Chicago, Day 2

With my foot still bothering me a little bit, I passed on walking the 606 trail downtown. Instead, I did 25 minutes on the elliptical before having breakfast.

My custom egg omelet with cheese, bacon, spinach, mushroom, and tomato tasted just about perfect. I also had some sausage links and pineapple. 

So after cleaning up, I boarded the Blue line to the a Damen stop, into Wicker Park. As NY Sports Wicker Media, why wouldn't I? But there's a literal Wicker Park within the neighborhood. Not much to it, basically a playground, a fountain, and a statue of Mr. Charles Wicker, whom the neighborhood was named for. Unfortunately, this is not my kind of neighborhood. It's deteriorated into one of the most liberal hoods in an already liberal city. I thought about getting some pastry at Mindy's Bakery, but the line was about 20 people at the door. I also considered getting a slice of pizza at Dimo's, but there was nothing there that I really wanted. 

So I began walking down Milwaukee Ave to Standard Bar and Grill. Actually, I took a wrong turn somewhere, I was walking east on North instead of southeast. I'm sure that doesn't sound confusing. Anyway, my friend Q and I watched WWE Bash at Berlin. We had the upstairs level reserved while the downstairs patrons watched college football. The show was good, kind of predictable, but I'd give it a slight thumbs up. For food, I had the fried chicken sandwich and sweet potato fries. Not a bad sandwich, crispy outside with some slaw, aioli, and pickles.

Then it was the Blue to the Red southbound to meet up with the 7 Line Army at Cork and Ferry. This bar is designed told maybe 30-40 people. Well, I arrived around 3:45, about 2.5 hours before the game. The bar was already packed, there was barely room to stand. But they played a lot more country music than I expected. Not just Zac Brown Band and Luke Bryan, but also some of the all time great like the Oak Ridge Boys, Ricky Skaggs, and Dwight Yoakam.

Then we walked over to the Cell for Mets vs White Sox. Even with a clear drawstring bag, I got in, no problem. More on that later.

In the first inning, Pete Alonso and Jesse Winker hit back to back homers. I even called the Winker homer before it happened, much to the shock of people around me. On the mound, Jose Quintana bent about as far as a pitcher can without breaking. He threw 90 pitches in 4 innings, ultimately getting through 5, allowing 1 run. Even though Chicago got the winning run to the plate in the month inning, Jose Butto finished off the 5-3 win. 

On the trip back to Rosemont, I had to make a Portillos stop. Same order as always. Big beef sandwich with cheddar cheese, sweet and hot peppers, small fries, large Coke. Fast food just does not get any better.

Chicago, Day 1

I was up by 4:22 am. Breakfast was some meh vanilla yogurt and trail mix. I drove 10 minutes west to Cary and picked my mother up since she was going to drive my car back to her apartment complex and keep it there for the 5 days. Good way to save money. 

Since it's is the Friday before Labor Day, I did expect the airport to be filled. Well, the ticket area was no problem and I passed through security in 20 minutes. Now all week long, this nonstop flight looked like a breeze. Even 24 hours before departure, there were 23 open seats. Plus, I was using a D1 pass which pushed me to the top of the standby list. 

Now I'm used to the boarding pass being emailed to me when my seat gets assigned. But as each boarding group was called, I found it strange that no standby passengers had been assigned their seats. The gate agent asked for 25 volunteers to check in their bags because the overhead compartments were filling up faster than expected. I wasn't overly worried but I started pacing the floor, my nervous energy was starting to rise inside. 

One standby did get his seat, seat 11C. I was next on the list and after me were 11 more people trying to get on the plane. So all 9 groups board and there are a still a good amount of people sitting around, wondering what's going on. 

At this point, I'm feeling desperate; I threw out a couple of prayers too, tried some positive self talk. I decided to go right near the gate and I took the seat nearest to the desk. Within 2 minutes, the gate agent called my name. I was at that counter so fast I think there were clouds of smoke fading behind me. She told me Merry Christmas and I had the last seat. 8B. Sure it was the bulkhead seat, sure there was no charger, sure there was a crying baby in my row, I didn't care! I was on my way. 

