Chicago - Part 3

This will be the final installation in my Chicago posts. I've been putting it off because it's been taking forever to load photos. :-P

Aaaaanyway, our final full day in the city started a little later than the last. We probably have many margs to thank for that. After we got going, we quickly found out that it was very cold, very wet, and very windy out. Boo. We sucked it up and headed to Navy Pier.



I kind of thought Navy Pier was like a boardwalk and everything would be outside. So we were pleasantly surprised when it was all inside. We even got a free coupon book for checking in on Facebook.



It was pretty awesome. There were tons of little souvenir shops, restaurants, and coffee shops. The first thing we did was, of course, get more Starbucks. We then did the Amazing Chicago's Funhouse Maze. I don't have any pictures because I was too busy hiding behind Marcy. It wasn't actually scary, but it had a haunted house vibe, and I kept expecting someone to jump out at me. It was loads of fun, and I would recommend it to anyone who happens to be on Navy Pier.

After the maze, we walked through the Stained Glass Museum, which I was pretty much enthralled with. My favorite piece was this one:



...which any Questionable Content fan will appreciate, because of this.

After wandering around the Pier for a couple of hours, we set off to find the original Pizzeria Uno. It was after the lunch rush, so we didn't even have to wait!



Instead of getting enough to feed an entire third world country again, we got individual-sized pizzas. I went with BBQ chicken deep dish pizza.



It was still way too much because it came with soup or salad and then, of course, we got dessert. It was as amazing as Giordano's, though!

After day two of way too much amazing Chicagoan food, we went to Sear's Tower... which is actually now Willis Tower. Apparently the name changes to whatever company is renting the most space in it. It was Sear's when they built it, now it's Willis - some financial company, and the guy said it would soon be United Tower, for United Airlines.

We got there (after only asking directions once), got our tickets, watched the little informative video, and went to the top - 103 stories high. It was rainy and windy and foggy, so the views weren't great, but it was still amazing.





































There's also the Ledge - these little glass boxes that jut out from the side of the building, so when you step out into them, it feels like you're floating 103 stories up in the air.



It was an amazing experience... until we were almost ready to leave. Apparently the wind was so strong, they had to evacuate the top floors of the building. You could feel the whole structure swaying. There was so much movement, that we couldn't even use the regular elevator. The cables were swinging around and we probably would have plummeted to our deaths. Instead, they had to take everyone down in groups of about 35 in the freight elevator in the middle of the building. Let's just say it took forever, and no one was happy.

After escaping an untimely death, we headed back to the hostel before our show that night. I had been planning on going to the Lincoln Park Zoo, but it was way too cold and wet. We went back to the room to recover and dry off a little before heading to Trick or Teets. It was a Halloween burlesque-parody. So there was no actual stripping, just lots of sex jokes and crude songs. It was hilarious! I would totally go back to see it again.

After the show, we hit a bar on the way back to the train. It was a sports bar, and they were doing airline trivia. Not really my cup of tea, but it was warm and they had alcohol. We also passed this place...



It was very confusing. It says it's a watch and clock repair place... but there were a bunch of neon beer signs in the windows. I still don't know if it was actually a bar, or what....

After getting back to the hostel area, we found a nice warm, homey Irish pub with $2 drinks. We had more than enough to warm us up, then went in search of a Chicago-style hot dog. I'm glad we drank first because I don't think I could have eaten one sober. A Chicago-style hot dog is a char-grilled hot dog on a poppy seed bun, topped with relish, mustard, onion, pickled peppers, celery salt, tomato slices, and a dill pickle spear.



I was so far gone, it was actually pretty good. I had to have one while I was in Chicago!

The next day, we headed home around 10AM. The car even started on the first try. Leaving the city, we drove along Lake Michigan for awhile and it looked like the ocean. The waves were huge from the storms the day before.

Overall, I'm kind of in love with Chicago. I think it's earned 3rd place on my favorite cities list... behind New York and London, of course. While I am not a fan of the 10 to 11-hour drive, I will definitely go back someday, hopefully fairly soon!

Chicago - Part 2

So our first full day in the city started pretty early since we'd called it quits early the night before. We decided to head down to the Art Institute area. I wanted to explore the Institute and the Shedd Aquarium, as well as see the "Bean" and Buckingham Fountain. All of which were pretty much in the same area.

Since the Art Institute didn't open until 10:30AM, we found the Cloud Gate Sculpture, a.k.a the "Bean" first.




































It's pretty awesome. I could probably amuse myself for hours trying to get pictures of reflections.

