Chicago is a gorgeous, gorgeous city. It really has the best of everything, with a pristinely clean, fun, varied and highly respected city centre, and then a beach just a few metres away. The city is open and interspersed with plenty of parks and greenery, making it a very pleasant place to walk and drive around. It has blisteringly hot summers and proper Santa Claus winters. There is something for everyone and it is nice enough to attract just the right amount of visitors; from what I have gathered it is essentially an underrated and improved version of New York (but we'll have to wait and see if I agree with this view once I have actually visited NYC, of course!).
Camilla is a mutual friend of mine and Thomas' from summer school, and was so kind as to put a roof over our heads during our Chicago visit. Unfortunately, throughout our far too short stopover of 3 days, the weather was fairly unkind to Thomas and I - it rained for the majority of our stay, creating a slight gloom and low fog over the tops of the prettiest buildings, which was a slight shame I guess, but in no way affected the enjoyment of our stay.
Of all the places that we have visited so far, LA and Chicago are the only two that I could really imagine myself living in. Despite being incredibly different, they both have a lot to offer and I am a big fan of the lifestyles and climate present in both.
The long:
Saturday:
Our flight from Arizona to Chicago was, naturally, delayed; I am actually starting to miss Ryanair would you believe. However, upon boarding I was more than cheered by the fact that I was riding in first class, like a boss (thanks to mum's Avios points), whilst Thomas sat in the back with the rest of the riff-raff. Who would have thought that an American airline would be the first to introduce me to hot nuts? A new obsession was born right there and then (along with Cliff bars, which have become a daily staple in my diet since arriving in the US).
We landed a little after 8pm and I literally ran straight into Camilla's arms when I saw her waiting at baggage reclaim. Following a short drive to her absolutely stunning apartment Thomas and I met her very friendly roommate, Kelsey, and Thomas was introduced to local tradition by way of deep pan Chicago pizza as a late night dinner; it was the most ridiculously stringy pizza that I have ever laid eyes on (that's what you get for ordering extra cheese Mr Holley!).
I was more than happy to observe rather than partake in the chomping. We got through 2 bottles of red and plenty of chit chat before I departed and left the 3 of them to watch the (apparently) much anticipated season premiere of Waking the Dead. I instead hit the hay early, exhausted from all of the activities that Thomas and I had done the last few days.
Sunday:
We had a mini lie-in before making an itinerary for the next couple of days, whilst chilling with Camilla's two very adorable doggies that are absolutely in love with one another, which is incredibly sweet to observe. We then went to a lovely quaint coffee house for some breakfast, which you could tell was upscale by Thomas paying $4 for a "small chai tea latte", which was served in a cup equivalent to the size of an espresso, which I couldn't help but have an inward giggle at. Thomas got his fair fill though when we then stopped off at Five Guys so that he could get a burger comparison to In-N'-Out, and I am pleased to say that he agrees with me as to which is better (the former)!
We then went to the coolest cinema that I have EVER been to, which for $9.50 provided me with the most comfortable viewing experience of my life, with a full-on lazy boy recliner to stretch my legs out on; I was literally lost for words when I saw the chairs. Ridiculous. And we pay £14 for a regular (s***tty) cinema visit in London! Very jealous. We watched "Gone Girl", the movie of the book by Gillian Flynn, which was absolutely superb. Having read the book I knew the plot but that in no way retracted from my enjoyment of the film. I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone.
As we were driving out of the cinema we had a hilarious encounter, which won't sound nearly as funny now, but I'll tell the story anyway. There are usually two lanes to exit and we were quite far back in one queue, and there seemed to be no one waiting in the other, so Camilla decided to pull up and drive past all of the waiting cars, only to get to the front and realise that the other lane was shut so that there was in fact only one open lane. Whoops. We tried to pull in and were obviously blocked by the cars that had been waiting much longer. I began to flail my arms from the backseat mouthing "sorry", which was met by a cute middle finger being waved back at us. They did, however, eventually allow us to cut back in, which was nice, I guess, but when the 4 of us then sat laughing about our "accidental success" they must have taken a grumpy turn because the next thing we knew they were taking pictures of Camilla's number plate, which only made laughing matters much worse; good luck reporting that crime to the police. All I can assure you is that it was very funny, and we were very glad to zoom away from the two angry, butch looking women.
Due to the rain we did a driving tour of the city, with hopes of doing a walking tour in the following few days as there seems to be loads to see and lots of beautiful buildings in Chicago. As the rain intensified, we decided to cut the drive short and experience some real Chicagoan culture, in a wonderful underground hub named "Three Dots and a Dash", where we were temporarily transported to Hawaii in terms of both our surroundings and the utterly delicious beverages that we consumed, which were served in some uber cool cups.
