Wish I were in Chicago

I wish I were in Chicago because that is where I was last weekend and we had a great time on our little "vacation". All week we knew we wanted to get away for the weekend but neither of us had the time to really research or make any substantial plans.

Thursday evening we had it narrowed down to three random places, somewhere in Pennsylvania (maybe the Hershey factory), Tennessee, and Chicago. Friday morning we decided, "okay, Chicago it is."

I've never been less prepared for a get away. Normally I like to scout out all sort of restaurant options, find things off the beaten path, maybe a nearby random festival to check out. This time we shoved our clothes in a suitcase, Adam packed a cooler and found a hotel on priceline. We also decided to just buy a GPS on our way. We had an awesome time!

Friday afternoon I'm turning off the computer and saying goodbye to the pooches. Friday evening we are enjoying our super swank hotel in the middle of Greek Town, trying to decide where to grab a late dinner. The hotel was in an excellent location and we were able to walk the path of Greek Town, smelling all the foreign (to us anyway) food. We decided to stop at Athena Restaurant, which is located on Halsted Street. Adam got the loin of lamb and I ordered a combination dish so we could try a little of everything. Adam even tried eggplant (his only known hated food).

The next morning we took our time getting the day started and ended up finding lunch instead of breakfast. You can't go to Chicago and not try "Chicago Style Pizza". We enjoyed an excellent pie at Giordano's. We kept twirling the cheese, and twirling the cheese until we had big lumpy forkfuls of the best tasting pizza. The folks at Giordano's were happy to point us in the direction of all the shopping and the Navy Pier, though they warned us to not try to walk it. We ignored them and went on our way only to find ourselves in a nice sprinkling of rain. Great! We discussed walking back to the hotel (they had free umbrellas we could use) or just buying one along the way. Then we decided to rough it and just walk and see how the weather panned out. It turned out to be a wimpy rain and not even close to getting in our way of a good time.

The estimated 4 mile walk seemed like nothing. We ducked into shops when we got tired of the rain. By the time we reached the "Miracle Mile" the rain had stopped and we were in need of new shoes, our feet were killing us with our old sandals. Who knew we were going to be doing this kind of walking? So we bought new ones and Adam spent the rest of the day trying to bait people into taking the Eddie Bauer bag containing his shot out sandals. While I shopped he had a great time putting the bag down, casually walking away and then watching people as they looked two or three time at the tempting shopping bag. It drove me crazy because I was just waiting for someone at these upscale shops to report a suspicious bag left in their store. Adam loved it and was having a great time chatting with people, giving out candy to kids (another thing I figured someone, someday, will file a report about).

The weather finally cooperated and we spent the whole day walking around, visiting Navy Pier and riding the huge, giant Ferris Wheel, which was more scary than I had anticipated. We ended the long day with a trip to a "greasy spoon" sort of gyro shop down the street from the hotel. Excellent, excellent gyros. We even discussed going into a bar to check out the music but decided to turn in instead.

Sunday Adam tested his Chicago driving skills and couldn't believe how fast people honked. Red light, red light, green li - HONK! Along with the GPS we drove around all the other areas of the city, Little Italy, China Town and a few others. Before we left town we stopped to check out the House of Blues, which wasn't really open but since they had just finished with their gospel bunch we were able to walk in and just sort of check the place out. We'd like to get back and catch a show there. From there we stopped in at Harry Carys restuarant and looked at all the pictures in their lobby. We walked around just a bit more before hitting the road and heading back home.

I'd love to hear of great places to go in Chicago if anyone has any suggestions. Our little get-away was a great time. Probably my only regret, and one I didn't think of until now, is that I didn't take advantage of the GSP and the fact that we went past Ft. Wayne. We could have looked up Harry and Helens old address and seen the house where they lived.