Day 23: A serious bite out of Blackhawks territory

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Trip Start Jun 01, 2010 Previous
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  Chicago, Illinois
Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Route: From North River to the Loop to the Navy Pier
Kilometres: blisters have now returned... your guess.

This morning was a bit of an unorthodox wake-up call... thunder! Ironically it struck only 15mins before our alarm was set to go off, so it wasn't that bad – although it was slightly concerning because we were heading on a walking tour (which went rain or shine). Alas, we fetched out our rain coats and headed up State Street to meet our tour... although when we got there, there was no tour to be found! After a quick chat to the restaurant owner (and a phone call to his other location), we hoofed it cross town to meet our group. We had actually gotten the right start location for the tour we signed up for, but unfortunately a computer glitch had placed us in a different tour (but very similar). We met our guide Lynn at the new location – he is the founder of the Tastebuds Tour, and was so apologetic about the mix-up that he gave us money for the cab to change starting point, plus refunded us our entire tour prices, and offered us another day on our initial tour! We also met our fellow tour-ees, two Chicago locals Lou and Georgia. Our first location was Pizano’s, an Italian eatery featuring Chicago’s traditional deep dish pizza! Apparently this is the best place in town, and Oprah’s favourite, and we can definitely see why – it was absolute bliss. A couple different slices was followed up by their gooey cookie with ice cream, whipping cream and chocolate dessert, also made in the deep dish pan, and this was not too shabby a way to start of the day, and this tour!

The next stop was at a place called 'Now We’re Poppin’, to try some Chicago mix popcorn – now we both admittedly had never heard of such a mix before, and were a bit dubious when they told us what it was: caramel and cheese popcorn mix! But we gave it a try and well, it’s a great combo! It’s great popcorn with a good savoury/sweet mix (and you can pick out one or the other if that’s all you’re craving). After buying a bag here for the road, we ventured by the Millennium Park and into the Chicago Cultural centre, where we met some of the great artists of Project Onward, a studio for artists with special needs.

Now we were headed to another Chicago classic – the Chicago Dog (at Gold Coast Dogs). They truly are unique with their poppysead bun, nuclear green relish, full pickle slice, plus much more! Quite yummy. To counter the savoury, our next stop was Sugar Bliss – a cupcake shop that has made these wonderful cakes for the President! Now they aren’t exactly like the Betty Crocker ones (not that there’s anything wrong with those), but these were like silky cake with light, buttery cream frosting... simply delicious. It wasn’t a long walk to the next stop, just the historic Garland building next door, but we had to go seven stories up – to ‘Heaven on Seven’ of course! This cool joint is in the middle of a tall office building, and looks just like something out of New Orleans... and the food lives up to that atmosphere (or so people from New Orleans say! One day we’ll make the true comparison). We tasted the amazing gumbo here, and were enthralled by the walls of different hot sauces. Can just imagine how a bowl of this gumbo would go down with a side of corn bread on a cold Chicago day...

Just a few more blocks of walking through the downtown loop and under the "L" (elevated) train, and we came upon our last stop at the Berghoff – one of the oldest restaurants in America! It originally started out as a brewery at the first World Fair, but then turned to sandwiches and Root Beer during the prohibition (it’s been around for at least 100 years). We had some typical German fare of bratwurst with spicy mustard and sauerkraut, accompanied with warm potato salad – washed down with their own Root beer of course! Now with a full stomach (and it was only 2pm), we ventured out onto the hot muggy streets and kept exploring.

We decided to walk towards the water – Lake Michigan that is. We had hopes that at least it’d be cooler by the water! We stopped by Millennium Park first, and checked out the resident ‘jellybean’, plus the very cool-looking Grant Park (a huge outdoor concert amphitheatre). Then we made it down to the shoreline, and walked north towards the Navy Pier... it wasn’t a long walk, but we had to make a few stops for fear of melting away! (just for the record, it was only minutely cooler by the water...) Once we got to the pier, we picked up some tickets for an architectural tour cruise & fireworks show for that night and then strolled down the pier... making sure our next stop was for an ice cold beer! We found ourselves at the Billy Goat Tavern (famed with the Cubs curse and a SNL sketch)  

Seeing we had a couple hours before the cruise, we slowly walked back towards our hotel, to perhaps cool off a bit (and have a nana-nap!) before heading out again for the evening. As we neared our hotel though, we saw more gray clouds come in and the rain started to pour. Shortly after watching the severe thunderstorm start from the haven of our hotel room (the lightning was phenomenal against all the buildings and the thunder was rumbling!), an emergency signal flashed up on the TV screen with a tornado warning... tornado?!?! Sure enough, one was headed for the Chicago area. Now since we are in the heart of the city (and didn’t leave the room), we weren’t really caught in any of it, but it was enough to get a refund for our cruise and order in a deep dish pizza for the night! Gino’s East Pizza – HIGHLY recommended!! Not a rough way to spend the night really, we are actually pretty spent from all the eating and humidity – good night’s rest before the All Whites game tomorrow morn! Made sure we don’t have to check-out until the game is over...

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Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

some famous hotel	Tiffany angels	Sugar bliss	heaven on 7
the Berghoff	bull	Picasso	not sure what building but its cool
the bean ( cloud gate)	jump shot   Comments!	jump shot 2   Comments!	hope this is a reflection
the city	the city	ring a rosie	navy pier
the goat	found a boat for anita	chicago mix	Tornado? we dont have a basement
Big Mcd's	Gino's East

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