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I had a few firsts last week. I went to Chicago, stayed at a Hilton, attended a Pampered Chef National Conference, rode in a taxi and attended an executive banquet. It was all such an awesome experience.

I was also away from my family for four whole days, which is a definite first. My youngest, Alison, would not even speak more than a hello and a goodbye till the third day I called. Shelby wanted to know everything that I saw and did every day.

The drive to Chicago included Linda Aiken of Jonesboro and Carrie Trego of Trumann, and they were entertaining. I drove for the first 300 miles without even realizing I had driven that long. I had no idea of how to get to Chicago, so I relied heavily on the girls and Carrie’s GPS.

I was in awe at how organized the whole thing was. We stayed at the Chicago Hilton and Pampered Chef arranged to have a line of buses at our beck and call (it seemed) to take us back and forth from the Hilton to The McCormick Place. There was a bus leaving every 15-30 minutes.

The McCormick Place is huge with lots of big rooms and little rooms and a theatre, and sets right there at Lake Michigan, so pretty.

It was so neat the way they had everything arranged right down to the nametag that we all had that told us exactly where we were to be, at what time, on each of the three days. They even fed us breakfast and lunch two days, and then we had the executive banquet at the Sheraton Hotel. They put on shows and gave out so many awards - vases, jewelry, etc., and also gave us a couple of the new fall items.

I will be making plans to go again next year, for sure.
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