AUGUST 8TH, 2018, 4AM: My alarm sounds and I'm already awake. It's hard to sleep when you're so excited about life. I shower, get dressed, and pack the last few things before the white lines & streetlights of the highway blur by and I'm up in the air over Boston, Chicago bound. 

Since finding out that I'm the White Claw Hard Seltzer Best Life Ambassador, my life has been a bit of a blur (in a good way). On Tuesday I flew out to Chicago for a day-long orientation and brand immersion at the White Claw HQ. Wednesday, I flew back and had friends visiting from NYC for the weekend so I was in full hosting mode. Now, I finally have the first second free to reflect on this busy week. 

I arrived in Chicago on Tuesday morning and got an Uber to the hotel White Claw put us up in. It was a super nice little boutique hotel called the Kinzie and was RIGHT downtown (so many great restaurants and shops nearby!). I had a few minutes to freshen up before getting another Uber over to the HQ building. When I arrived, I got in the elevator with a woman pulling a White Claw cooler bag – this was Christine, the other winner. We chatted about how excited we were to have this opportunity. It was so nice to be able to talk to someone who really gets the emotions I'm feeling because it's a unique experience and everything is better shared.

We arrived and were greeted by the White Claw team. They were SO nice and welcoming and toured us around the office, which is a modern, open, and naturally lit top floor space.

We had a catered lunch and got down to the brand immersion meeting. We learned a ton about the brand values, discussed travel plans, and tasted the difference between White Claw and other brands. It was so nice to find that White Claw is an amazing brand that I can proudly stand behind and support wholeheartedly. I honestly could not ask for a better team, company, brand, or product to work with/for on this. If I was excited about this before Chicago (spoiler alert: I was), I am twice as excited now that it's becoming more real.

After the day of orientation, we headed back to the hotel and freshened up before dinner. We went to an incredible restaurant called Barrio where I enjoyed THE BEST TACOS of my life. (and I'm not just saying that... they were soft shell wild mushroom tacos with some unreal sauce and cheese blend). Then we all cruised over to the Shedd Aquarium for Jazzin' at the Shedd – a night of drinks, aquatic animals, skyline views, jazz, and fun! 

After the fun of dinner and the event wrapped up, Christine suggested we check out the Skydeck because we'd both been to Chicago but never been up there. We thought it'd be easy to get in because it was a Wednesday night and around 9pm... not the case. We had to wait an hour and a half to get our five minutes on the glass. However, it was super fun to chat with Christine about her adventure plans, and the views were awesome so it worked out well.

The next morning I had breakfast with my friend Kit who is a well known Food Blogger in Chicago. This was super fun and she gave me some incredibly useful advice about working in this ever-changing industry. She has inspired me to treat blogging more like a job and so I'm very excited for the challenge these next 6-months and beyond!

Hope you all will follow along and I'd love feedback on what you think of my content– photos, writing, and all!