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Published: March 26th 2007
Karaoke at Trader Todd's, Sheffield Ave
Travis and Mike singing Barry Manilow's "Mandy"... turns out this was based on an innocent prank I played via myspace months ago! I've lost track, but I'm certain I have now visited Chicago as often as I have visited Las Vegas. After 6 trips to Chi-town in 2006, I finally made my first trip there for 2007 arriving late Friday evening 3/23 and departing late Monday afternoon 3/26.
More recently, my trips to Chicago had been to visit and catch up with my youngest brothers, Justin and Andrew, as well as with my friend, Travis, who happened to be celebrating his birthday this past Sunday. In addition, I had scheduled this trip so that I could run in the LaSalle Bank Shamrock Shuffle 8k race with Justin. My previous March '05 and '06 visits coincided with Chicago's St Patrick's Day weekend, i.e. dyeing the Chicago River green, going on pub crawls, et al. Turns out everyone who had planned to visit from NYC and NJ for this year's celebration ended up being stranded at their respective airports as a result of last weekend's (3/16-3/17) nor'easter.
Anyhow, anytime you visit Chicago for more than 48 hours, you ought to take advantage of Transit Chicago's (CTA) 3-day visitor passes which allow you unlimited access/transfers to their widely spread mass-transit system (bus/train). 3-day
pass cost is $12... a bargain considering individual rides start at $1.75 (I think). The CTA pass would offer even more value if ANY of their buses and trains actually came +/- 15 minutes of the times listed in their schedules!!!
On Saturday morning, Justin and I kept ourselves honest and enjoyed a 5k jog on the paths along Lake Michigan, off Lake Shore Dr. May I add that the unseasonably warm, though somewhat humid and foggy weather was a pleasant surprise, given March temperatures are usually still brisk in mid-March. Later, we met up at Navy Pier where we picked up our race packets (added another race t-shirt to the wardrobe) and sampled some free snacks from Clif Bar (their shot blocks may give Red Bull a run for their $), Whole Foods, Snickers, and Kefir. After dinner, we met up with some friends at Trader Todd's to celebrate my buddy's birthday and were entertained by a variety of karaoke wannabes.
Early Sunday morning, Justin and I rode the bus down to Grant Park, where 30,000+ people were assembling to start the 8k. Apparently, 7,000 or so folks didn't finish the race, but I'm sure most of
Me and 2 of my brothers...
Our expressions don't show that we're really hungry! them took a shortcut to be the first ones to hit the beer tent at post-race party where the first drink is free. Anyway, I finished the race at 50:19 minutes, which is consistent with my 10-minute pace. However, I finished a full 12 minutes behind Justin, who doesn't race much... AND, I placed 14,609th out of 23,865 finishers. UGH! Moments later, Justin and I were double-fisted with ice, cold beer... and it was 75 degrees and sunny!
...Seven hours later, we met up with others to hit Gino's East, another chain of really good Chicago-style pizza. All the tourists flock to Giordano's. All the locals flock everywhere else and wait almost just as long in line to sit down, but, hey, it's still worth the wait. At this particular Gino's East location on Superior, off Michigan Ave, the staff encourages you to write graffiti almost anywhere inside its four walls. Sideshow attraction aside, we shared and enjoyed one medium-sized Four Cheese deep-dish pizza as well as one thin-crust pepperoni-and-cheese pizza. If you happen to go, we recommend their Combo Platter of calamari (though a bit on the smoky side), mozzarella sticks, and spinach sticks. All were fried, though
Graffiti at Gino's East
For the record, I'm a NY Giants fan, no matter the GO BEARS in the background and the orange t-shirt... very lightly breaded.
On Monday, Travis and I met up in Lakeview, headed downtown, and ultimately wound up in Chinatown, where we sampled barbeque pork buns ($0.75 each) at the local Chinese bakery and lunched at Penang prior to heading back.
One tip for scheduling departures from the city. Avoid taking the bus across town at around the time area schools gets out. The "local" route lives up to its word. The experience is very similar to, well, the last time you remember taking the school bus. Enough said. The experience was forgotten upon arrival to O'Hare to find out not only that my 6pm flight was leaving on time (A first...), but I was also being upgraded to first class!
Cheers!
Manny
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