A Weekend in Chicago, IL (with Kim's Parents)

We arrived in Chicago fairly late Thursday evening, and a bit exhausted, so we didn't do much our first night in the Windy City. We did stay in a decent hotel (the Hilton Garden Inn), in an outstanding location on the Magnificent Mile. The only bad part was the parking charge -- $44/night! That seems exhorbitant to me, but that's a big city for you. Fortunately, I think Chicago will be the biggest city we're driving in for a very long while.

I worked Friday with my buddy, Kees, who happened to be in Chicago that week. This is the (record) third time I've seen Kees on this trip.

1. at the Ubuntu Distro Rally in Prague, Czech Republic

2. in Boston at LinuxCon (where we realized that we would be in Chicago at the same time

3. now in Chicago

Kees and his wife Kirstin have offered to host us in Portland, OR too, which will make for a 4th rendezvous. Thanks, dude.

We worked the first part of the morning at the foot of the Sears Tower (now called the "Willis" tower by some).

We had lunch at a Greek place nearby with a couple of Kees' buddies, and worked the rest of the afternoon at Caribou Coffees just across the river, and in full view of the Sears Tower. As always, it's fun to hang around Kees (I hope some of his code-savvy brilliance wears off on me). After work, we visited one of his friends working for a financial company associated with the Chicago Board of Trade (now along with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange). They had hundreds of monitors running Ubuntu and projecting all sorts of real-time financial tracking charts, graphs, and reports. Neat ;-)

While I worked, Kim occupied herself shopping on the Magnificent Mile. Yeesh :-o

Kim writes:

I thoroughly enjoyed a day of shopping on the Magnificent Mile, this is a full mile of some of my favorite clothing stores with some of the best deals I've come across since on the trip! I hit H&M and Forever 21 pretty hard and got some adorable new outfits for a steal. The clothes there are probably really intended for teenagers, but I could care less! (The name of the store is FOREVER 21 so it's okay, plus, I did get carded everywhere I went!). When you can get three super cute tops for under $30 who could argue! It's probably a really good thing that there is not an H&M in Austin!

After I was done working and Kim shopping, we met up and walked around Chicago, out to Navy Pier. It's pretty touristy, but the people on the Ferris Wheel and the other carnival rides looked like they were having a blast.

Then we strolled along Michigan Avenue, over to the Sear Tower, and around the Theater District.

Oh, and we ate at the Billy Goat Tavern -- a total dive with a ton of charm, it's a burger joint under Michigan Avenue. Twice famous -- originally for its owner having the auspicious history of having placed a "curse" on the Chicago Cubs after being denied entry to Wrigley Field with his pet goat (on a leash), and more recently as the inspiration for the late 70s Saturday Night Live "Cheezborger, cheezborger, cheezborger" skit with John Belushi, Bill Murray, and Dan Ackroyd. I had two "cheezborgers" :-D

Kind of random, but we also saw this really wicked looking spider in the subway. Bonus points if you can identify the species...

On Saturday morning, Kim and I had brunch at a small cafe on the Chicago River while we awaited our architecture tour of Chicago by boat. The tour started with a ride through the locks (the largest gravity-only locks in the world) into Lake Michigan.

While in Lake Michigan, we dipped in and around Navy Pier, and along Millenium Park, taking in Chicago's famous skyline from afar and learning about the great fire of Chicago and how the rebuilding of Chicago, the Second City, rendered Chicago's architectural fame.

We re-entered the Chicago river again through the locks, and listened to numerous stories about how dirty the river once was, and how much cleaner it is now.

A few of the more remarkable buildings...

The "corn cobs"...

Trump Tower...

And of course, the Sears Tower...

Seeing the skyscrapers from the river itself on such a gorgeous, sunny day is a great way to observe the enormity of the structures. And an informative tour guide can really make them sing and dance.

Also, we saw this helicopter flying around Chicago all weekend long. The word from the locals was that this helicopter was filming for the Transformers 3 movie.

By the time we finished the boat tour, Kim's parents, Bob and Gerri, had arrived at the hotel, having flown from New Orleans to Chicago. They would be spending the rest of the weekend with us, and then taking a train all the way back to New Orleans!

We relaxed at the hotel for a bit with Bob and Gerri, sipping on a couple of cold beers and purusing many of the nearly 4,000 pictures Kim and I have taken along the trip so far! Bob and Gerri treated Kim and I to a mouth-watering meal at the Chicago Chop House, supposedly an old haunt of Al Capone and his crew.

The food and drinks were outstanding.

And the company was even better ;-)

We finished the night at Bob's favorite bar in Chicago, the Red Head piano bar :-]

We spent most of Sunday in Wrigleyville, and at Wrigley Field, taking in a Cubs game, which is a post of its own!

After the game, we took the train out to Millenium Park. There we saw Buckingham Fountain...

Then Millenium Amphitheater, Chicago's stainless steel "bean".

Kim figured her kindergarten kids would love this.

And a group photo. Sort of...

We also watched some kids playing in a nearby fountain with huge digital faces.

Every few minutes, the face would "spit" water.

There was only one way for us to conclude our visit to Chicago, and that's with deep dish pizzas from Chicago's original Uno pizza location. Kim hung out with her Mom and Dad a bit longer on Sunday night, but I had to retreat to the room and do a bit of work.

Chicago is a great town, and I'm already looking forward to going back -- without a vehicle next time, and save ourselves a few hundred bucks!

:-Dustin