After the Bean, we saw a Starbucks across the street, so we went for some coffee. I should have kept a latte count during the trip, because I took in more caffeine in those four days than I usually do in a month! Fresh from our coffee fix, we headed back past the Institute since they still weren't open at this point, and found Buckingham Fountain.



I'm sure it's very pretty, but unfortunately it had been drained for the winter. We did get our first glimpse of Lake Michigan, though!



By this time, the Art Institute was open, so we made our way back.



It was actually super amazing. We saw works by Picasso, Dali, Monet, Van Gogh, Hopper, Wood, and a bunch of other amazing artists. Apparently there were some paintings by Degas somewhere, but we couldn't find them. I think my favorite, though, was A Sunday on la Grande Jatte, by Georges Seurat.



We spent a few hours at the Art Institute and saw everything from paintings, to sculpture, to kimonos, to WWII Soviet propaganda posters. If I lived in Chicago, I would totally cough up the $80 for a membership, just to go and stare at masterpieces whenever I want.

After the Art Institute, we went for lunch. We ended up at Giordano's for our first taste of Chicago stuffed pizza. We ordered a medium for the two of us, which was a huuuuge mistake. One piece was enough to fill anyone up, and we each had to eat four because we were walking around the city and couldn't take leftovers with us. It was amazing, but waaaay too much.



Despite being stuffed to the point of not being able to breathe, we also each had a cannoli before heading to the Shedd Aquarium.

We didn't realize the aquarium closed at 5PM, and it was already about 3:30PM when we got inside, so we just did the $8 main floor admission. So we didn't get to see the dolphins or whales or the jellyfish exhibit, but just the main floor was awesome, and I love aquariums!




































Also at the aquarium, there were some awesome views of Lake Michigan.

































Since that was our last stop for the day, we made our way back to the hostel to get ready for our show that night. It was Woman School - based on a Moliere play. When we got there, however, we were the only audience members. Since it was just us, they decided to cancel the performance. They offered to move our tickets to another night, and/or give us lots more tickets for our friends, but since we were only in town for one more day and had tickets to another show, we had to ask for a refund. I felt bad since they were obviously a small, struggling theatre company, but I needed my $20 more than they did.

In lieu of our show, we went out drinking. We hit a tequila bar/Mexican restaurant first and split a pitcher of delicious margs, and then had a sangria a piece. We then ventured out and hit a few other bars before heading back to the hostel for the night.

Chicago - Part 1

So last week, my friend Marcy and I took a trip to Chicago. There was no special occasion, we just had some money saved up and time to spare, so we decided to check out a new city.

I think it took about 11 hours to get there, but with the time change it was like it took 10! The only noteworthy event on the way was the first time we stopped for gas and my car didn't want to start again. It took about 10 minutes, but the engine eventually turned over. Oh, also Ohio is the widest state ever. PA took a few hours to get through, and Indiana took no time at all, but Ohio was never ending. The city actually wasn't terrible to drive in, but there was a detour and my GPS started to beep at me... like a car horn beep.... It may have freaked me out. I probably cried a little. :-P

We finally got to the hostel (yes hostel, not hotel), and I pulled up out front so we could check in. As soon as I put my car in park, it shut off. Like, I didn't turn it off... it just gave up. Trying not to think about it, we checked in, got a parking space and a map of the area, and went back to move the car. It didn't start. Like, for a long time it didn't start. It got so bad that I looked under the hood, shrugged at it, and tried again. After about half an hour, the engine turned over and we got it to the parking lot before it could die again. I decided not to think about it for the next few days, and just prayed it would start again when it came time to leave.

After all the car drama, we unloaded and found our room. The hostel was actually pretty amazing. Downstairs there were a bunch of couches and chairs to hang out in, some computers to use, a full kitchen, pool table, music room, grill, dining tables... I could totally live there. Even the elevator was awesome:



The pads on the floor had colored oil and water inside, so when you step on them, it swirls and smooshes around. They provided many minutes of in-elevator entertainment.

Our room was hostel-sized, but big enough for the two of us, and we splurged on one with a private half-bath. We just had to use the communal showers, which were still fairly private and pretty clean. Our room had this awesome mural on one wall:



After we got settled in, we found a bar. We went to Frank's. It was a sports bar, but they had decent, fairly cheap drinks. After... a few... we found this Mexican place that was open until 3AM, so I got some tacos and Marcy got a burrito. It was de. licious. We headed back fairly early since we were exhausted from 11 hours of driving after an early start.

I know this is a fairly short post, but I figured I'd do a post for each day, so Part 2 will be our first full day in the city!