Lifestyle / Travel

SPRINGFIELD, MO – DAY 1

06.13.16

Last Thursday morning, Scott and I hopped on a plane headed to Springfield, Missouri! Springfield is somewhere we’ve always wanted to visited, in big thanks to our friends over at A Beautiful Mess and the very active blogging/Instagram community in the area. So when the folks at the Springfield, Missouri Convention and Visitors Bureau reach out to us about visiting SGF, we immediately said yes! A few weeks later we arrived in MO and were greeted with a jam-packed itinerary and a whole group of new friends that were also along for the long weekend adventure — Stephanie, Jasmine (and her sweet husband, Marcus!), Kathy and Stefanie too! After spending four days in the midwest, I have so much to share — but today I thought I would start from the beginning of our trip and share a little bit of Springfield through our eyes, including our hotel, a local coffee shop, donuts and more!

The nice folks at the CVB were kind enough to put us up in the most beautiful hotel — Hotel Vandivort! I’ve been seeing peeks of this boutique hotel here and there on Instagram for months now, including through their now famous #HotelVandivortBathroomSelfie hashtag. Let me tell you, though, it’s even more gorgeous in person! With the original building being built in 1906 as a Masonic Temple, they spared no expense in bringing this four-story brick building back to life — Scott and I were particularly fond of the Frank Lloyd-esque details and all of the modern finishes! 

After hopping off the plane, experiencing our first lemongrass foot treatment at Zen3 Spa and Bodyworks (which was so relaxing!), Scott and I got settled into our hotel room and took a few minutes to rest before heading out into downtown Springfield in search of coffee!

After scouring Instagram and asking a few friends where we could find the best iced coffee in Springfield, the answer seemed pretty clear — The Coffee Ethic! This sweet little shop was a short walk from our hotel and just around the corner from The Golden Girl Rum Club, so we knew we were in good company. Anyways, after having a pretty early morning to catch our flight, Scott and I were both in need of a little extra boost and The Coffee Ethic’s iced coffee didn’t disappoint. We enjoyed our drinks by the window and planned out our next adventure!

After sipping on our coffees in the air conditioning for a bit, we ventured out just around the corner to check out the GG — we had plans to head there a few nights later for dinner with our whole group, so we just peeked in for now and took a few photos by their rad wall art on the side of the building.  

And to just sweetened up our afternoon that much more, Hurts Donut was right down the street and we couldn’t help but get our weekly donut fix in! We’ve both heard so much about this place and their speciality donuts, so we took our time and tried to make our decisions wisely — do we get the cereal killer donut with captain crunch on top, or the E.T. special? 😉

Ultimately, we got a box of three — captain crunch, salted caramel cheesecake and one that tasted just like a churro! We liked them all, but I think Scott’s favorite was the captain crunch and mine was the salted caramel cheesecake. We actually ended up coming back here on National Donut Day and got another four donuts — which were all just as yummy! 

Once we finished our donuts, we made our way back to our room to freshen up a bit before our evening out at Millsap Farm for their weekly pizza club! I’ll be back soon to share more about our evening there, because it deserves a whole post in its own (it was such a unique and special place!). Also, I’m now so curious to know — have you ever been to Springfield, MO before? If so, what was your favorite place you visited there? – Chels xoxo

 

A huge thank you is in order to the Springfield, Missouri Convention & Visitors Bureau for sponsoring this post! Scott and I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity to visit their charming city together!