A Brief Tour of Chicago

Hog Butcher for the World,

Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,

Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;

Stormy, husky, brawling,

City of the Big Shoulders

And so on goes the poem by Carl Sandburg that described Chicago in the early 20^th century.

When we visited for the first time recently, we really didn’t know what to expect.  We heard it was one of the great cities in the country to visit but didn’t exactly grasp why that was.  Now we do.

A View of Chicago From Willis Tower (aka Sears Tower)

Chicago is not a tourist Mecca.  There are no tropical beaches, no Mardi Gras-like celebrations, and no ancient ruins.  People don’t come to Chicago to gamble, climb mountains, slide down zip lines, play golf, or lounge around next to the pool in their thongs while drinking Margaritas.  If most of this appeals to you, don’t bother visiting Chicago.  Go to Vegas, Maui, or whatever other destination you’re being told by USA Today that you have to go visit.

Okay then, just what is so alluring about the place?  I can only speak for myself of course but here goes:

The Sports Scene:  Chicago is truly one of the great sports towns in the country.  They eat it up.  Football, basketball, baseball (two teams), hockey and soccer are all represented professionally.  It’s written and talked about in the media extensively.  And when a team isn’t performing the sportswriters tend to go into lambasting mode.  They’ve been doing that all year with the Chicago Cubs’ baseball team.  BowlingWidow and I attended a Cubs game at Wrigley Field, a gem of an old ballpark that was built in 1916.  I tried to give the poor Cubs some luck by buying a cap with the 1914 Cubs’ logo on it but they still lost 5-3.

Outside of Wrigley Field at the Home Plate Entrance

The Music Scene:  There’s plenty of music of all kinds going on here every day of the week.  We like to focus on the blues and jazz that’s happening.  Unfortunately almost all of it happens starting at around nine o’clock at night or later.  Bummer for those of us who are programmed to nod off at about that time.  Here’s at tip:  Andy’s Jazz Club in the North Loop has good live jazz music that starts at five, 7 days a week.

The Food Scene:  Chicago is the best place in the nation to get a good steak.  Too bad we really don’t eat steak.  Not to worry.  Every ethnicity is represented here in the culinary sense.  You’ve heard about Chicago style hot dogs and deep dish pizza, but we also had some of the best Mexican food in history.  Famous chef and restaurateur Rick Bayless lives in Chicago and he has ways of procuring the best Mexican ingredients.  We had incredible meals at his Frontera Grill on Clark Street.  BowlingWidow had one with three different kinds of mole sauces and I had a fabulous meal of marinated shredded pork with onion and black beans and a snappy habanero salsa.  Yes, of course, they gave me steamed tortillas to fill up with the mixture.

BowlingJoe at Wrigley Field:  The 1914 Cubs Hat Brought the Home Team No Luck

The Art Scene:  Here I’m talking about paintings.  We don’t “get” art.  I usually am way off the mark on what paintings represent or are supposed to represent.  I don’t know a still life painting from an impressionist painting and frankly it’s not that big of a deal to me.  But for someone that is into art I understand that Chicago is one of the best places outside of Paris to take it all in.

The Museum Scene:  There’s the Field Museum, The Museum of Science and Industry, The Planetarium.  And that’s just for starters.  The sad reality is that we didn’t get to see any of them on this go around.  They tend to close early in the day and we didn’t plan as well as we could have.  The silver lining is that now we have a reason to go back to Chicago in a couple of years.

Chicago From the Chicago River

The Neighborhood Scene:  Let’s see…they’ve got the Polish neighborhood, the Greek neighborhood, the Italian neighborhood, the Mexican neighborhood.  I’ll bet they even have a Liechtensteinian neighborhood.  Like the museums we didn’t get much of a chance to explore these.  Put it on the list for next time.

The Scene Scene:  For the best view of any city, head to the top of the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower).  You’ll be at the 104^th floor with an opportunity walk out “over the streets below” on the 4-foot glass section that juts out from the building.  We also took an educational Architecture Cruise on the Chicago River where we learned a lot about the massive structures that dominate the skyline.

BowlingWidow in Seated Yoga Pose over Chicago at the Top of the Willis Tower

Some final thoughts about Chicago:

• Go to Portillo’s on Ontario Street for a real Chicago dog.  But don’t even ask them to put ketchup on it.  It’s a felony in Illinois to even ask.

The Portillo's Chicago Hot Dog:  A True Work of Art

• Don’t expect to find any good beer at Wrigley Field.  The best they have is Dos Equis Light in a can.  Avoid Old Style Beer.  They call it that because it was brewed in the year Wrigley was built.

• Visit Millennium Park and take your picture in the reflection of The Bean (actually called Cloud Gate).  It’s required during your time in Chicago.

The Cloud Gate Sculpture:  We're in the Distance Taking the Picture

• Stay in the Loop area if you can (we stayed at the Central LoopHotel).  It’s worth being close to a lot of things as well as having great access to the Elevated Rail System.  Anything around $150 a night is a great deal here.

• By and large, people are friendly and willing to help out if you have a question about how to get somewhere.  Even more so than in the Southeast, we found.  And certainly more so than in downtown Seattle.

• Don’t buy the Chicago style caramel/cheese popcorn mix and bring it on the plane.  It goes stale really fast.

At Midway Airport:  A Business That Has My Full Support

• Bottles of hot sauce WILL get confiscated from your carry-on luggage.  We had no checked baggage on this trip and bought a couple of bottles of habanero sauce to go from Frontera Grill.  The TSA caught this and took them away from me.  I can only imagine how good those TSA after-work fondue and appetizer parties are at Midway Airport.