In addition to representing the four chemicals in DNA (Adenine, Guanine, Thymine, and Cytosine), AGTC is the acronym I've adopted for my roommate and my girls' weekend in Chicago at the end of March. :) We certainly took Chicago by storm. What a fantastic trip, and what an amazing city! So much to see and enjoy, so much incredibly delicious food and drink, and such good memories with my awesome roomie!!
After a massive snow storm in Denver on Wednesday kept both of us working from home, we were able to make it to the airport on Thursday morning with no issues, and off we went. We arrived in Chicago and cruised into town on the "L" before checking into the fabulous
Freehand Chicago hostel (no joke, this was the best hostel at which either of us had ever stayed, and that's saying something) and then we headed up the street for a 20:00 reservation at
Quartino, a bustling local Italian restaurant. Holy cow, the food... Linguini with clams, Porcini and Truffle Risotto, brussles sprouts, meaty green olives, a carafe of red wine, and a caramelized banana + vanilla gelato dessert: we were STUFFED. The food was amazing, the ambiance was homey-Italian, and everything about the meal was top-notch and most excellent. If you ever visit Chicago, I very highly recommend dining there.
After that, we mosey'd back toward the hostel and enjoyed
the best vodka martinis I've ever had at a joint called the Berkshire Room. Great drinks and environs makes this another recommended spot!
Friday saw us up at a decent time to begin part one of our massive walking tour of the city. We enjoyed checking out the incredible architecture of the city along the canals and made our way to see The Bean.
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| Alien? Experience Music Project twin? Concert venue? All three? Yes. |
I've been seeing people's photos of The Bean (the sculpture is formally called "Cloud Gate") for YEARS and was SO EXCITED to take photos here and check out this crazy piece of public art. It didn't disappoint. So many fun reflections! A photographer's/tourist's dream. ;)
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| The requisite self portrait, in my photographic element amongst the crowd. |
Jumping pictures with The Bean were absolutely essential! :)
After I was all photographed out at that location, we walked through the park to the waterfront. Neither of us had ever seen Lake Michigan before, so we had to walk along the shore for at least a little bit of the day!
Our walk brought us to the Field Museum of Natural History, and after a quick 25-ish minutes in line, we had tickets and were off and running, exploring the "Evolving Planet" exhibit, the Egypt exhibit, and the Nature Walk and bird/mammal exhibits. There's certainly a good reason that the Field Museum is one of the preeminent natural history museums in the world - this was so fun! I'd definitely go back.
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| Sue the T-Rex |
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| The interior architecture was gorgeous! |
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| We randomly came across a real Parisian Métro entrance, right in the middle of Chicago! I was stoked. |
We spent the rest of the day exploring some of the outskirts of Chicago, including the Lagunitas Brewing Company's Tap Room in their local brewing facility, which was rad! They had definitely established "vibe" there. The awesome, black-lit neon entry hallway picture below had a PA system that was playing the
"Pure Imagination" song from the original 'Willy Wanka' movie on a loop, which was hilarious and awesome. Oh, and the beer was tasty, too (plus, free peanuts and pretzels!). ;)
For dinner, we enjoyed some spectacular Napoli-style pizza at the nearby
Forno Rosso, were again super stuffed, and then made our way back to the hostel for a good night's sleep. Successful day!
While in line for the Field Museum on Friday, we had electronically purchased tickets for the Sky Deck at the Willis Tower - we were both eager to test our bravery at "The Ledge", glass boxes popping out the side of the skyscraper 1,350 feet above the street below. *Gulp!*
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| Stepping into the void... |
The line on Friday afternoon was running at about 90-100 minutes, and we didn't want to wait, so we decided to get into line first thing in the morning on Saturday. It's a good thing we did! We were probably the 30th people in line 30 minutes before they opened, but we seemed to have been the only ones who purchased tickets in advance. So, we skipped the ticket line, walked through the empty (and seemingly never-ending) maze to the elevators and were the first people up at the top for the day! We had the ledges to ourselves for a good 15 minutes before people really started arriving. It was awesome.
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| A view of another "Ledge" box. Yikes! |
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| Don't look down... |
The views of the city were stunning, but I must admit it was rather terrifying to step out onto the glass platform and look down. I had to hold onto the wall for a hot second before I was able to just stand there and be cool with it. It's a funny thing, that ol' "Fight or Flight" response, eh?!
