Fearless in Seattle: Tearing up the Windy City

October turned into our travel month - a rushed day trip to San Jose, Chath coming back from Sydney, and a couple of weekend trips to explore the US of A. First up - a trip to the Windy City to catch up with some old friends. Shish and Sandeep being in the US at the same time was too much of a coincidence to let pass by, so we jumped on a plane one late Friday night and winged our way to Chicago.

After we'd all convened from our various inbound flights at a cafe near Bloomingdales, we set out to explore Chicago. Then it started raining. Typical, we leave a state with a reputation for some of the highest rainfall in the US in the middle of a record dry spell, and it rains on holiday. Undaunted, we tackled the Field Museum, making friends with Sue the T-Rex, proudly sponsored by McDonald's, as well as some extreme mammals in one of their special exhibits, courtesy of evolutionary theory (the creationists would have had a heart attack!) Despite the rain, we wandered our way through the city, exploring the weird and wonderful art at Millenium Park, got rained on some more (I sense a theme for the weekend coming on), before closing out an unsuccessful attempt to use public transport by jumping in a taxi... after being rained on some more.

Our attempt to view the Chicago skyline by night was foiled by the zero-visibility situation at the top of the John Hancock observation deck, so we settled instead with visiting a jazz club in a slightly seedier part of the city. Apparently we managed to snag the booth that Al Capone would always sit in when he frequented the Green Mill, to enjoy the funky, soulful sounds of Cyrille Aimee. Check out the clip of a similar performance in NY here - she was actually a lot better when we saw her live! Being the old codgers that we are, we quit after the second of three sets to hunt down some dinner. The Ethiopian restaurant across the road obliged, provided my first experience of authentic African food - Shish assured me that it was the real deal, and he's more than qualified to know what's what!

The next day saw yet more rain (we're really getting used to this), but we took a punt and took went up to the John Hancock observation deck. We got our timing just right, and got the only window of visibility of the day, before the rains rolled in yet again and reduced visibility to zero. Once they eased up, more wandering through the city, admiring the old-new architectural styles that are dotted throughout the city. Our meanderings took us down to the Navy Pier to check out the McDonald's Dessert Centre of the Future (I'm not kidding!) and the various tourist traps on offer. Before long, our time was up - our quick weekend away was over, and we had to say goodbye to old friends before heading to the airport and flying our separate ways.

Things we learnt on this trip:

Shish reads our blog - Sandeep doesn't!
Shish has an unhealthy obsession with the Cheesecake Factory
Chicago feels quite windy, but isn't necessarily windier than any other US city. It was also burnt to the ground in 1871 (by a cow kicking over a kerosene lamp, as the story goes), which triggered the rebuild of one of the most economically significant cities in the US
Pizza is great when it's done deep-dish
United is a budget airline at full-service prices. I will rant no more
Visiting Chicago returned Shish back to his Sim City metropolis-building days; walking around the city was like transporting him back to this wonderful game

Last but not least, pizza! Chicago deep dish pizza has made its way to such luminary pizza establishments as Pizza Hut and Crust in Sydney, so when in Chicago... :) we tried two well-known pizzeria chains to sample their deep dish offerings:

Giordanos - more of the stuffed pizza variety than deep dish, these pizzas were very cheesy, and quite delicious, although between the four of us we couldn't quite finish off the two pizzas we ordered. Possibly a little too cheesy...
Lou Malnati's Pizzeria - more traditional deep dish pizza. The crust wasn't too heavy, despite there being lots of it, and the toppings were well matched and flavoursome. We ordered four pizzas and polished them off with ease, with dessert to boot. A great example (for tourists at least) of the deep-dish variety

So now there's nothing left to do except put up photos!