My wife booked a little excursion to the windy city about a month ago, just a little getaway for the weekend. When she booked the trip, we had no idea that the weather would be cold, rainy and even a little snow but oh well, we made the most of it!
I will attempt to tell the tale as I saw it unfold. Join me on my trip to........Chicago!
This may surprise a good many of you, but I had never ever been on a plane before this trip. I wasn't nervous in the slightest, not even from excitement. I was utterly calm at the idea of flying in a metal tube with wings full of fuel, hurtling along at 583mph at an altitude of 37,000 feet. I made peace with it. It is what it is.
DAY ONE We had a 7:50 Saturday morning departure, we got up at 4:30am and left the house about 5:00am, my wife wanted to make sure we were there early to account for parking, security screening and boarding. Surprisingly it took most of that time, we had maybe an hour wait before boarding.
Here's my view form the little window on the 737, just before takeoff at Hartsfield.
So, once in the air and after having our in-flight snack, I got a little picture happy
Everything's good so far, right? Well, this is what we landed to in Chicago. 37° and raining
We rode the train to the hotel, THAT was an experience! My wife didn't like it at all and said that we would be taking an Uber when we were coming back to the airport to leave, lol.
Once in the hotel we took a little nap of sorts, just to get our appetite ready for our first Chicago meal. Al's #1 Italian Beef!
We walked there from the hotel we were staying at (The Allerton) and were good and cold by the time we got there so I was more than ready to warm up to a nice hot sandwich. We ordered 2 Regular Combos with provolone and spicy peppers, dipped of course
The real deal - Al's #1 Italian Beef
Now, not to upset any Al's fans but there was a spice on there that my wife and I didn't care for. We've eaten plenty of Italian Beef Sammies in our day, this had top notch ingredients but something was amiss in the spice department. If I had to guess, it's Al's signature spice to differentiate his product. Not a fan of it really but the sammy was enjoyable otherwise.
We went back to the hotel and chilled a little more, watched T.V while drifting in and out of consciousness. We then decided to go eat dinner, the MAIN thing I wanted to try
Giordano's Pizza!!!! I was giddy to finally eat Chicago Deep Dish Pizza IN CHICAGO!!
Bundled up and back out into the cold we went. We ordered some cheese curds as an app (mozzarella) and they were divine!
After about a 45 minute wait for the pie, it showed up and we finally got to eat what I had been looking so forward to : Pepperoni, bacon, sausage (sassidge, lol), salami. Lots of cheese, could've used a little more suace in my book but I was a HAPPY fella.
This one is the SMALL!
And, just to make you want to eat it MORE, take a look at this video
Our bill for Giordano's
Sadly, we couldn't eat it all and took some back to the hotel
Unfortunately for us, the hotel room did NOT have a fridge or a microwave. I ate the smallest of the 3 pieces before bed and the other 2 were wasted
I couldn't eat any more and paid DEARLY for what I did overindulge in that night.
DAY TWOWe woke up to temps in the high 20's with rain, surprise surprise as Gomer Pyle used to say. Ugh. We got dressed and headed out to a place called Sunny Side Up. It's an old house that was converted into a breakfast joint, 3 stories high with a basement level Coffee Shop. Very cool place.
Stephanie ordered a $5.00 hot chocolate and stuffed French Toast (the best she's ever had) and I ordered a 2 egg breakfast (must be ostrich eggs) called The Chicago Way. Apparently it's a thing to order pancakes in place of toast if you like, for no extra charge at that! Me Like Pancake
We don't have that option here in Atlanta. Chicago=1 Atlanta=0
I tried hard, I really did.
Our bill for the meal
About to bust at the seems, I somehow made it down 2 winding staircases and out into the rain. We went back to the hotel and let our food settle a bit and then called an Uber to take us to the day's activity. The Field Museum! They had an exhibition on Mummies that sounded like it would be neat.
Very Impressive Place!
This was the entrance into the Mummy Exhibition, of course, like a kid, I ran in and hid from my wife, or at least tried to. Apparently I don't look Egyptian enough
Random Museum Pics
We came upon another exhibit that showed a mummy lying on a CT Scan table, ready to go in so I asked a gentlemen that worked for the museum where the line started for THAT ride. He said "Come again" and I pointed to the CT, he was just mildly amused, lol!
After visiting every exhibit, watching a 3D T-Rex movie, we again called for an Uber. This time we got dropped off at Portillo's for a late lunch/early dinner (more on that later!).
I wanted a Chicago Dog, in Chicago, so that's what I got. It was FANTASTIC!
Steph got a Chili CHeese Dog, no onions. I didn't get a pic of her dog but we also ordered a double cheeseburger, fries and drinks.
The burger was as big as your head! After eating our dogs, we didn't put very much of a dent in that burger, MAYBE 30% was eaten. Into the trash it went (damn hotel not having a fridge!!)
Portillo's Bill
We walked back to the hotel, watched Star Wars movies (marathon, as usual. Why do they ALWAYS have Star Wars marathons on?). Well, I should've been more than full from the day's eats but I only had a short time in Chi-Town and I wasn't going to leave w/o trying Lou Malnati's. I didn't want another deep dish, so I had a thin crust sausage delivered to the hotel at about 8pm
If this was indicative of what their Deep Dish is like, I'm glad I went with Giordano's!! It's was just meh, okay, not great.
DAY THREEOvernight it snowed and we woke up to 28 degrees with snow flurries and a little snow on the ground. Being from Atlanta, we don't see a whole lot of snow so Stephanie was happy! She LOVES snow (I'm sure that would change if we lived in a place like Buffalo or Chicago, lol)
We had planned on going to the beam but the weather was just too raw for us Southerners
We opted to go eat breakfast at a place called Eggsperience Cafe on W.Ontario. The walk there wasn't too bad, the wind gusts as the wind filed through the buildings was a little breathtaking at times. The same effect happens walking in downtown Atlanta, only not nearly as cold this time of the year.
While we waited for our food, I shot this quick little video
We both ordered the same thing, a 2 egg breakfast, scrambled with American cheese, hashbrowns and bacon with pancakes in lieu of toast. That still baffles me, being able to swap out 2 big old pancakes in place of flimsy little toast
On the way back to the hotel, I took a pic of this building that I thought looked really cool.
We went back to the hotel and hung around until checkout at noon. We then had many hours to kill so we went to the Water Tower Place Mall and piddled around, split a chicken sandwich at Mburger (nothing special at all) and then went back to the hotel, we checked our bags until we were ready to head back to O'Hare to wait for the trip home which was 6:40 Chicago time. We took Uber there and then sat for about 2 hours (talk about FUN!)
The ride home
The Pilot was cooking with gas on the way back, we arrived about 25 minutes ahead of schedule! I liked that, I was ready for my own bed. I just had to pay the crazy parking fee at Hartsfield and then drive home. I was exhausted but happy that I got to have this trip. The only bad part was waking up early the next morning to go to work. I should've allowed a recovery day. Lesson learned for NEXT time
That's about it folks, thanks for hanging in there with me through this novel of a post, lol.
Next Stop.....Austin Texas again???
