Chicago, IL Apr 2007

Checking In

After lunch, we walked over to the hotel where I had been staying to pick up my luggage.  Then we headed to the Holiday Inn Chicago Mart to check in into our room.  The hotel was nice and clean, but old.   The decor looked like it hadn't been updated since the 70's.  When I tried to talk to the person behind the check-in counter, he completely ignored me - until K walked up next to me then only did he acknowledge my presence.  In fact, the first words out of his mouth were, "Can I help you, sir?" eventhough I had been standing in front of him first.  What a bastard.  Even for the $150/night we were paying, which I think is still overpriced, I would never go back to that hotel.

University of Chicago

After taking a short break, we walked to the train station which was connected to the hotel through a skywalk bridge - something handy in the winter. We took the Brown Line and transfered to the Green Line to get to the University of Chicago campus.  I wanted to walk around and get a feel of what the area was like since I was going to apply for their Financial Engineering program.  As we got off the train, I immediately realized that we were in a very dilapidated part of town.  We tracked about a mile east from the train station before it started to get nicer and had more of a college feel.  The campus itself was gorgeous - we walked by the Rockefeller Memorial Chapel and the Oriental Institute Museum.  It was really quiet which I found strange, with the exception of a few frat boys noising up the block.  We also walked around a little bit of Hyde Park before our feet started to hurt, so we took the bus back to the train station and headed back downtown.

Billy Goat Tavern

We took the train all the way back up to the Northside of the Loop and crossed the Chicago river. We found the Billy Goat Tavern and had ourselves two double cheezborgers, cheeps, and a coke. They basically toast your bun up on the grill and then slap on the patties on top, and you grab your burger to a different counter and top it off with whatever toppings - onions, relish, pickles, ketchup and mustard.  Great burgers (still think Shake Shack in NYC is better) for a great price. It was exactly the kind of place that I was looking for - janky and greasy with cheap, good food.  I'm definately going to go back there again the next time I'm in Chicago.

We walked back to our hotel and passed by the Rush St scene.  By the time we got back, we were exhausted and took a little nap.

Sweet Mandy B's

Got up at 9pm, rushed to the train to get to Sweet Mandy B's for some of their infamous dessert. It must've been really late because most of their pastries were sold off by the time we got there.  Not many cupcakes or cakes were left. We got a "Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookie" and a "Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Brownie".  I'm not usually a dessert kind of person but this was the most amazing sweets I have ever had! Just thinking about it makes me want another one - I wish they shipped to Michigan...

Second City

After that we took the train back south and tried to look for Second City, but got so lost and were so late that we hopped onto a cab. Turns out we were walking north instead of east and ended up far away. But we made it to our show, "Between Barrack And A Hard Place", just in time. The show was really funny although I didn't get some of the Chicago jokes but it was well worth it. We got out at around 1am and took a cab back to the hotel and called it a night.