My long time friend Kristin and her boyfriend are attending the University of Chicago and invited us to come for a visit this summer. Our trip from Hartsfield-Jackson to Midway was painless. Britton and I are becoming very efficient travelers (although I need to work on the whole packing only what is necessary aspect.) Kristin picked us up from the airport, demonstrated how friendly Midwestern drivers can be (seriously), and drove us briefly through the Kenwood neighborhood where the Obamas once lived.
Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures from our first day in Chicago. It was a bit of a disaster. I don't know how else to say it. We arrived on the hottest day of the year with a heat index of 105 in a northern city meaning mostly no central AC. Kristin and her bf live in a cozy, exposed brick 1 bedroom basement apartment in Hyde Park. The walls are painted bold red and taro root grey-purple. The sunlight peeps in from the street level windows. A sad, silent, never commissioned AC unit stands outside their apartment, unnoticed by the residents until this particular day.
After the usual get-to-knows and haven't-seen-you-in-a-whiles, we grabbed a picnic lunch at the Zaleski and Horvath Market Cafe and proceeded through the sweltering summer air to Promontory Point overlooking Lake Michigan. Here is where the craziness begins, I think. As I am enjoying my artisan sandwich and a view of downtown, I feel a horrible burning sensation on my right ankle. I look down and to my horror at least 8 giant black flies are feasting on me through my socks. Their compound eyes shiny and evil, stared up soullessly at me as their palpi twitched with hunger for human flesh! We fled from the fly attack, and returned to the apartment to recuperate. We spent the next couple of hours planning an epic dinner, shopping, and picking up some awesome good-as-air-conditioning rotating fans.
And then things continued to get worse. As soon as Kristin and I starting setting up for dinner, the power went out. So long wonderful rotating fans, hello roasting in our own sweat. That night Britton and I maybe got 3-4 hours of sleep and the next day, with the power still out we woke up early to grab some iced coffee with our hosts and head into the city.
Hopping off the bus onto a busy street, I felt like a zombie. I was still nursing my iced coffee when I saw a giant painted aluminum owl. I was suddenly awake and demanded Britton take a picture of the Harold Washington Library. Owls are a cultural symbol of knowledge and wisdom, appropriate for a library, and as any 10 year old girl knows, they have big, adorable round eyes and make cute hootie noises.
Britton, an expert in pop culture landmarks, informed me that the Chicago Board of Trade building served as the headquarters of Wayne Enterprises in the movie Batman Begins (which came out 6 years ago, wtf.) In his professional opinion, it is better than The Dark Knight's version.
I wanted to shop (read as: window shop) so we stopped in Water Tower Place, home to Macy's and the American Girl Place. I've tried to explain to Britton the absurd lengths to which American Girl goes to make owning one of their dolls very special. I had a Molly doll and a make-your-own doll (with long auburn hair and green eyes - probably how I wanted to look when I was younger.) I don't think the gravity of American Girl hit him until we walked by the American Girl salon and hospital with real, honest-to-goodness stylists and "surgeons." These professionals were working carefully on the dolls while their owners shuffled back and forth nervously, waiting in anticipation for the final result. Thankfully, if I have a little girl, I already have lots of dolls in good condition with their own hair rollers, bunk beds, school lunches, desks, sled dogs, and snorkeling gear. 
In the same shopping center there was a Wow Bao. It was a shop specializing in Chinese steamed buns. Globalization.
We walked through Water Tower and then Bloomingdales. We walked along the "Magnificent Mile" into Anthropologie, Crate and Barrel, Victoria's Secret, and one shop I'd never heard of called All Saints from the U.K. Their clothing was all sorts of grey and black and brown with a hyper industrial, almost steam punk feeling. Weird, overpriced things were going on in there. Like this "trench dress." For lunch we at a Portillo's, across from the rock and roll McDonald's. A Chicago-style hot dog was on our wish list, and even though I normally hate almost everything that is on a traditional Chicago dog, when eaten together, it is like magic.
After lunch we hopped on the red line to Addison (I think) to see the Cubs vs Astros at Historic Wrigley field. The field was beautifully simple, and the score was still kept by some guy flipping cards behind the scoreboard. No jumbotrons in sight. Many of the brownstones surrounding the stadium had their own set of bleachers (see left side of pic below), so you don't even have to enter the stadium to watch the game. I was amazed at the cult-like following of this baseball team who played a so-so game and didn't have much of a record this year. When the cubs won, everyone stood up to sing this weirdly haunting melody. "Go Cubs Go." I am humming it right now.
After the game, we took a brief jolt through Chinatown only to be disappointed by the size and general tourist-y feeling. I don't know what I was expecting after New York.On our way back to the aparment, I received a text from our hosts stating the power was still out. We decided to stay in the city for a little longer in hopes that the power would be back on before night fall. Limbs were being trimmed, fences cut down, electrical box things were being opened...they must be working hard to get it back on.
We walked along the riverfront that runs through downtown.
We saw this condo building straight out of The Jetsons with a fitness center, two restaurants, and private dock below the street. Yachts were bobbing around expectantly in the cool evening water. 
I also wanted to mention the "L" or the elevated train. Chicago has a well-worn loop of elevated passenger train tracks which screams "antique." 
We had Epic Burger for dinner per our friend Aaron's recommendation. The burger was tasty (but no Shake Shack, of course.) They give you the option of frozen yogurt milkshakes which I love. There was an LCD screen updating every time someone tweeted about Epic Burger which I thought was a bit self-aggrandizing. They did have a copy of the latest The Onion right next to their front register. A nice Chicago touch.
