What I'm Loving This Summer

It’s official..SUMMER is here! I never really appreciated this season while living in Texas (triple digits anyone?) until I moved to Chicago. When you are buried under snow with a polar vortex hovering over you for 6 months of the year, you savor every day of those three short but sweet summer months. So as you prepare for vacation, warmer weather and longer days check out what I’m loving this summer plus some great travel, style and entertainment tips.

Travel Issues

The June issue of some of your favorite magazines are PACKED with great travel deals, tips and features to get your geared up for summer getaways. Conde Nast Traveler “The Hot List”, Unite4Good “Travel4Good” and Essence “Vacation Issue” with the Lyon Brothers (#Empire) shining on the front cover are a few of my favorites.

My favorite summer travel issues

Considering I started my own blog to encourage women (particularly black women) to travel more and embrace new experiences, I loved that Essence chose to focus June on highlighting “black girls who travel” and encouraging everyone to #seesomeworld.

Highlights from the issue include these awesome tips:

• Always bring single dollar bills when traveling abroad since most countries wont have change in U.S. Dollars
• Best days to book travel are Tuesday, Wednesday and the weekends
• For the best deals travel before or after a major holiday

I’m particularly favoring Unite4Good’s June issue because my recent travel blog post, "10 Must Have Travel Apps for Women"  was featured! Woo Hoo!

Super excited about my feature in Unite4:Good

I'm grateful to have been featured and this is particularly rewarding for me because it's the first time my work has been included in a print publication. Beyond my feature, this month's issue is full of other valuable travel tips to help you with summer business and/or leisure travel, like this feature on Eco Friendly Hotels at Every Destination.

A New Look

Last summer I wrote about my summer travel chic essentials and joining Firmoo’s blogger program. This summer I rocking another pair of new frames from Firmoo,  one of the world's most popular online eyeglass store with frames for women, men and a great portfolio of sunglasses!

Ordering on their site is a breeze and as usual the only hard part was deciding which frames to choose from:) With competitive pricing, versatile styles, great user reviews and photos plus a "virtual try on view" Firmoo is a great site to update your frames and grab some new sunglasses before summer ends!

Loving my new Firmoo glasses!

Ready for your new look this summer?  Click link to get 15% off your first pair of glasses

Summer Festivals

Attending festivals is officially one of my favorite hobbies! With Chicago being famous for hosting more summer festivals than any other city in the world, it’s hard not to get addicted to them. For every type of food, culture, belief, music or sports there is out there, Chicago has a festival for it!  

I celebrated the first day of summer yesterday at the Taste of Randolph in the Chicago neighborhood I once called home, the West Loop. I enjoyed Sauvignon Seafood Tacos from City Winery, Cheeseburgers from Grange Burger Hall, Guacamole from DeCero and some amazing Cookie Monster Ice Cream from Cone Gourmet Ice Cream while listening to some great bands and shopping the vendors.

Street Art. God LOVES us all

Planning to visit Chicago? Check out Thrillist feature on “Every Single Chicago Festival”

Share with me your summer travel plans in the comments below!