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| Hello, gorgeous! |
We enjoyed our visit to the top (and Grace even did some jumping on the ledges when we had them all to ourselves - I was okay with no jumping. ;) ), and upon leaving the building, we had perfect timing to catch a city bus up to the Lincoln Park neighborhood for lunch and more walking.
We both really wanted to try deep dish pizza, and a friend had recommended Bacino's, so we made our way there to try it out. Wowza! Legitimate deep dish pizza is ridiculously good! So much cheese! So many veggies, such good crust! I'd highly recommend that joint as well if you need a good, cheep lunch spot and also want some incredible pizza.
After lunch, our walk through the Lincoln Park Zoo and Nature Boardwalk was an enjoyable way to settle our full bellies and work off some of those calories. It was a beautiful, early Spring day and there were lots of people out enjoying the parks and excellent outdoor art.
From there, we walked past Northwestern University's graduate school campus (where my grandfather went to medical school in the 1940s!) and over to Navy Pier. We wandered through there briefly, and then went back to downtown for Magnolia Bakery's cupcakes (so fluffy and buttery and airy - I could have eaten three of them in a row and I would have hardly noticed. They were so good!) a brief look at the Chicago Athletic Club's gorgeous interior architecture, and then more photos with The Bean. Because, The Bean! It's so cool! Haha.
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| Lobby of the Chicago Athletic Club |
It was a gorgeous, light, pastel sunset that Saturday night, which made for great photos:
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| Double Grace! |
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| Double Afton! |
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| Beautiful Bean sunset |
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| Chicago, you're gorgeous. |
We wrapped up the night with a casual dinner of Chinese baozi and then walked past the sparkly, bustling Chicago Theater on our way back to the hostel. Sunday morning saw us back on the "L", early to O'Hare (wow, those security lines are atrocious!), on our flight, and back to reality in Denver. We were both sad to leave beautiful Chicago. From the food to the drink to the architecture to the parks, green spaces, and lake, to the multitude of things to see and do, Chicago is a winner. As much as I would miss the mountains and abundance of outdoor activities in Colorado, I could definitely see living in Chicago for a couple of years, if the chance ever came up. And, as always, Grace is an absolute BLAST to travel with and a fantastic friend to boot! Here's to more girls' weekends in the future (Seattle next???)!
After a massive snow storm in Denver on Wednesday kept both of us working from home, we were able to make it to the airport on Thursday morning with no issues, and off we went. We arrived in Chicago and cruised into town on the "L" before checking into the fabulous Freehand Chicago hostel (no joke, this was the best hostel at which either of us had ever stayed, and that's saying something) and then we headed up the street for a 20:00 reservation at Quartino, a bustling local Italian restaurant. Holy cow, the food... Linguini with clams, Porcini and Truffle Risotto, brussles sprouts, meaty green olives, a carafe of red wine, and a caramelized banana + vanilla gelato dessert: we were STUFFED. The food was amazing, the ambiance was homey-Italian, and everything about the meal was top-notch and most excellent. If you ever visit Chicago, I very highly recommend dining there.
Friday saw us up at a decent time to begin part one of our massive walking tour of the city. We enjoyed checking out the incredible architecture of the city along the canals and made our way to see The Bean.
After I was all photographed out at that location, we walked through the park to the waterfront. Neither of us had ever seen Lake Michigan before, so we had to walk along the shore for at least a little bit of the day!
Our walk brought us to the Field Museum of Natural History, and after a quick 25-ish minutes in line, we had tickets and were off and running, exploring the "Evolving Planet" exhibit, the Egypt exhibit, and the Nature Walk and bird/mammal exhibits. There's certainly a good reason that the Field Museum is one of the preeminent natural history museums in the world - this was so fun! I'd definitely go back.
For dinner, we enjoyed some spectacular Napoli-style pizza at the nearby Forno Rosso, were again super stuffed, and then made our way back to the hostel for a good night's sleep. Successful day!
From there, we walked past Northwestern University's graduate school campus (where my grandfather went to medical school in the 1940s!) and over to Navy Pier. We wandered through there briefly, and then went back to downtown for Magnolia Bakery's cupcakes (so fluffy and buttery and airy - I could have eaten three of them in a row and I would have hardly noticed. They were so good!) a brief look at the Chicago Athletic Club's gorgeous interior architecture, and then more photos with The Bean. Because, The Bean! It's so cool! Haha.
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