The bar received well deserved high marks for its complimentary wonton crisps and guacamole with pineapple, which alone would have inclined us to tip highly, but the free serving of an extra order of deep fried blue crab bites tipped us over the edge. It was love. I have never had crab so tasty!
After returning momentarily to Camilla's flat for a quick change and to meet her other housemate, Elliot, we left with eager bellies for dinner at Sappori Trattoria. It was going to be a good night.
Excellent service and food was delivered. Camilla and I shared fried calamari whilst Thomas opted for the grilled version of the squid (obviously, ours was better).
Then Thomas and I both had a stunning seafood linguine, heavy on the pasta to seafood ratio but with that portion size I think it's only fair that I let them off. Camilla had the recommended meat lasagne (it wasn't as good as yours though mumma, don't you worry).
Finally, it was time for my favourite part of the meal; dessert. Camilla had tiramisu and, of course, I had chocolate anything (cake). Albeit a slight let down I at least got my chocolate fix for the next few days.
Once we had paid we hit a blues bar called Kingston Mines, where our ears were filled with some excellent music of a kind that you simply cannot get in London (without knowing exactly where to look). The place was packed and had a wonderful atmosphere. Both Thomas and I loved it, and it was great to witness some "true" Chicagoan culture too.
^ Always good to know that no guns are allowed.
Tuesday:
Bedtime came and went and it was morning before we knew it. Camilla, Kelsey, Thomas and I headed out for "brunch" at Portillo's, which is a cute fast food-esque restaurant famous for its hamburgers, hotdogs and Italian beef sandwiches.
We conveniently bumped into a renowned "Rock n' Roll" McDonalds, which was cool to see but apparently only differs from the norm in terms of its exterior, rather than by the menu, which was a little disappointing.
Then it was tourist time. With a gap in the rain we made a break for it and just managed to complete a tour of the "Chicago loop" before the heavens opened up once more. Camilla showed us the Buckingham fountains, which were very pretty indeed, but hard to judge fairly having seen the Bellagio fountain show only a few days prior.
The buildings in Chicago are very beautiful, as there is a highly attractive combination of old and new, with architecture from the Gothic; renaissance and modern eras all intertwined amongst one another. The detail on some of the buildings was particularly eye-catching and we stopped a number of times simply to admire the craftsmanship.
We checked out the Abraham Lincoln statue,
before walking along the rest of Michigan Avenue, taking in all of the quirky statues and pretty trees with their changing Autumnal leaves that line it.
^ I was loving the plait/"braid".
We came across some very peculiar but cool "art", in the form of huge electronic boards that had moving faces on them, which apparently spurt water out of the mouths during summer.
We walked through Millennium Park
and got up close and personal with "the Bean"; I was absolutely gutted that I wasn't wearing my Tiffany bean so that I could match, but I'm sure I will get over it (in good time). The Bean itself was very cool though and, I thought, a really attractive sculpture. We jumped on the tourist bandwagon and took some pictures in the shiny mirrored reflection with the city behind us.
^ Thomas and I are in the centre right of the reflection standing together.
We stumbled across a bakery selling wannabe Millie's birthday cookies so I got a snap with them for you Michael; don't worry, I haven't forgotten!
Camilla took us inside Macy's to show us the rather beautiful mosaic Tiffany ceiling on the top floor,
and the infamous Walnut room, which is apparently transformed into a Christmas playground during December with a huge queue of people waiting to take photos of the enormous well-decorated Christmas tree. Of course, we could not leave without sampling some of America's well-known and loved Frango's mint chocolates, which I must admit were really rather delicious (a little like After Eight's but without the goo).
I LOVED the Champagne Tower (for obvious reasons), so you can only imagine my dismay when we trudged through the rain huddled together under umbrellas all the way to the front door, to be told that the high level champagne bar that I had been envisioning for the last half hour did not, in fact, exist. Why build a champagne building and not have a dedicated champagne bar? Madness.
The last stop on the loop was the theatre district, which apparently is home to a standard of shows equal to that of Broadway. We took a quick snap with the Chicago theatre,
before making a run for the car and the comforting warmth and dryness within.
Later in the afternoon we quickly popped our heads into Lincoln Park Zoo, which is FREE to enter would you believe.
but spent most of our short time in the primate building. Check out these cuties cuddling:
I particularly appreciated the gorillas and their enormous mass, especially when the male casually wandered behind the female and inserted himself. It really is uncanny how much they look like humans,
I mean, just check out that booty:
We finished our zoo trip at the pink flamingos, at which Thomas was very upset that none of them were standing still on one leg.