I picked up my bag quickly and began walking towards Terminal 2, which is where all the hotel shuttles do pickups and drop offs. As I was walking down the center sidewalk, a Doubletree Inn/Embassy Suites van flew by me and parked curbside. Turns out that was my van. So I hopped on and he drove rather aggressively to the hotel. The Embassy Suites is in a great location, close to a lot of restaurants, bars, the Convention Center, and the blue line on the CTA. I knew check in was 3 pm, so I expected to just drop my bags and go. Turns out my suite was ready! 

The hotel is set up in an open square formation, with the main floor visible as soon as the guest leaves their suite. I guess I didn't realize that I would actually have a suite! I have a living space, 2 TVs, 2 sinks, 2 couches, it's pretty crazy! About the only thing I can use more of is overhead light. But the breakfast includes an egg station, so I can have a custom omelet every single day!

So I walked a good 12 minutes to the train, I actually thought it would be less. I boarded the blue line with a bunch of anime people on it, I guess the Convention Center across the street is hosting them. I traveled southeast to the Irving Park stop and hit up one of my long time favorites, Smoque. Sliced brisket, St Louis ribs, smoked beans, mac and cheese with bread crumbs on top, vinegar slaw. Good to be back! 

From there, I jumped back on the blue line into the Loop area. I got off at LaSalle and walked east to Buckingham Fountain, right off Lake Michigan. I have been there too many times in winter where the water wasn't flowing So with a little sun peeking out from the sky and the fountains operating, it was a welcome sight. I headed up through Millennium Park and then into the much smaller Maggie Daley Park. What I didn't expect was a mini golf course! Most of the holes were dedicated to various Chicago institutions from the Willis Tower to sports teams to the Chicago Theater, culminating with the Portillo's hot dog at Hole 18. It was a pretty good course, not too tough but a few challenging holes for sure. And I showed them my Meredith ID and I got a little discount, since they figured I was faculty!

And that point, I had a lot of time to kill, so I moved just a few blocks north and walked downstairs a long ways to get to the Riverwalk. It was quite crowded and it's really been made up well with a lot of bars along the way to go with all the boat tours. I walked all the way west to where the three directions of the Chicago River converge and I felt the need to go to the building where I used to work for 2 years. It's the next building west of the Merchandise Mart and it used to have the big Chicago Sun-Times logo on it before the paper disappeared. But it isn't just that, two apartment buildings have been constructed in the last 8 years right in front of the building too. I guess it's progress. But I walked into my old building, we were on the first floor. And it was just vacant. I asked the guy at the front desk if there had been any tenants since they closed in late 2018, about 18 months after I resigned. And he said no one ever did. It's just been empty for 6 years. But the cost of rent is so prohibitive in River North, that I guess it's not too surprising.

I was planning to walk to Navy Pier, but my right foot started to bother me, especially on my right heel. I guess it wasn't a great idea to wear sandals and walk so many miles. So around Rush or Michigan St, I stopped and did some window shopping on the Magnificent Mile. Under Armour, Untuckit, and Nordstrom Rack, in particular. 

I didn't know there would be a great local brewery in that neighborhood, but there was. In the same building as the AMC Theater was Crushed By Giants, I took a seat at the square shaped bar, which was decently crowded. My favorite was the Neon Werewolf, kind of a hazy IPA. The Goliath Bane was fine, but had sort of a soapy taste to it. I even struck up some conversations with the guys sitting around me, and some of the different plans we had. I did come to one conclusion: I think I am the only person who came into town with no intention of seeing Pearl Jam in concert at Wrigley Field.

