Chicago 2011
Thursday July 23
I worked at Thompson & Hine until 5 then picked Catie up at her apartment off Henderson. We jumped on 70 West and headed for Chicago! We got through Ohio without incident, but a mile or two across the Indiana state line, bugs started dive bombing my car en masse. This continued the entire drive through Indiana. It stopped once we crossed the Illinois state line. Sometime after we passed Indianapolis we stopped for gas which is when I noticed an absence of a license place on the rear of my truck. #shit We were already balls-deep in Indiana and over halfway to Chicago, so i was not about to turn around. We got back on the road and called the Columbus police as well as the Chicago PD. I was able to "file" a voice-prompted report with the ColPD and the ChiPD suggested I leave a note in the window of my car explaining the situation. This might help me avoid getting ticketed, as my only option is to park on the street. Blah blah blah, we get the rest of the way to Chicago without further incident around 11 (but with the time change we were on the road roughly 6 hours). We stayed up and talked with Megan until 1 or so then went to bed.
Friday July 24
Megan was bored at work on Thursday so she drew us a rather detailed (but not to scale) map of Lincoln Park with suggestions of what we could do to entertain ourselves while she worked on Friday. Catie and I woke up, had breakfast, and headed out. We had grand plans for the day, but after we each got coffee at Starbucks, Mother Nature peed on us with the fury of a woman scorned. Catie and I got soaked, but sought shelter inside Kim & Scott's, a mighty fine pretzel place. When the rain slowed down we headed back to Megan's apartment to dry off/regroup/wallow. By the time we changed and dried the rain had ceased completely, so we continued on our journey. Although weather.com predicted the rain to continue with equal fury later in the day, it did not and the rest of the day was absolutely beautiful. Catie and I were feeling adventurous so we got subway passes and put them to use. Megan had mentioned to Catie that the Harold Washington Library was a fantastic building not to be missed, so we boarded the subway and headed downtown. As lame as this sounds to anyone who has ever been on a subway, the first time we rode was a bit thrilling. Neither of us had been on a subway in Chicago (Catie without supervision and me ever) so we were a bit nervous, but we felt like explorers. Little did we know that the subway systems are incredible, hard to get confused, and not that busy (any of the off-rush hour times we rode), so it was a bit anticlimactic. Speaking of anticlimactic, the library sucked. It is a cool building, but the one exhibit I wanted to see, artifacts from the world fair, was under construction. Lamesauce. We got bored with the library so we walked downtown. We ran into absolutely nothing, so we headed back to the subway and back to Lincoln Park. Catie and I caught lunch at the Bourgeois Pig #hipsterparadise. We each had the Sun Also Rises, the sandwich for which they are known, also a sandwich with which we were not terribly impressed, then continued on to the Lincoln Park Zoo. As far as zoos go, this is one of the better zoos I've visited. As can be expected we saw a bunch of animals that had no business being in the Midwest. Of note: the Silverback that peed from 20' off the ground then shit in his hand and ate it; black rhino; two lynx playing together. After the zoo we met up with Megan and went downtown for some authentic Chicago deepdish pizza (tourist no?). I wanted to see Michigan Ave, but by the time we got there everything was closing. Perhaps another time. Dinner at Gino's East was epic. The wait was an hour or so, but we were allowed to drink in line #epic. We were able to snag one of the 5 tables outside #epic. Our pizza raped our hunger #epic. For whatever reason our waiter, who we liked and chatted up and he unloaded on us about his busy day, but it wasn't in a complaining way and we liked him, gave us a groupon discount which took $20 from our bill #superstupidepic. Dinner made me a bit lethargic and wanting change, so I wasn't feeling the Pinkberry's, as was hinted in my stupid existential tweet. We came home and passed out.
The theme for tomorrow will be beer.
I worked at Thompson & Hine until 5 then picked Catie up at her apartment off Henderson. We jumped on 70 West and headed for Chicago! We got through Ohio without incident, but a mile or two across the Indiana state line, bugs started dive bombing my car en masse. This continued the entire drive through Indiana. It stopped once we crossed the Illinois state line. Sometime after we passed Indianapolis we stopped for gas which is when I noticed an absence of a license place on the rear of my truck. #shit We were already balls-deep in Indiana and over halfway to Chicago, so i was not about to turn around. We got back on the road and called the Columbus police as well as the Chicago PD. I was able to "file" a voice-prompted report with the ColPD and the ChiPD suggested I leave a note in the window of my car explaining the situation. This might help me avoid getting ticketed, as my only option is to park on the street. Blah blah blah, we get the rest of the way to Chicago without further incident around 11 (but with the time change we were on the road roughly 6 hours). We stayed up and talked with Megan until 1 or so then went to bed.
Friday July 24
Megan was bored at work on Thursday so she drew us a rather detailed (but not to scale) map of Lincoln Park with suggestions of what we could do to entertain ourselves while she worked on Friday. Catie and I woke up, had breakfast, and headed out. We had grand plans for the day, but after we each got coffee at Starbucks, Mother Nature peed on us with the fury of a woman scorned. Catie and I got soaked, but sought shelter inside Kim & Scott's, a mighty fine pretzel place. When the rain slowed down we headed back to Megan's apartment to dry off/regroup/wallow. By the time we changed and dried the rain had ceased completely, so we continued on our journey. Although weather.com predicted the rain to continue with equal fury later in the day, it did not and the rest of the day was absolutely beautiful. Catie and I were feeling adventurous so we got subway passes and put them to use. Megan had mentioned to Catie that the Harold Washington Library was a fantastic building not to be missed, so we boarded the subway and headed downtown. As lame as this sounds to anyone who has ever been on a subway, the first time we rode was a bit thrilling. Neither of us had been on a subway in Chicago (Catie without supervision and me ever) so we were a bit nervous, but we felt like explorers. Little did we know that the subway systems are incredible, hard to get confused, and not that busy (any of the off-rush hour times we rode), so it was a bit anticlimactic. Speaking of anticlimactic, the library sucked. It is a cool building, but the one exhibit I wanted to see, artifacts from the world fair, was under construction. Lamesauce. We got bored with the library so we walked downtown. We ran into absolutely nothing, so we headed back to the subway and back to Lincoln Park. Catie and I caught lunch at the Bourgeois Pig #hipsterparadise. We each had the Sun Also Rises, the sandwich for which they are known, also a sandwich with which we were not terribly impressed, then continued on to the Lincoln Park Zoo. As far as zoos go, this is one of the better zoos I've visited. As can be expected we saw a bunch of animals that had no business being in the Midwest. Of note: the Silverback that peed from 20' off the ground then shit in his hand and ate it; black rhino; two lynx playing together. After the zoo we met up with Megan and went downtown for some authentic Chicago deepdish pizza (tourist no?). I wanted to see Michigan Ave, but by the time we got there everything was closing. Perhaps another time. Dinner at Gino's East was epic. The wait was an hour or so, but we were allowed to drink in line #epic. We were able to snag one of the 5 tables outside #epic. Our pizza raped our hunger #epic. For whatever reason our waiter, who we liked and chatted up and he unloaded on us about his busy day, but it wasn't in a complaining way and we liked him, gave us a groupon discount which took $20 from our bill #superstupidepic. Dinner made me a bit lethargic and wanting change, so I wasn't feeling the Pinkberry's, as was hinted in my stupid existential tweet. We came home and passed out.
The theme for tomorrow will be beer.