Travelogue-Chicago Day 1 Dinner

Diving into some deep dish pizza was on tap for tonight.  In Chicago, thats what you do.  Pizzeria Uno was supposedly at the forefront of making this tyle of pie famous.  There used to be 2 locations in the city but they are no more.  This original location would not have even taken up half the floor space of either our locations.

Waits for pizza orders averaged over an hour while waits for a table weere even worse by 30 minutes.  The bar took up almost 1/3 of the real estate. Luckily, there were empty seats and I bellied up to the bar with an order for and individual sized Numero Uno.  The pizza was good.  The buttery crunchy crust held everything together.  But that was never a problem as everything stayed in place even after splitting the pie in half.  The peppers onions and mushrooms were a good compliement to the meats beneath them.  The sauce was not overpowering with the right amount of acidity

While, walking around the area, this place caught my eye and I thought that I may give the place a try for lunch or dinner next time

After further exploration, I had a feeling that I was getting close to Portillo's  I was planning on coming here later in my trip to have some Chicago-style hot dogs

I ordered one and waited with the throngs of others who had the same thought as myself.  Here some dogs have been dressed while others lie naked

A row of condiments and admonishments are prepped and ready to go on a dog.  The usuall accompaniments are celery salt, onions, a pickle spear, peppers, tomatoes, and neon green relish

This was definitely one tasty dog.  The snap of the frankfurter really lets you know it has a casing on it.  I will probably have other hot dogs in this style and see how it goes 

The interior of this location has a gnagster theme to it.  Other locations have different themes.  There were quite a number of folks here to get food.  The food also varied as they had more than just different kinds of dogs.  There was italian beef sandwiches, burgers and ribs as well.  For the sweeter side, you can get frozen custards and chocolate cake shakes.  Two levels of dinig areas to accomodate the throngs that decide to eat in.

Trav elogue-Chicago Day 1 Parks and Such

There are 2 parks sandwiched between the Loop area and Lake Michigan.  Grant Park is located to the south of Millenium Park.  The main feature of Grant Park is Buckingham Fountain.  Love and marriage, love and marriage...  These words pop into mind due to the opening sequence of Married With Children, the long running Fox show about the Chicago based Bundy family

 

As I made my way north, I came across this area with 2 of these large rectangular structures overflowing with water from  their tops.  With the warm weather, this was the place for kids to be to cool off.  Some spalashed between the monoliths while others dove under the shower os water spilling over from the roofs.

The faces were animated.  Every couple of minutes, they would open their mouths and a small stream of water would pour out.  The faces are projected from within.  At night, they were just aglow with color

Last night I had my first experience of Cloud Gate.  Now with full batteries and broad daylight, I came back for more.  There were quite a few more people bustling about as well.  Amongst all these pedestrains, there were a number of wedding parties taking wedding photes in this same area.  You can try to pick them out in the reflection

Michigan Ave connects the aforementioned parks and continues north to the so-called Magnificent Mile. just past the Chicago River.   A new statue was erected at the north end of the Michigan Ave bridge a few months ago.  A 26 foot tall Marilyn Monroe in the pose from The Seven Year Itch has been anchored in place for another year

The contraversy surrounding this piece of public art is the fact that you could walk underneath and between Marilyn's legs and peer up at her panties.  And, yes, many were indeed doing that.while others were stadning next to her legs to have their pictures taken

I didnt think there was a problem with the statue or the pose.  It may have not been an authentic pose but what she revealed does not really anything at all.

Travelogue-Chicago Day 1 United Center

Chicago is one of the greatest cities for professional sports ever.  The first location of mention is the United Center.  This was the home of Micheal Jordan and the Bulls.  The epic games that were played during this era and the championships that were won are the stuff of legend.  To which, a statue was dedicated to the grestest player ever

 

The ststue depicts Jordan soaring over the competition with arms outstretched to serve up a dunk.  This just typifies how much better Jordan was compared to all those around him.  Basketball is a team game but no mention of Pippen or Paxson is alluded nto

Engraved at the base are some of the records that he achieved during his double forays with the team. 

We can only imagine that this is what it must have looked like to have Jordan take flight over your head

United Center is west of the Willis Tower/downtown/Loop area

By the way, another sports team makes this home as well.  For those hockey fans, the Blackhawks have also won a few titles themselves.  They also have a statue dedicated to them but no one was around taking pictures of this excpet me.  They all came for Jordan and left

Travelogue-Chicago Day 1 Lunch

This morning, I stopped of at Greektown in hopes of getting a gyro for brunch.  Ive read thqat the gyro was introduced to America here   Greektown runs along a short stretch of Halsted.

 

At 1 corner, there were 2 gyro joints across the street from each other.  There were plenty of other Greek restaurants up and down Halsted, Athens, Pegasus, Ridty's, etc.

However, I was swaqyed by the crowds in front of Meli.  Its a  cafe much like Stacks  The interiors and wait staff looked similar too.  An hour wait and brunch soon became lunch.  The crowd never died down much even several hours later when I passed by again on my way back to downtown

I chose the spicey flamenco omelette with english muffins.  The dish came with a side of potatoes and some watermelon.  Inside the layer of 3 eggs is spicey chorizo, sweet peppers, tomatoes, and pepper jack cheese.  Sour cream and avocado topped the entree.

It was ok.  The chorizo was not hot al all and this could have used some more character.  I had to douse the decent potatoes with some hot sauce to get it to the level of spiciness I thought the whole dish should have been at.

Travelogue-Chicago Arrival

I flew into Midway today and made my way to the hotel, Club Quarters Central Loop.  After quickly checking in, I left the hotel around 9pm to catch the fireworks show at the Navy Pier.  As you can see, it was dark and Im unfamiliar with the area so I want sure how far it was or how long it would take to walk there.  The evening was balmy and somewhat muggy.  I headed east toward the lakeshore and made some doglegs to the north.  I eventually caught first sight of the pier near a hotel.  I had an hour or so to wait for the fireworks.  I stood there enjoying the breeze off the lake which kept the moisture from condensing on me.  I espied many people out and about as I made my way here.  The show was supposed to begin at 10pm.  10pm came and went.  After 10 minutes, I left feeling dejected and some light sprinkles didnt help the matter.  I headed back to my hotel.

 

 On the way back,  I could see Willis Tower and decided to snap a pic.  As I did, I could the bombs bursting in air behind me.  Quickly, I ran back to my vantage point to enjoy what I could of the reminder of the fireworks

I thought the display was going to take place above the pier.  It turns out it happened just south of the end of the pier in the lake.  I caught what I could and once again turned to go back.

When I hastily left the room, I forgot to bring my tripod and extra batteries.  The tripod would have come in  handy for the fireworks.  Later, some exstra juice for the camera would have been nice as well.  I cut through Millenium Park and ran across the Cloud Gate sculpture.  This giant shiny reflective jellybean mirrors the area around it.  With what little energy I had left in the camera, I took some long exposure shots with re3flections of the city wallpapering every inch of it