Chicago...our kind of town

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Navigating our way through the myriad interweaving freeways which form the central nervous system of the metropolis of Chicago, we found our way through the dusky skyscrapers surrounding us, and with a little luck and our cellphone travel guide handy, we fought our way through traffic to find that Chicago miracle-of-miracles, a spare carpark at Mark's apartment.

Pulling in, we were greeted with hearty welcomes from the balcony above, and like a human cannonball Mark sped down the stairs and administered much needed hugs, and as we wearily and gladly got out of the car our host for the next week was already pulling our bags out of the car, what an angel! Up two flights of stairs (we didn't set the neighbours huge black alarm-dog off this first time) were comfy sofas, the widest flat screen tv of our trip yet, (Ju was already in love) a beautiful galley kitchen, and somewhere to rest our weary feet that wasn't a budget motel! Hooray!

An introduction to Mark's flatmate Sam followed, (not to be confused with Samantha, Sam's lovely girlfriend) and thier friend Ron, who was quickly sent our the door to pick up Lisa, Mark's equally divine girlfriend... we made up a sparkling dinner party, once Mark had been to work in the kitchen; dinner, to Lisa's chagrin, was fashionably late... some people had a hard day at work! She'll have Mark well trained in no time though, fear not.

With two tired travellers' protests about getting over colds and long days driving falling on deaf ears, Mark cajoled us, charmingly and without too much difficulty, into sampling some Saturday night Chicago night life - clubbing at a new venue where a friend was DJ-ing. Apparently in Chicago ordering cabs is not the done thing, so after quick showers and changes (new women! hurrah!) we went outside to stand around looking attractive on street corners until a taxi stopped for us... luckily it was pretty much instantaneous.

A $25 cover charge later (which included drinks for 3 hours) we found a packed club with a bemusing combination of R&B, dance music, hip hop and trance, and some very, very busy barmen. After marvelling at the dishwashing process while waiting 20 minutes for our drinks, we prayed fervently that the sinks that the empty glasses were being dunked in for 2 seconds (if that) were full of boiling bleach. Ok, so not our best night out in Chicago, but we had a lovely time chatting to our hosts and people-watching the diverse crowd in the club... luckily the drinks were very weak, even if it didn't make great value for money, because Mark had quite a day planned for Sunday.

Sunday!
Waking up some five hours later, some headed for an Easter Sunday Church service, and others decided to lie in. Once all spiritually fulfilled, scrubbed, dressed, and otherwise prepared, we headed north: Mark's family had kindly extended an open invitation to to girlfriends, flatmates, and assorted waifs and strays to share in their family Easter celebrations. Jenny and Ju joined Lisa and Sam in hopping into Mark's car to journey to the city's outer suburbs, crawling through traffic all the way, and arriving in a downpour of rain. We were heartily welcomed by Mark's Aunt and Uncle, and Nightfall the dog promptly attemped to break our thighs by enthusiastically whopping us with his wagging tail and rushing energetically from person to person.

Heading inside out of the wet, we made it upstairs and found ourselves in a beautiful family home full of cousins, parents, aunts and uncles and assorted partners, fiancees and friends. Let it be stated, when it comes to food, Mark's family doesn't mess around. Everyone was encouraged to dig in to the enormous selection of delicious food... turkey, ham, gravy, delicious salads and cheesy potatos, and cooked veges. After a lovely symbolic Easter egg Bible reading game to celebrate the holiday, there was also dessert! It was quite a struggle getting up after the meal so we decided to stay put a while, and played a gals-versus-guys game of Trivial Pursuit. The girls pulled ahead convincingly but alas, were broken by all the baseball questions, and beaten narrowly as the guys dashed to the finish.

It was absolutely wonderful to be able to be part of such a lovely family celebration when we were so far from home and our own families. We were both really touched to be included, and found Mark's family to be incredibly delightful, hospitable and welcoming, not to mention impressive caterers! After farewell hugs and a long drive back through traffic and rain - via Sam's mum's where we discovered Mark's penchant for water below freezing temperature (yes, physically problematic) - we arrived back in the apartment replete and ready to blob on the sofas and introduce the guys to The Chronicles of Narina: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe on the beautiful telly.

Monday!
We decided to go along with Mark's plan of heading to a nearby Cafe, Toast, which is decorated with an extensive array of toasters (naturally!) and, um, roosters on the wallpaper. Here all five of us made sure we got the day off on the right foot, indulging in a brunch of eggs benedict, hash potatoes, breakfast burritos and various other greasy and delicious delicacies. Although we had awoken with the intention of going to the Field Museum, we found over the internet that the 'free' days were not applicable on public holidays, and as our lie in and brunch had already taken up a significant portion of the day, we decided to see a little of the city instead...