Power still out, we hobbled over to Navy Pier around 8:30PM. The place was packed on a Saturday night, no surprise. Lots of families, high schoolers, older couples enjoying the beer garden and live music. Britton and I sat for a while watching a lightning storm on the horizon towards Indiana (I think.) It was a breath taking sight, one massive cumulonimbus hovering just outside the Chicago skyline.
Around 9:30PM, things get even hairier. Exhausted and still no power, we take the bus back to the apartment and get ready for another long night.
12:30PM Just as my head is about to hit the pillow, I feel a sweet, sweet rush of air as the rotating fans power back on! Yes! Finally. We can get some sleep.
2:30PM Britton awakes loudly, stumbling and ripping power strips out of their sockets. I asked him what's the matter? He said there's water all over the floor. I start to feel around and at the edge of my sleeping bag is about a 1/2 inch of water. We wake up Kristin and her boyfriend who flip the lights on to survey the damage. Their floor is uneven and at the lowest point there's maybe an 2 1/2 inches of standing water. It runs all along the hallway and under their desk, completely soaking several rugs. Apparently the storm water from a heavy storm had backwashed into their utility room from a drain in the floor while we were sleeping. It takes 3 hours to wet vacuum and wipe up all of the water, maybe 12-15 large buckets full. Britton and Andrew, Kristin's bf, got most of the water up before their landlord arrived. Their landlord brought in a crew of men who barely speak English to take care of their apartment and the flooded apartment on the other side.
5:30AM The crew leaves. Our suitcases, all of Britton's shorts, and our sleeping bags are soaked. We try to sleep awkwardly on chairs and on the love seat.
6:00AM The power goes out again.
6:01AM Britton and I are in the beginning stages of a meltdown. All of Britton's clothes are soaked because we put them in the washing machine. Britton books a hotel room. Kristin and Andrew are very apologetic, and maybe close to meltdown as well.
9:45AM Power remains out. We head to the local laundromat with soapy, soaked clothes. We grab some tasty hot breakfast with the hosts, repack our clothes, then head downtown to our awesome, air conditioned room at the Hotel Indigo.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
From this point on, things go pretty smoothly. Unfortunately, we did not get to spend any more time with the hosts. They had a lot going on... what with their floor curling up like tomato leaves and half of their stuff soaked with dirty storm water.
Two long, hot showers and a clothes change later, Britton and I were waiting outside Gino's East for the much-discussed deep dish pizza with a sausage patty the diameter of the pizza. Britton was INSISTENT that we go here. I was a little apprehensive - I didn't want to pay for a colon-cleansing after consuming an ungodly amount of cheese and processed meat.
We got a high top table at the bar. We split a Goose Island 312 or simply a "3-1-2" in Chicagonese.
When the pizza came out, it was not as enormous as I expected. We didn't finish it, but we got pretty darn close. 
One great aspect of urban life is that after eating an indulgent meal, you have the opportunity to immediately start burning off those calories. We walked from Gino's down to the Hancock tower off of Michigan Ave. The top of the tower houses a restaurant (reservations required), but there's also a free access bar with pricey but awesome cocktails and a fantastic view of downtown, the Sears (Willis) Tower, and Lake Michigan.
While enjoying the view, I noticed there were an unusual amount of large black spiders in all the windows. This would be totally normal in most buildings, but we were almost 100 stories up and fighting gusts of wind from the lake. You can see one of these spiders in the picture below.
It turns out these little arachnids are Larinioides sclopetaria. They are orb-weaving spiders that normally live on bridges or rocks hanging over water. Their young create balloon-like webs that carry them on the wind to a suitable habitat. In this case, the most expensive residential real estate in Chicago. Cool!
During our last full day of touring, we grabbed some coffee at Intelligentsia near Millenium Park. Intelligentsia offers premium roasted coffee from all over the world, developing relationships with vendors and working to promote the joy of coffee and tea. We enjoyed two nice hot cups of chemex-filtered medium roast. Their mugs had a logo on the bottom which I thought was a nice touch.
Before heading to the park, we also grabbed some sandwiches at Pastoral, a wine, meat, and cheese shop.
Duck confit, cucumber, and quince paste on a baguette.
Millenium Park seemed to be a hodge podge of modern interactive artwork, museums, and green space. I was particularly taken with Cloud Gate. It was ripe with photo opportunities, and everyone around us was clicking away at their iphones or fancy digital cameras. I looked over the whole thing and decided I needed to get at it with some towels and a streak-free cleaning solution.
Here is the giant amphitheater. 
Here is a shot of the Crown Fountain where an LED face slowly stretches, smiles, and spouts water from its mouth onto the kids playing in the reflecting pool.
Being a huge science nerd, I wanted to check out The Field Museum. They had a cool looking Whale exhibit as well as a ton of cultural and natural history exhibits. We spent about 3 hours in there, but unfortunately, only one picture made it out. This one:
Britton yelled "Look! It's Sean Connery's favorite dinosaur!"We wrapped up our day with a quick stroll downtown. There was an enormous Marilyn Monroe Statue stationed (sort of incongruously) near the Chicago Tribune building. It was SURROUNDED by tourists looking up her skirt.
We couldn't help ourselves. Britton joked that this little detail was for the Japanese tourists.
So there you are. The good and the bad, all smushed up together like junk at a discount thrift shop. Chicago had the feel of a large urban city with a friendly, suburban population. Tree-lined streets were ubiquitous. Cubs fans were everywhere. Air-conditioning was a luxury. I can't wait to go back!
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