travel Industries. Enjoy!
The West Loop pasta house that earned its spot on our list from a Netflix episode — and earned it all over again at lunch. After a morning aboard the First Lady Architecture Cruise and a leisurely stroll along the Chicago Riverwalk, we weren't looking for just any lunch- we wanted somewhere that would encourage us to slow down and savor the afternoon. Monteverde proved to be exactly that place. A Streaming Cameo, Earned Honestly We found...
Chicago's second shoreline, and the perfect way to extend an afternoon on the water. As we stepped off the First Lady Architecture Cruise, we weren't quite ready for the afternoon to end. Instead of heading back toward Michigan Avenue, we followed the gentle curve of the Chicago River, joining locals lingering over lunch, cyclists weaving past outdoor cafes, and visitors pausing every few steps to admire another remarkable skyline view. The...
Ninety minutes on the Chicago River, and the single best way to understand this city If you only have time for one organized activity on a Chicago trip, let it be this one. The Chicago Architecture Center River Cruise aboard First Lady has built its reputation over decades for good reason — it's the rare tourist experience that locals genuinely endorse. As our boat eased away from the dock and the Michigan Avenue Bridge slipped away behind...
A landmark gastropub across from Millennium Park, where Michigan Avenue comes to linger Some restaurants are destinations. Others are the kind of place a city simply runs on. The Gage is both. Tucked into the historic Gage Group buildings at 24 South Michigan Avenue, directly across from Millennium Park, it has spent nearly two decades earning its place as one of the most booked tables in Chicago — and after enjoying our first dinner in...
Where Far Eastern grace meets Midwestern warmth on the Magnificent Mile. There are hotels you stay in, and there are hotels that quietly recalibrate what you expect from hospitality. After a week in Chicago this spring, I can say without hesitation that The Peninsula belongs in the second category. It was the address we returned to each night after long days of restaurant reservations, architecture cruises, baseball games and theater seats —...
The idea for a trip to Chicago came up after friends of ours started asking where our next trip would be. We thought about the options and my partner suggested we travel domestically after having travelled internationally. How about Chicago? He said. He had been there professionally but never with enough time to see too much of it. And always with the curiosity to see more. There was so much more to explore. I had been to Chicago on a cross...
The Cruise Packing Edit Don't Leave the Dock Without These The Amazon finds that cruisers swear by — curated by someone who has been on the ship.✦ This post contains Amazon affiliate links. I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you should you purchase from my links. Packing for a cruise is its own art form. You're not packing for a hotel — you're packing for a ship that is simultaneously a resort, a restaurant, a beach club, and a...
One of the best-kept secrets of cruising is this: you don’t have to choose between a great vacation and great food. On the Norwegian Star, the two are inseparable. With ten dining venues ranging from a 24-hour neighborhood pub to a tableside Brazilian churrascaria, the ship operates less like a floating resort and more like a well-curated food city. And with NCL’s signature Freestyle Cruising philosophy — no assigned dining times, no...
During our first few weeks in Sarasota this year friends of ours convinced us to join them on a 10-day Caribbean cruise leaving Tampa, Florida at the end of March and returning to Tampa on April 9th. The cruise would make stops in Cabo Rojo, Dominican Republic; Aruba; Curaçao; Falmouth, Jamaica and Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands on the Norwegian Star in The Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL). They booked it through Vacations-to-Go, a discount travel...
Inside a 19th-century Victorian house on the banks of the Manatee River, two brothers from Rome are cooking the kind of Italian food that makes you want to cancel your other plans. Not every great restaurant announces itself loudly. Some of the best ones are tucked away — in unexpected towns, on quiet streets, in buildings that have their own stories to tell long before the food arrives. Ragù Cucina Italiana, on 8th Avenue West in Palmetto,...
