6/6/07 Chicago!!!!

Believe it or not, we ran this morning. And it was good. After moving the car, we ran about a half-mile to the Lake Michigan waterfront, which was remarkably beautiful and pedestrian-friendly. With the city in front of us to the north, we ran by the McCormick Convention Center, Soldier Field, and Shedd Aquarium. The area along the lake is public land that is very well maintained. The run was so nice that it took three miles into it before we realized that whatever distance we ran would have to be repeated on the return trip – woops! After scraping back to Matt’s apartment, we prepared ourselves for the city by exhausting and starving ourselves. Luckily, we had pizza in our sights and a train to take us there.

We put on our pizza-radar and set out for Gino’s East Pizza, home of famous Chicago deep dish pizza. Despite practically zero knowledge of the city, we honed in on the restaurant and found a booth there, where a lovely waitress named Patsy treated us to the Gino’s experience. Not swayed by Melman’s claim that the pizza here “sucked” (really Melman?), we waited patiently for 45 minutes as they prepared our meal. The pizza did not disappoint: a thick, pastry-like crust, and a pie that is filled with almost a pasta-like sauce containing tomatoes, sausage, peppers, mushrooms, and onions – all with a thick layer of mozzarella cheese on the bottom. Thinking about it right now makes me want to eat there again. Unfortunately, I’m eating honey-wheat pretzels for breakfast instead. Holy crap was that good pizza.

At 2:30 PM, we were exhausted and ridiculously full, so we then took a nap in a nearby Barnes and Noble. When we woke up, we had been completely robbed, including our wallets, cell phones, keys, and shoes. At this point, we asked a police officer for help, who responded with, “sometimes you learn things the hard way, son.”

Luckily, we consciously decided to avoid this fate and instead walked across the street to an 8-story Sports Authority store. We spent over an hour here and easily could have been there for longer. The spoils included hats for each of us, Under Armour shorts for Deyle, and a replica Randy Moss Raiders jersey for $15 – nice! At this juncture, we officially decided that Chicago rocked. For the rest of the day, we walked the streets of the city, beginning with a trip to the top of the John Hancock tower (96 floors). From there, we walked the “Magnificent Mile” along Michigan Avenue. Ashley, who is studying to become a nurse at the University of Illinois – Chicago, met up with was at this point. Between cups of coffee and a new traveling partner, our momentum picked up and we headed for Millennium Park. We saw awesome fountains, a modern outdoor amphitheater, and a ridiculously large reflective bean. At this point, we were able to meet up with Matt who had gotten off of work. The four of us left the bean and headed for happy hour on the north side of the city – this is an awesome day!

$5 Coors Light pitchers made the next phase of the trip veerrrrryyyy interesting. We enjoyed happy hour at a massive bar, Joe’s, which featured a large indoor bar, a huge outdoor seating area, and a huge “Bags” court (more on this later). To make things even better, Wednesday happened to be Doggy Happy Hour, where dogs could bring their owners to the bar and play with each other while receiving free treats. Needless to say, this provided endless entertainment as we saw several dogs take turns wrestling and mounting each other. Did I mention that there was free popcorn? Or that it was a pleasant 75 degrees outside? We could have stayed here forever, and we basically did.

Now, about this game of bags. The game features teams of two tossing bean bags at a giant wooden wedge with a hole in it, similar to those carnival games you see all the time. Each bean bag in the hole earns three points, while a bag that stays on the wedge earns one, with equal scoring from your opponent canceling out tosses. This place had four bags courts set up, so we figured we would just hop on one and give the game a shot. Ashley had left at this point, so we picked up a ringer named Heidi. Matt and I had never played the game before, and we slowly began to realize that every single person in the bar was absurdly good at this game. This included Heidi, whose patented wrist flick single-handedly won the game for me and her. When we prepared to play again, another player approached us and asked if we were “scheduled” on the court. Apparently, we had just finagled our way into a well-organized bags league and stole the court. These guys are legit and we all suddenly felt very inferior. Time to go back outside and watch dogs while drinking!

As you can imagine, things began to lead to another at this point. Matt started saying things like, “I’m at the point where if you ask if me if I want more beer, I won’t say no.” Pitchers began appearing magically courtesy of Matt’s classmate at IIT, John. Our only dinner consisted of wings flavored with a sauce called “Death Valley” – a decision we are still feeling the ramifications of. As 10 o’clock rolled around, Matt decided that it was time we see the Goose Island Brewpub, Chicago’s famous local brewpub. Goose Island proved to be a great call, as we enjoyed pretentious beer with names like “Rotweizen” and watched the Red Sox on NESN. Even the bartender got in on the act, ripping in to Matt when he uttered the phrase, “take 2, Papi.” Matt responded by borrowing a piece of glassware for each of us before leaving to catch the subway home. As far as we can tell, Chicago is an awesome city – a big thanks to Matt for showing us around. Minnesota has a tough act to follow.

-Jonah