Last week I told you I was going to be an ambassador for the Verizon Wireless Midwest Savvy Saver program; and this last weekend I went to Chicago to meet my fellow Savvy Savers, learn a little more about Verizon Wireless, as well as get a super secret device to try out!

The trip was tons of fun!  It kicked off with a presentation from Verizon where we learned more about the company, as well as more about wireless service.  Before we got to the conference, however, we had quite the time navigating through the very congested traffic of downtown Chicago!

My husband and I thought we had plenty of time to get to where we were going, but after sitting in traffic for hours (OK probably not hours but it felt like it, lol) we made it to the Hard Rock Hotel right at 1:00, which is when the conference was supposed to be starting!  We basically left our car with the valet and didn’t even bother to check-in right away.  My husband walked with me to find the building I was supposed to be at.  Unfortunately for my husband, when he went back to check-in at the hotel they would not let him do so since the reservation was in my name only, the poor guy had to walk around for about 4 hours waiting for me to get back!

Once the first day of learning was over, Verizon presented us with our devices, which they had kept completely secret from us up until this point.  They gave us a few clues throughout the week to see if we could figure it out, but really we had no idea.  Do you think you could guess what it is?  Here are the clues we got:

1.  It has a “sweet” yet “intricate” operating system.

2.  Your device is tough. Strong like a Gorilla.

Think you know what it is?   Make your guesses….

It was….

The Motorola Xyboard 10.1 Tablet!

 

After we got our devices we went back to the hotel and had tons of fun playing with the Xyboard and learning all about it (and my husband finally got to relax, lol).  When we got into our room, there was no doubt we were staying at Hard Rock.  This is the picture that watched over me as I slept at night:

Creepy right!  At first I thought this was Rod Stewart (I am not much of a rock star official), but then I used the Google Goggles App the Motorola representative told us about during the second day of the conference, and I found out this was Sting!

Unfortunately I didn’t take too many more pictures of our stay in Chicago, I was so busy playing with the Xyboard I didn’t even think about it, lol.  But I did manage to get a couple of pictures after our dinner at Navy Pier Friday night (taken with my phone).  Here is the Riva, where we ate dinner, and a boat sitting along side the dock outside the restaurant:

  

While we were at dinner, the husband went to a White Sox game, his first ever. I will have to see if he got any pictures, but he did say he almost got a couple of balls that came his way!

The most fun I’ve had with the Xyboard so far was messing with my husband when we got back home.  The Xyboard comes with infrared, so you can use it as a remote control.  So using the Dijit app (again the Motorola rep told us about this) I kept changing the channel off of the basketball game he was watching!  I got quite the kick out of him trying to figure out what the heck was going on.  Eventually I did let him in on the secret, lol.

At some point we did have to head home, we had kids to pick up from grandma and grandpa’s, and my husband had to go back to work on Sunday.  On our way home we did come across this interesting event though:

This poor guy must have cut the corner a little too close.  I feel bad for whomever’s house this was supposed to be!

 

Disclosure: I am participating in the Verizon Wireless Midwest Savvy Savers program and have been provided with a wireless device and six months of service in exchange for my honest opinions about the product.