Anyway, as I left Nordstrom Rack, I realized my Ventra train card was gone. It sucked, but the good thing was I immediately deactivated it. I did have to pay $5 for a new card, but I just loaded it with a 3 day pass for $15. Pretty good deal, since I would normally pay $15 for 6 rides and now it was unlimited rides for that price through Monday.

I took the very crowded Blue line up to the California stop to Revolution brewery where I met up with 

Matt and Mary Beth, who will be giving birth in about 5 months. I had a great pastrami sandwich with swiss cheese and grainy mustard and toasted rye bread with caraway seeds. The fresh cut fries were great, and of course I got some garlic aioli for dipping purposes. A side of house sliced made pickles were a great finish. The Fist City pale ale was as good as I remembered it. 

Then we walked to Pilot Project. As soon as I saw the gay flag in the window, I knew it wasn't good.

Some tranny look dude who had no facial expressions at all served us. I got some fruited pale ale that had strawberry and lavender in it. Pretty good, but ain't no way I'd go back.

For dessert, it was Margie's Candies. In the 20 years I lived in Chicagoland, I had never visited, I'm not sure I had even heard of it. Each table has a little jukebox just like an old school diner. I got a  sundae with coconut and pistachio ice cream topped with hot caramel, bananas, crushed peanuts, whipped cream, and cherries. Sugar overload, and I don't think I'll need dessert the rest of the week.

My foot really hurting so I got black on the Blue line to Rosemont, got back to my room and crashed.

I realize so much of traveling like this is staying charged up. That could be a device or your energy level.

Chicago, Day 4

Well, Happy Labor Day. 

So today was the first run in my training program for the 8k and 10k I have coming up in October and November. I was supposed to do a 30 minute tempo run, which is really 5 minutes warming up, 20 minutes at my 10k pace, and 5 minutes of cooling down. With absolutely no airflow in the hotel gym, it was rough. I got through the 25 minutes and walked on an incline for the final 5. Not a great start, but Wednesday night we can do it again.

Once again, it was an omelet for breakfast, but I added green chiles and bell peppers this time. I had some time before Ryan picked me up, so it was back to the room to clean up a little bit and do some writing.

We headed to the Last Fling, the summer farewell festival in Naperville. We were surprised how small the space was and I think part of that is the reconstruction of downtown. At least half of the space was reserved for the carnival. 

The first band was Rick Lindy and the Wild Ones, which had sort of a 50s and 60s rock and roll feel to it. There was even a little rockabilly, so I had flashbacks to Lucky 757. After the band, we had lunch on a rooftop at a place called Empire. I ordered a Gumballhead beer and a burger with Swiss cheese, bacon, mushrooms, and onions, and a side of ordinary fries. I was really sad how liberal some of the businesses have become with their books and clothing. It's like downtown infested the suburbs. God help this country.

Anyway, we watched a few minutes of the Ron Burgundys, who play yacht rock. We left about an hour in, the sun was pretty intense on our backs and I think Ryan was about spent. So he dropped me off at the hotel.

I headed to the cocktail reception, and had two glasses of red. At 8 pm, I wanted to splurge just one time. So I had dinner at Fogo de Chao, and went through as much meat and salad bar as I could. With the glass of red wine and tax and tip, I only spent about $90. Seems like a lot, but at most quality steakhouses, you're not getting the main course for less than $65. So I thought it was worth it.

Gary Allan setlist

 

1. Tough All Over
2. Nothing on but the Radio
3. Man to Man
4. Waste of a Whiskey Drink
5. Her Man
   (Waylon Jennings cover)
6. The One
7. Guys Like Me
8. The Hard Way
9. Tough Little Boys
10. SEX
11. Songs About Rain
12. Half of My Mistakes
13. Right Where I Need to Be
14. Tough Goodbye
15. Smoke Rings in the Dark
16. Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain)
17. Life Ain't Always Beautiful
18. Best I Ever Had (Grey Sky Morning)
    (Vertical Horizon cover)
19. Man of Me
20. Encore:
21. It Ain't the Whiskey
22. Watching Airplanes