Chicago Trip The Weekend Part 1

Friday

I made arrangements to stay over the weekend in Chicago, I had contemplated just one day but in the end I booked a new flight out on Sunday afternoon.

I finished up working in Chicago on Friday afternoon just after 4PM. The consultant who hired me to travel up there suggested that after work we ride the "L" Red Line (the train line running north and south through downtown) to Wrigley Field. Once there I could see the historic stadium and surrounding area, find somewhere to drink an Old Style beer, and then we could grab some dinner.

Historic Wrigley Field. Save Farris!

The historic Cubby Bear.

Unfortunately the Cubby Bear was closed for a private party due to a gathering of Young Republicans, how bizarre is that? I didn't think they had Republicans in Chicago! My Old Style would have to wait another day. Jackie, the consultant I was working with, took me down the street to a little Italian restaurant, I'd provide a link but I can't remember the name! If anyone was to ask me at pretty much any given time what kind of food I wanted to eat, usually Italian would be at the bottom of my list. As it turns out the place we ate at was awesome. I had a pasta stuffed with dumpling in a veal sauce with truffles. Like I said, really good and really reasonable.

Jackie helped me navigate back to the Magnificent Mile and we said our goodbyes. I had such a great time meeting her and it turns out we have a lot in common on a variety of subjects. I hurried back to my new hotel to meet up with Dann who decided to fly in Friday and hang out with me on the weekend. He just couldn't stand that I was in Chicago having fun without him!

Dann and I headed to a pub to meet Jason so he could eat and we could plan out our night. We decided to go to the Signature Room at the 95th at the John Hancock building. There was a pretty impressive line to get into the elevator as well as into the bar but it was worth the wait, and it also helped that Jason talked a server into giving us a table he was busing, thus probably passing 100 people in line ahead of us! I would post some pictures but the flash on my camera couldn't get the view of the city at night through all the glass windows. Dann should put his pictures on his blog, hint, hint.

From here we grabbed a cab and ended up in Boystown to visit the usual places. One of the best things about the night was a wonderful bartender we found at Sidetrack who (a) didn't know how to make Vegas Bombs and (b) didn't know how to charge for them! At one point Dann bought a round of beers and Vegas Bombs for around twenty bucks, definitely a huge savings over Oklahoma City. We finished the night kicking it at Jason's condo with some beers. I think we finally dragged back to the hotel around 5AM.

A couple of random pictures from the night out: