Chicago!
Chicago was supposedly unseasonably warm while we were there, mid-30s and no snow rather than mid-teens.
Joel and I took advantage of a $36 each way deal on Jetblue, which, combined with Mickey's hospitality, made this an extraordinarily good deal to visit the Windy City. The fact that it was unusually warm means the Californians with our thin blood didn't freeze, even if the native Chicagoians were laughing at us the whole time. It still got plenty cold at night for me to be grateful I packed the facemask!
Marevlous selection of beers at Hopleaf, plus tasty mussels. Even smaller bars such as The Bar on Buena had a very good selection. Evidently Hopleaf is very well known, and exposure to beers such as Delirium Tremens was quite delicious. Having ice cream at a well-known shop down the street afterwards was rather bizarre even by my standards, tho.
The next day was wandering downtown while Mickey was at work. The Sears Tower, Beringiner (sp?) Cafe for lunch, standing outside the Civic Opera House, the Chicago Merchantile Exchange, and St. Peter's Church, and browsing around the butt, err, bean, in Millenium Park. You can tell we were tourists, because we were some of the only people standing out there freezing our butts off. Then off to the Shedd Aquarium to look at the fish. Sadly we could not see the entire aquarium, as they nickle-and-dime you to death out there and charged extra to see the outer core of exhibits. Booo. The Adler Planetarium was also closed by the time we got there-- evidently in the summer they are open later.
That night was dinner at Giordianos with Jen Cruz and her family (!), including her husband Steven and baby James. Very tasty pizza. We also spotted a few chains of noodle houses and stuff-- not exactly what I expected to see in Chicago. (mainly because you don't see chains quite like that even in California!) A decent margarita place, Cesar's, was next. Mmm.
Slept in a bit the second morning, went to the Field Museum to look at the Egyptian tomb and the dinosaurs, a tasty Mediterranean place with HUGE portions, then the University of Chicago.
Suddenly three nights were gone and at the ridiculous hour of 3:45am we were en route back to O'Hare... thanks for putting Joel and myself up, Mickey!
