Chicago: Hotel & Zoo

We stayed at the lovely Belden Stratford Apartments, right across the street from the Lincoln Park Zoo. We were very excited, as this was a four-star hotel (with a kitchen!) and the girls had never been to a zoo. Now I have to admit, I was somewhat disappointed with the hotel. It was not as ‘four star’ as I thought four star meant. I mean, after arriving, I had to call down and have them send up a cleaner to clean some sort of dried white substance from one of the sofas. I’m not saying anything in particular, but that’s not what I like to see at a hotel. And there were like holes in the throw pillows, little details like that that left me thinking, ‘This could have been better’. But I guess we were paying for size and convenience, and it wasn’t lacking there. We had a pretty sweet suite, and so you will be subjected to pictures.

The zoo was free, which is awesome, and loads of fun. We didn’t even get to see all the exhibits. We planned on going back the next day, but Ivy was feeling really poorly and it was raining, and we spent several hours lost in the car (both looking for a Target and attempting to get the kids to nap). I’d still like to go back and spend more time at that zoo, and we didn’t even get to the conservatory. It’s definitely worth a trip back sometime.





This is our bedroom at the hotel.


This is a view from the beds. Another TV! Kids and parents are pleased.

This is half of our rather spacious living room.

Here you can see a bit more of it. I meant to take a picture of the view. We were overlooking the conservatory/zoo.

Here’s the living room from the other direction, with Josh looking cute. The bedroom was to the left.


Here’s Josh again. He just can’t stop being cute. :)


This is the entryway/dining room. There’s another half-bath right there. This hotel was cooler than my house.

These are the fine looking tacos I made that the kids wouldn’t eat.

The kitchen as you enter. Already you can see a dishwasher and more cupboards than my entire house combined. I’m in lust! (Til I saw the dishware, which was also not four star in a kind of bumming way).

The rest of the kitchen. We went to a little grocery around the corner, and we tried to make our own meals while we were there.

The ZOO…I think we’ll tell you more about the zoo later.