Chicago

Steinvic and I had a great time this week in Chicago. We left Sunday afternoon and returned Wednesday night. While my feet are still tender from all the walking we did while we were in the Windy City, and I still haven't caught up on sleep, it was all worth it and we had a fantastic time.

I'll give you the highlights here, and later, I'll post about how we got there.

We stayed at The Seneca. I'd call this hotel a well-kept secret. It's an older hotel, but is conveniently located next to everything, and is very tidy and nicely maintained. The staff is friendly and our room was VERY affordable, especially considering we were there on a holiday weekend and that the Taste of Chicago was also going on. Our suite was huge - king sized bed, giant closets (with a safe...very handy), a living room, dining area and full kitchen. The television sets were a little outdated, but they had LOTS of channels to choose from, including 3 HBO stations (and who goes to Chicago to watch television anyway?!) We met a nice fellow on the sun roof who told us about how he and his wife rented an apartment there three days a week, several months out of the year, and I could see them being pretty comfortable if their apartment was like our suite...everything you needed was right there. We also ate in the cafe there and it was good: small, casual, good variety on their home-cookin' style menu for such a small restaurant (it's also where we heard the unfortunate verdict in the Casey Anthony trial). There are also more upscale restaurants in the hotel, but we didn't go that route.

We found Dublin's Bar and Grill on our first night and I am not sure if we were starving or if they didn't have the best bites around. We each had a bowl of Manhattan clam chowder and shared an appetizer - lobster ravioli - and we were very pleased. (I can't seem to get through to their website, but it's on State Street if you wanna go!)

We spent lots of time at Navy Pier...we always do! A favorite spot to have drinks or grab a bite is Harry Caray's. We walk and walk, to the pier from wherever we're staying, along the pier to look at the water and watch the boats come in and go out. We actually took a water taxi from the pier to Soldier Field, where the U2 concert was held, and that is the way to travel for sure!

The concert was AWESOME and they played and played and played. I'm not sure if they were making up for the delayed show (originally planned for last summer, but Bono broke his back in Germany and many tour dates were postponed) or what, but that concert seemed a good bit longer than the other two we've seen on this 360 tour. Bono wore his leather jacket the entire time, and I asked Steinvic if he thought that Bono had air conditioning piped into his jacket because it was freaking hot out, and I can only imagine that the stage lights made it even hotter for the band. Anyway, it was kind of cool for us because this tour was the same tour when we got engaged back in 2009...so it was sweet and sentimental to hear Beautiful Day and remember how Steinvic proposed.

Leaving the concert was something else altogether...the opposite of sweet! Imagine some 60,000 buzzed and/or tired people all leaving the concert at the same time on foot, lumbering through the awkward paths that security had set up for them. It's like...11:30 at night, dark, and we're faaaaar away from our hotel. We probably walked a couple of miles before wising up and crossing the street, hailing a cab originally headed in the opposite direction. Our cabby was kind, but wanted to talk politics and I wasn't feeling it at that point in the evening! But we politely chatted and prayed our hotel would appear soon...it did and we fell into bed after 12:30. Big day!

Everyone always wants to eat at Gino's or Giordano's (or both) for deep dish pizza when they visit Chicago. Nothing wrong with that...you should try it if you haven't! But you will wait and wait to be seated. Like not 45 minutes...we're talking hours at peak times. Some feel it is worth the wait. Since we've eaten at both places several times on previous visits, we weren't feeling the wait. We were just kind of wandering around and came upon Pizano's. Steinvic wondered if they had deep dish pizza and I whipped out my phone and checked online and indeed, they did. We decided to check it out...and if you're ever in Chicago, you should, too. DELICIOUS pizza. Our server boasted that his 92-year-old mother walked a mile-and-a-half, three days a week, to come make their dough. Could be a legend, could be fact, but no matter what, the food and service were awesome. And no wait! Looked like more local folks than tourists to me. We will be back!

A favorite bar we enjoy while we're in town is Pippin's. They don't have a website, but it's on Rush Street. We like it because it's not pretentious, they have lots of good beer and booze there, and during happy hour, it's darned affordable (Absolute Citron and soda for me and a beer for Steinvic cost $7, which is nearly unheard of here in Ohio, much less in touristy Chicago.) The folks who work there are pretty nice, too, and we've always ended up meeting some nice couple or chatting with other like-minded visitors who want something low key.

If you need to get out of the heat (or cold, depending on when you visit), there is a lovely AMC theater right down the street from Navy Pier. We saw Bridesmaids and chuckled a lot. See it if you haven't! You can also bowl at the Lucky Strike nestled into the same complex, but we didn't because we felt it was kind of pricey (came out to $40 for us to bowl and rent shoes, which seemed a little high, and we weren't that interested in bowling anyway...) but if you're into bowling, you might want to check it out.

