No Mo’ Chicago

Okay, one more Chicago post. Since I spent the majority of the day at O’Hare yesterday (from 9:30am-3:30pm because I couldn’t switch flights) I’ve decided to do a little post-mortem analysis.

Chicago As Seen By The Bean

The Hits
Beer – I had locally produced 312 and Honker’s Ale from Goose Island, and my favorite Fat Tire Ale in mass quantity. Eventhough beer was the cause of my power napping and missed opportunities, I do love it so.

The El – My entire transportation cost in Chicago was $21 (in comparison, it cost me $50 to park my car at the Atlanta airport). My transportation cost was so cheap because I love to walk and I limited my activities to those things near the train lines (which was not that hard to do).

Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me! – What can I say, I’m a NPR nerd. Eventhough I got soaked on my walk to the Chase Auditorium I really enjoyed watching them create the show. Next on my list of nerdy pleasures is to listen to the show that was broadcast.

The People – Most of the people I spoke to were friendly. The funniest conversation I had was with a Hard Rock employee who came up to me at the bar and asked me “Are you somebody?” Unfortunately she then told me that she thought I looked like Steven King. Steven King? C’mon, I look a lot better than that!

The Misses
Schweaty Schweaty – As I have mentioned ad nauseam, the heat was unbearable. When you sweat as much as I do the problems created by that much heat are compounded. My next trip trip to Chicago will be in the Spring or Fall.

I Never Made It To Wrigley – With the Cardinals in town I thought it would have been really fun to go to Wrigley, or to at least hang out in Wrigleyville. I planned to go a couple of times, but the call of Fat Tire and the thought of baking in the heat at Wrigley changed my plans daily.

Getting Lost – I got lost more times than I care to admit. The most frustrating was on Saturday when I failed to find Schubas.

The Near Misses (Near Hits?)
My Running – I’m struggling. I can’t put a few miles of running together without having to walk. I am glad that I made it out to run twice, I just wish I had done better.

Pitchfork Music Festival – I really wanted to see more of the bands at the festival, but the heat beat me. It was a good sized, well organized festival. I’d consider going again if it’s held at a slightly different time of the year.

Good Eats – I didn’t get everything I wanted to eat (like deep-dish pizza because I couldn’t find a place that sold it by the slice), but it wasn’t because of a lack of trying. Highlights of the trip were the italian beef sandwiches and baby back ribs. Even with all the walking and running I think that I probably added a pound or two. Oh well I was on vacation, right?

Art Institute of Chicago – I spent far too little time in the museum. I went to the museum on Saturday morning, but I was in no condition to wander the halls and appreciate the art.

Hard Rock Hotel – My room was really nice, but the lack of wi-fi in the room and the fact that I could never get anything in the room dry dropped this out of the “Hits” category. Given its location I’d stay there again and would not hesitate suggesting it to others.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood – sniffly and run down; I think the hot-cold-hot combined with travelling has made me sick
Current Music – Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Spoon — “I Turn My Camera On”
Website Of The Day – Very coincidental. This weekend I wondered how the color blind managed to ride the trains in Chicago (since they are colorcoded). Today I found a story over at Joystiq discussing the difficulties the color blind have with video games.

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I’ve picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as “blogged.”

Exercise (b)Log – none, travel day

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

This entry was posted in Comments Disabled, My Daily Life. Bookmark the permalink.