Chicago

The drive out to Chicago was a complete nightmare with heavy snow and we passed at least 25 cars either in ditches or being pulled out of them. We pretty much spent most of the trip going under 50MPH making it a long stressful drive. Fortunately around the time we got out of Michigan the ground was wet but there was minimal snow so I got to make up some time. Really I was worried about arriving at our friends house late which would suck considering she was making dinner. When we arrived I was promptly given a Guinness ; ) and shortly after dinner was served, and delicious. Unfortunately I was tired as hell and went to bed a little early, sorry Kirsten. But I must say I love love love that bed.

We made an amazing discovery over the weekend. Chicago buses are not only clean but WAY cheaper than a taxi! So it’s not an amazing discovery but certainly a learning experience brought on by the encouragement of my wife. Heading out to the Science and Industry museum on Saturday we decided to take a taxi on the way there which put us back 20 bucks. When we arrived we saw a bus dropping people off so Kristen thought it might be a good idea to look into taking the bus to our next destination. I’m definitely more likely to just take a cab instead of trying to figure out what bus goes where but she looked at the various routes and determined which one we needed. The end result, less than two buck each to get where we wanted to go which was ever further back than the initial taxi ride.

That’s not the only “amazing discovery” of the trip. Heading to the hotel we saw a parking garage advertising weekend parking for 15 bucks, a huge savings from the 45 or 50 we paid last time at the hotel. The only catch was you had to leave your vehicle there unless you wanted to pay to get back in. We managed to get around that later on though when we decided the 15 bucks was worth not taking a taxi to a warehouse party later that night. The attendant said he would only charge us 10 bucks to take the car out for a few hours but when we got back to the structure, around 3AM, there wasn’t anyone around so we just parked.

The Base Camp party was held in a warehouse that seemed more like an art studio to me which is a far cry from the old school warehouse parties in Detroit. This place was clean and had a bathroom so I’m pretty sure it was a legal party despite the fact they didn’t announce the location until that day. The people at the party were all pretty cool with absolutely no problems that I saw and the drinks were cheap as hell. Fortunately I exercised moderation and limited myself to three drinks so I was buzzed but not drunk.

Some reviews:

Science and Industry Museum–   I was really excited about checking this place out having seen some of its attractions online. Sadly when we arrived we found out there’s a general admission and the really neat exhibits are extra. We decided on the general admission but a good amount of things were not even available. For me I thought it was just a lot of filler with not enough really interesting things. There were however a couple things I thought were cool. The exhibit that shows the various stages of a baby developing was creepy but interesting as heck. I’m not saying there were no cool things but I wasn’t impressed overall.

Palmer House Hilton– This place is beautiful and deserves a little time walking around and looking at the design which unfortunately we didn’t do either time. Our first visit was in a general room but it was still nice except for the fact it was near a utility closet. The building attendants were in and out of this closet all night which preventing me from sleeping more than a few hours. As a result we were given a free night in an executive suite. This room was so nice, complete with a bar, huge bed, complementary snacks, drinks and breakfast. Our next visit to the Palmer House will definitely be in the executive suite.

Oriental Theater – We went here last month to see Wicked which was really good other than the humor which I thought was a little cheesy. The theater was amazing with an incredibly intricate design throughout. I could spend an entire day just looking at the ceiling of this place.

Uno Chicago Grill – This place exists in several places, even in our area, but after reading several reviews online I thought this would be the right choice for us. We went straight here after the museum and walking in we could see there would be a wait as the front entrance was packed with people. After being told there was a 45 minute wait we placed our order, deep dish number one, and Kristen suggested we wait at the bar. We each finished about half our glass of beer when we were able to get our table which was only 20 minutes. Waiting for our pizza to arrive we decided to get onion rings. By the time we finished those I think we would have been satisfied with that alone and when the pizza arrived we were able to eat only one slice each. Unfortunately I can’t remember the street but the Uno’s we went to was great all around.

It’s good to be home but I’m looking forward to our next Chicago visit.