Next pitstop was Whole Foods. God that place will never fail to put me in the best mood. After some ransacking and secret munching, I eventually tore myself away from the beautiful aisles and made my way to the cashiers. Did you know that you can ask the employees to open anything that you want to try? Absolutely genius. Once again, I was astounded at how cheap trail mix and dried fruit is there. SUCH happy days for me.
After a very quick pop in to Camilla's apartment we all piled into the car to drive to her parents house for dinner; I was super excited for a proper home cooked meal as I had not had one in 7 weeks, plus we were also going to meet her boyfriend for the first time! Her parents house was so homely and comforting as it was decorated in true Danish style; it really felt like I was visiting family, which made a lovely change from restaurants. We chatted away in Danish before all sitting down together around the dining table to eat her mother's famous "gryde ret", which is essentially pork fillet in a cream sauce with mushrooms and tomatoes, served with white rice.
It was blooming delicious. I could not have been more grateful for the meal and polished off every last morsel in the pot and on Kelsey's plate; it was just so, so good. There really is nothing like home cooking, particularly when it's followed by dessert of fresh berries, vanilla ice cream and lakrids pulver. You gotta love the Danes.
It was great to finally meet Kevin as well (Camilla's boyfriend), after having heard so much about him. We drank wine and played cards for some time before splitting and heading back to Camilla's due to her having work the following morning.
Wednesday:
Since Camilla had to work Kelsey and her friend, Jacqui, kindly offered to be our chaperones for the day. Sadly, the weather had still not improved so our hope of visiting the sky deck was firmly removed from the menu; oh well, Thomas and I will just have to go back to check out the view over the city that was very much hyped about. Instead, we started out at Navy Pier, which you could say was rather deserted, but I can imagine in summer is absolutely buzzing and has a great vibe.
A lot of the rides, including the Ferris wheel, were closed for winter.
^ I love that the sea (lake) is so close to the city.
Once I'd officially frozen my bollocks off and could no longer withstand the cold we retreated indoors and came across a rather nice garden, which you can apparently rent out for private events, which I think would be a rather cool venue for a party.
The Pier is home to a stained glass gallery, which we took a quick sneak peek inside; these being my favourites:
^ Hair everywurrrrr.
I am then ashamed and simultaneously delighted to say that we then decided to go to the cinema (again). It was just that kind of huddle up and recline on my lazy-boy weather that makes you want to watch movies in bed all day. So we did. We took a cab to the same cinema that we had visited all of 48 hours ago to watch "The Judge", which we all thought was a brilliant film. It was well acted and I found it to be incredibly moving, with a believable storyline that wasn't overly predictable. (See Michael, I do like other genres than rom-coms!!! Although I will admit to suggesting watching "Selfie" before disappointingly finding out that it wasn't showing at a convenient time).
We walked home from the cinema at dusk providing me with my first real opportunity to appreciate the number of houses that are (already) decorated for Halloween, and the efforts that people go to with their scare tactics. I am actually very jealous of how seriously Americans take Halloween and wish that we were as festive about it in the UK - it's fun! I genuinely believe that every holiday should celebrated and I intend to do just that when I have kids; Thanksgiving; Hanukkah; Eid; you name it, I will celebrate it.
^ These were perhaps a touch creepy for me, however.
Seeing the decorations also reminded Thomas and I that we need to decide our own costumes, seeing as we are going to be in New York on the 31st and, thus, clearly must go all out for probably the first time in our lives! We will also be staying with another mutual friend from summer school at the time, called Tatiana, so it should hopefully be a very fun night, which both of us are really looking forward to.
Finally, dinner time. And nothing makes Thomas and I happier than SUSHI, especially when it is good and reasonably priced. The restaurant that Camilla took us too is well known for it's top sushi in Chicago, so we made sure to get there early to beat the queue.
There was so much choice of interesting combinations that I had no idea what to order, but with Camilla's guiding hand and much sharing between the 5 of us I think we sampled the best on the menu. It was a lovely farewell meal with both old and new friends that will be missed.
With satisfied tummies we all returned to Camilla's apartment for our last few rounds of "Rummy 500", which was upsetting seeing as I had only just about managed to master the rules and score any points (I will just have to force Thomas to continue playing alone with me). We drank the unbelievably tasty, but far too small, bottle of port that Thomas bought in Napa Valley, whilst nibbling away on little squares of chocolate; whoever came up with this combination deserves to be crowned in my opinion.
Then, with heavy hearts, we said our goodbye's and turned in for the night, as Thomas and I were getting up at 5:30am for our 8:25am flight to Wichita. We both feel that we really could have done with a few more days in Chicago and catching up with Camilla, but she was very insistent that there is an open invitation, so I suppose we will just have to take her up on that in the near future! Thank you so much for having us Camilla and SEE YOU SOON MUMMY. xxx
No comments:
Post a Comment