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.

Chicago Pt. 3

On our way back to Millennium park, we stopped across the street at the Art Institute of Chicago. Unlike my school, it has a building which is dedicated solely to a museum. Unfortunately, it was ridiculously crowded, and we didn't have a whole lot of time before we had to head back to Joliet, so we skipped it. I would've liked to go, but as I said before, I'm not a fan of overly crowded, touristy areas. So, we continued on our walk over to Grant Park, which is just north of Millennium park and south of Lake Michigan. The sun was setting, and I was able to get some breath-taking pictures of the skyline.

The Art Institute of Chicago

Jay Pritzker Pavillion

Grant Park

Chicago Pt. 2

After lunch, we walked back towards Millennium Park along the Chicago River. On the way, were countless very interesting and often enormous buildings, including the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot buildings, which were inspiration for one of my favorite bands and favorite albums (Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot). From there, we made our way back to Millennium Park.

 

Chicago Pt. I

On Tuesday, Nick and I headed into Chicago. Despite the usual crazy traffic, we made it in under an hour. We parked near Millennium Park, which is a hot-spot for tourists apparently. We walked around the park and checked out "The Bean", which is a giant sliver bean-shaped structure. It is very common for tourists to take pictures of themselves in the large, rounded mirror, but doing things like that felt uncomfortable, crowded and cliche to me. We managed to keep our distance and travel off the beaten path a bit. We went to lunch at  The Green Door Tavern, which was an old and relatively small bar with rather mediocre food. However, it was free of people, so it was a nice stopping spot.

The Sears Tower

Millennium Park

Jay Pritzker Pavillion

"The Bean"