In a nutshell, that was our whirlwind tour of Chicago. It was wonderful! (I will post a few photos later...) We returned to a very wriggly, happy puppy and as great of a time as we had, it feels great to be home.

Chicago Style

The promised recap!


Okay...you already know we survived the MegaBus to Chicago. What you don't know is that our driver was beyond sassy. I think she might be crazy. Or sleep deprived... All along the trip, she'd narrate to us now and then. (I suspect that it was to entertain herself or to help her stay awake.) We kept hitting the rumble strip, and I'd look up now and again to see her reflection in the rearview mirror, chatting away on the phone. When we finally got to Chicago, she let out this big, victorious, "Whooooooooooooooooo! Whoooooooooooooo! We made it!" It was almost like...this was some unusually large achievement...thus my concluding that she was super tired or something.

After a death defying cab ride to Fairfield Suites, we checked in. Our room was nice...and the entire hotel stay was thanks to Steinvic's well-deserverd anniversary perks he'd earned from work. So awesome! We were right off Michigan Avenue and that location couldn't have been any better. We could walk everywhere we wanted to go.

We hadn't eaten a thing besides a muffin and some snacks, so we headed off to find something good. We saw Pizzeria Due and ducked inside, scoring a table immediately. While we are typically thin crust folks, we do like the occasional deep dish, and when in Rome...

After, we walked around, checking everything out and we ducked into a couple different bars. We called it a night and got up bright and early the next day for the Reds vs. Cubs game.

We rode the L into town, stopped at the Cubby Bear for a pre-game beverage and met up with a friend of ours from Cincinnati who was also there for the game with his girlfriend and her parents. After a few beers and Cubby Bombs, Steinvic and I headed over to Wrigley and found our seats. Did I mention GREAT seats...

We spanked the Cubs, 13 - 3, and even though we were a little concerned that we'd get some crap from the Cubs fans (I had on my Mr. Redlegs shirt), everyone was very nice and friendly.

We went home, freshened up and - since it was the 4th of July and all - considered going to the fireworks, but we were just kind of done with crowds. So, on America's day of Independence, we decided to explore a different culture. It was a long, leisurely dinner and Steinvic's first real Indian restaurant, so that was kind of nice. We watched the fireworks on the HD television in our rooms, lights out, all cozy in our giant bed.

The next day, we visited Navy Pier. Navy Pier to us is what a fabric store is to my Mom. We always plan to go for a little bit, and end up making a day of it.

We spent lots of time people watching, water admiring and beer drinking. Yay! Most of the beer drinking took place at Harry Caray's. ( I should add here that we did go other places, like the phenomenal Stained Glass display and the shops. ) Since our last Chicago visit, Steinvic has wanted to eat a burger at Billy Goat Tavern. (It's the place the cheeseburger, cheeseburger, no Coke, Pepsi, no fries, chips! skit from Saturday Night Live was born.) Because it's kind of a dive, Steinvic was expecting a homemade, satisfying burger. You could barely find the burger for the bun, and it didn't have much flavor. So...he was a little disappointed in that.

And, just to make this day a total culinary bust, that night, we ate at Su Casa. Don't eat at Su Casa. It kinda sucked. It is expensive. You may think, "Mmmm...Mexican!" and you will be sad. You will wonder why you gave in to your primal impulse to eat Mexican food on vacation in the middle of Chicago. You will walk away with (even at only one drink per person) a $75 bill for an unsatisfactory meal and wonder what the hell happened. No.

We woke on Tuesday with high hopes. We thought...we will get one last deep dish pizza. We will go to the top of Hancock Tower. We will buy bath bombs for me at the Lush store at Macy's. Well, we did some of that. We got pizza at Gino's East. We walked a little. Then we went back to the room and zonked out. Between the heat, sun, drinking and walking, we were kind of overdue for some real chill time. We did go out later, just to walk and walk and see what we could get into. We ended up at a tavern called O'Leary's and had some drinks and listened to tunes on the jukebox and shared stories with the bartender. It was a low key day and that was totally fine with us.

Wednesday meant time to pack up and catch the Mega Bus home! We got to the bus stop in record time and there were tons of people waiting. We both thought, surely these people aren't all getting on our bus to Cincinnati! And this was true...there were some going to Iowa City, some going to Memphis and finally, a half hour late, our bus shows up. It was so hot...there is no "bus station"...as a cost saving measure, Mega Bus provides a sign on the sidewalk and that is where you wait! No shade, no seats. We were so happy to see that bus!

It was a different bus driver, and this one came with his own personal masseuse! Yep, this dude's girlfriend was along for the ride. She sat in the seat behind him and rubbed his shoulders, kissed his ear and basically hung on him the whole time. Uh...thanks for letting us ride along on your date!

In a nutshell, that was our trip! Totally enjoyed it. We got to spend some real, quality time together and that was the best part...