Wicker Park - Chicago

On the last day of our trip, we ate lunch in Joliet at Giordano's. We had a famous Chicago-style stuffed pizza, complete with lots of cheese, green pepper, mushrooms, pepperonis, and topped with sauce. After lunch, we headed back into Chicago. Nick took me to his old neighborhood, Wicker Park, which is north of the downtown area in my previous posts. It is a quaint part of the city, which feels surprisingly small, seeing as though you can't even view the giant buildings from here. We went to an old bar, called the Map Room, which is allegedly one of Chicago's best beer bars. They had 100s of beers from all over the World, and not once did we see a cocktail poured. They had countless copies of National Geographic, some of them very old and tattered. This reminded me of my Dad quite a bit, and I knew he would be very interested to see this. We spent several hours here, as we were meeting a few of Nick's friends, and even one of my best buddies from college, Brent. After, we went to the Blue Line Lounge for dinner, which was a little too fancy for us. The food itself wasn't fancy, but everyone in this neighborhood is extremely hip, and pretty much dresses the part. As Coloradoans, we stuck out a bit. However, everyone was friendly, and we had a good time.