The wind. It literally NEVER stops blowing in Chicago. I'm not talking about a day or two here and there where you have high winds. I mean every single day there you face some sort of freakin gale force winds blowing in your face. Its ridiculous. That's what we discovered last Wednesday evening when we flew into Chi-town. We got there about an hour and a half late because our plane in Ft Lauderdale wouldn't take off because of....you got it...the winds in Chicago being so bad that we potentially couldn't land there. Yikes! Then after finally getting there we locate our hotel but couldn't figure out where the parking lot was for the life of us. I'm serious, we must have driven around the hotel 5 times before we figured out the parking lot was...uh, ya know...inside the building itself. Who knew? After getting there and checking in, we decided to go for a lovely stroll through the greater lakefront area in search of some food....despite the fact that it was approaching 11pm eastern time. Kellie kept asking dumb questions, Kim broke one of her toes tripping over something Kellie left on the floor, Andy thought the main tenant in the Sears Tower was a cafe....and me? I fell asleep in the hotel room with gum in my mouth. We weren't off to a good start, although the deep dish pizza at Giordano's in downtown Chi-town was pretty good stuff.
Day #2
So we go down to the breakfast area (free breakfast) and as I'm getting my toast, I can't help but notice that the place is absolutely crawling with incredible hot, yet legally not of age, high school babes. Some further investigation leads to the discovery that there is some sort of high school journalism convention in town. Man oh man....I don't remember the girls at Belleville East High School looking quite that good. I realize that I may turning into an old fart. We start the day with a visit to the 85 (give or take one or two floors) John Hancock Building. Impressive. Chicago has a fantastic skyline.
After that, we take a family stroll down Lakeshore Drive, praying that we wouldn't bump into Oprah. We didn't see her, but as we slipped into a neighborhood Borders bookstore, we had the first of our "near celebrity encounters" that would become the staple of our weekend. We walk inside and notice a huge line. Lo & behold, former president (as in--"of the United States") Jimmy Carter is there signing his new book. I thought it would be a pretty cool photo op, but....the secret service and the folks from Borders wanted you to pony up the $30 for his new book. Uh....no thanks. So then we head down to the Navy Pier, which is sort of a new tourist attraction in the downtown area. We ended up having lunch at Cheezborger, Cheezborger which is supposed to be the place where John Belushi got the idea for the Greek restaurant skit on Saturday Night Live ("No Coke...Pepsi! Cheezborger, Cheezborger...chip, chip!").
It was okay...nothing special and some really seedy looking types working there. So then we go on the afternoon architechural cruise, which pretty much every one who knew I was going to Chicago had recommended to me. It was pretty damn cool.
I mean literally. The temperature started falling as the afternoon got late and we all about froze our asses off riding around the Chicago River. Nice tour though. After that we headed towards the growing metropolis of....Elkhart, Indiana. Its the closest we could get a hotel to Notre Dame, ya know? It was pretty amazing staying at a hotel that obviously knows where its bread is buttered. We walked into the lobby and our greeted by a huge Notre Dame banner and a welcome sign for fans coming into town.
So we decide to go out for some dinner and the girl behind the counter (and when I say she was a "local"....OMAN....do I mean LOCAL), tells us to get on the road the hotel is on (Hwy 19) and just keep going for about 7 miles and we'll run into a bunch of restaurants. Really. Of course, she didn't bother to mention the fact that the road splits into two on two seperate occasions and good old Hwy 19 goes in a completely different direction! So at some point I notice that the road we're on has become two lanes and we appear to be in a residential neighborhood. We pull a U-turn and decide to swing into a 7-11 for some directions. I was wearing a Notre Dame sweatshirt and had the following fascinating conversation.
"Hwy 19?" she says, thinking to herself..."oh yeah, that's like 3 traffic lights that way.
Road veers right. Hey, you think Notre Dame is going to win on Saturday?"
"Well, they should." I remarked. "Their probably a better team."
"You know who I love? That wide receiver....Jeff Samardzja. Last Saturday when I was working here he caught that pass and started running for a touchdown and I jumped up in down and started screaming...'SAMARDZJA!! SAMARDZJA!! Everyone in the store started looking at me."
I can honestly say that no one in a south Florida 7-11 has ever had a conversation like that with me.
We were staying in a Holiday Inn Express, and it must have been either very new or very poorly supplied. Kim asked for extra pillows---we got one. She asked for some extra towels. We got one big one, one small one. There's a huge sign in the bathrooms telling you (I swear to God).....to REUSE the towels.
I love traveling with the family to see a football game.
Later,
Jeff
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