Taking the train into town, we navigated our way through the subways and out onto Michigan Ave, the main shopping street of the city. Amusing ourselves by dropping into several stores, we were amazed to find that shopping with two guys can be fun! Although both of them are self confessedly 'metro' so I guess that helps. Although Ju was eventually put off trying jeans on in Bloomingdales for two male stylists, we spent time in several stores before Lisa arrived back and it was time for Giordanno's!

Settling into the bustling restaraunt, Mark and Sam explained that this was the 4th best place in town for Chicago style deep dish Pizza. And when we saw the pie we had to agree - that thing must have weighed a ton, and the amount of cheese in it, mm mmm! Juliet couldn't even get through one slice. Satiated, we packed the remnants up for later enjoyment, met up with Sam's girlfriend Samantha, and entered the mecca that is the Virgin music and movies Megastore. And we mean mega! And there was a sale! All six of us were running over the store like crazy looking at all the exciting things on offer. When the time came to leave everyone had managed to find several things that had to be liberated from the store, and we were all grouped at the checkout. Jenny's swag included several CDs (all on sale, naturally!) as consolation for the death of her ipod, and to provide in-flight listening on the road trip. Mark and Sam had discovered some must-own movies, and Juliet sadly conceded that boxed sets of DVDs were not a happy addition to an already overfull pack - but she was happy to have met them, and has added the titles to her Amazon wishlist!

Stepping off the Blue Line train directly onto our street, we arrived back for an evening of silly movie fun, relaxing on the sofa, and trying to fit more slices of pizza into ourselves.

Tuesday!
After a morning of administrative duties, we hopped on the train into town for a visit to the Chicago Art Institute - (free on Tuesdays!) We emerged from the subway blinking in the bright sunlight and headed for the ginormous pale stone ediface just a couple of blocks away, its steps guarded by giant bronze lions. First stop was the photography exhibit 'The Concerned Photographer', which had amazing, horrible, and beautiful photojournalistc images. The minitures entertained us next - perfect replicas of rooms in houses across America, England, France and Asia from different historical periods. The modern art was split across buildings and wings, as many galleries had been donated and the previously private collections were kept together - but we got a fairly good view of most of it, we think. Enjoying the cubsim, featuring a lot of Picasso, we advanced through three rooms full of Monets padded out only a little by contemporaries such as Pissaro.

Time was of the essence so marching onwards, through the hall of armour and swords to the contemporary american wing, we came to the wing where Nighthawks hangs - everyone knows this work by Edward Hopper, as it is much replicated as Boulevard of Broken Dreams with celebrities (Bogie, Marilyn, James Dean and Elvis, I think) replacing the original figures. We also passed by where American Gothic should have been, but unfortunately it is currently on loan to the Smithsonian :.(

Naturally the extended period of time we had been walking meant we were absolutely famished (looking at art burns a lot of calories) so we reluctantly left the Art Institute and found a pub across the road serving crispy onion rings and massive burgers. Pleased with our change in weight we took our doggie bags (there is always too much food in Chicago!) and headed to the ice hockey!

The Chicago Blackhawks are one of the original NHL teams, sadly they haven't had a great year and are not in the playoffs for the Stanley Cup. But as appreciative fans at their last game of the season we were able to watch them demolish the St Louis Blues in their home stadium, the United Center, where the loyal fans kept up a rousing chorus of 'Go Hawks' and we were thrilled by the screens all the way around the stadium flashing advertisements and messages the whole game through - and by the breaks in play for the televised coverage to go to an ad break!

This concludes the first installment of our time in Chicago. Please stand by, and we'll bring you more eventually!

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Photos

Loitering
Jenny, Mark and Sam await a train in Chicago's Red Line Subway

Americans Like Ice
Mark shows us how it's done here

Crawling back to town
And the rain came down.... it was a long slow trip back to town after Easter dinner, but the lights were pretty!
Here's a fun fact: it was meant to rain the whole time we were in Chicago, but it was gorgeous every day but this one! Are we good weather fairies or what!?

In the Chicago Art Institute
We paused for five minutes to rest our legs and take pictures of ourselves. we think we are at least as good looking as the art.

Let's go Hawks, let's go!
Jenny, Lisa and Mark at the United Center for the Blackhawks game

He shoots, he scores!
I loved the electronic screens that flashed a continuous stream of stats, ads and slogans during the game.
When the Blues scored, there was a little note from the organ and the name of the player flashed up. When the Blackhawks scored, the whole stadium flashed red with "GOAL!" and there was tulmultous song and organ and everyone jumped to their feet and cheered! It was great.

Blackhawks victorious!
The game went into extra time, and the Hawks were firing non-stop. There must have been at least 20 shots on goal in the last four minutes of the game. Something had to break, and it did! Blackhawks win 3-2.