My Kind of Town

Chicago is.

It's been a few years since I was there for work, and several more since I was there on vacation with my family.  This time it was a road trip destination with my brother after our Black Friday odyssey in Grove City, PA.  The drive between Grove City and Chicago is around 7 hours, but it wasn't as bad as it sounds.  Have you ever been to North East?  We passed it on our way through Pennsylvania.  What was confusing was that we were heading west at the time.  You know how there are occasionally interesting signs dotting the countryside?  Our favourite was the one that advertised "FIREWORKS, KARATE SUPPLIES, PEPPER SPRAY AND STUN GUNS!"  Yes, that is definitely one-stop shopping.  And what are karate supplies?  Nunchukus?  Throwing stars?  Oh wait, that's ninja supplies...

I have many good things to say about Chicago.  First up, their transit system.  So easy to use, so inexpensive, so interesting to be travelling high above the street, passing within a couple of feet of other people's windows.

Next, the architecture.  So fantastic, even I can appreciate it with little to no formal knowledge about it.

It was chilly and wet for most of the weekend, but we were able to fit in a lot of sights.  Our first night in town, we experienced deep dish pizza and then went up to the top of the John Hancock Center.  We also hit the Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Observation Deck of the Willis Tower.  Essentially, we took the Ferris Bueller tour.  My biggest "there it is!" moment was when we came out of the subway at Milwaukee and Grand and found ourselves in front of Emmits Pub (Ocean's Eleven!).

The trip was not uneventful.  On our way back to the hotel, we were going down the escalator from the subway platform when we heard a SLAM!  Then we saw a man rolling down the up escalator.  He was out cold but continued travelling past us, carried by the escalator.  The attendant in the booth took a look then went back to call for help.  In the time it took for us to call the hotel shuttle to pick us up, firefighters were already heading up to the platform to check him out, and then the cops and paramedics showed up within minutes afterwards.  Good response time.

While I was taking photos at "The Bean", a woman offered me $20 for my umbrella.  I turned it down, and then she offered me $40.  My brother wanted to give it to her, but I still said no for two reasons: 1) it wasn't my umbrella, and 2) the moment I gave it to her, I was sure it was going to start pouring, and then I'd be the idiot stuck looking for an umbrella.  My brother said we could buy a pretty nice umbrella for $40, and I said if there was an umbrella to be sold anywhere near us, the woman wouldn't be in this predicament.  This is the price you pay for poor planning.

We didn't get to see everything, like Navy Pier or Wrigley Field, but as always I save a little something for next time.

"And each time I leave, Chicago is tugging my sleeve"