Chicago - Part II

Sunday officially began with a second set at Second City. We are too old to stay out that late these days, so getting back to the hotel at 3:00 a.m. was a shock to the system. Even with that, an 11:30 departure for an architecture tour on the river didn’t sound too difficult when we went to bed, especially since the friendly lady at dinner on Saturday mentioned how nice and easy the train ride in was. We didn’t think much of missing our originally planned train because we still had plenty of time to get there. Our thoughts on that changed when two stops in, a voice came over the intercom saying that three stops between us and downtown were closed. We were going to have to get off the train and hop on shuttle bus to get to the next open station. That took our already tight schedule down to next to impossible. We made finally made it downtown at 11:25. We had about six blocks to get from the train stop to the dock for the tour. That left us running like fools to hopefully catch the boat. One minute later, and they would have left without us, but just as they were about to take the ramp up, we hopped on the boat and grabbed a spot at the front of the boat.

The tour wound us up and down the Chicago River looking at all of the different buildings that make up Chicago. I have always liked big buildings. The rain was looming, and due to our late arrival, we weren’t prepared, but after the run, it was very relaxing to sit in the boat with the cold breeze blowing to get some background information on the buildings. It wasn’t an action packed tour, but it was informative and quite pleasant. We had about three and a half hours to kill from the time we got off the boat until the time we were supposed to be at the Briar Street Theater for Blue Man Group. We decided that another attempt at Chicago deep dish pizza was in order. This time we decided to try Giordano’s.

Giordano’s is known for stuffed pizza. We put our name on the list and ordered our pizza. It was a long wait for a table, then an even longer wait for our pizza to arrive. It was raining anyway, so there were a lot of worse ideas of how to spend an afternoon. When the pizza came, it was certainly worth the wait. Lots of cheese and veggies and some sausage. Not too much tomato sauce. It wasn’t exactly what I expected out of deep dish pizza, but it was pretty much the best pizza I have ever had.

By the time we were done with pizza, it was just about done raining and time to head to the Briar Street Theater to see the Blue Man Group. Of the three of us, Swaffy was the only one who had previously seen them. We got to the theater early chatting about what to expect. A staff member came by wanting to know how tall Swaffy was. She asked him to stand up and eyed him over. She said she might come back. We watched her as she went all over the theater trying to find the perfect average height person. She finally chose someone other than Swaffy, and we were rather disappointed. He wouldn’t be part of the show. The show was pretty crazy and just as you would imagine. About two thirds through the Blue Men came back near our section of the theater and grabbed the guy who was very close to being Swaffy. We watched on the monitors as they suited him up in a jumpsuit, painted him blue, then proceeded to hang him by his feet and swing him into a giant poster. Eventually the guy appeared back on stage with his head in some jello like substance and was done. It was really disappointing that it wasn’t Swaffy.

At this point, it was time to part ways with Mr. Pennington. His flight was leaving a few hours after the show, so he hopped on the train and headed back towards the airport. Swaffy and I walked back towards Wrigley Field to catch one last Chicago thing before we left. We went to the Sunday night Harold Show at ImprovOlympics. The three groups that performed were not near as polished as Second City the night before, but it was still entertaining. It had been a long day, and it was going to be an early morning. We walked to the train and soon realized why it had taken Mike so long to get to the airport from the train station where we had parked that morning. Our travels had taken us far enough off track that the train station near us was the wrong line. We had to go all the way back downtown to catch the right train to get us back to our car. Getting back to the hotel at midnight and then getting up at 4:45 to get Swaffy across town to the airport wasn’t much fun.

Morning came quickly, and we made it all the way across town to Midway in plenty of time for the flight. I was back to my time alone in Chicago. I made the best of it by heading back to the hotel for a couple more hours of sleep. I had decided that my day would include a trip back downtown to see the Art Institute of Chicago along with the last major Chicago food group I was missing, the hot dog. I got to the Art Institute knowing that some of the museum was under construction. I figured it would still be worth the trip to see two of the most famous pieces at the museum, American Gothic and Nighthawks. After a class in college, my main art interest usually falls in the more modern, so it was disappointing when I found that in addition to the impressionist collection being mostly closed, the entire modern collection was closed. I did enjoy the 20th century American art collection, but I didn’t spend much time in the rest of the museum. I’ll save that for a return trip once everything is back open. My extra time left me with an unplanned afternoon. I walked back over to see Cloudgate one more time. Still stinking amazing. I walked around a little more to find something else I had skipped on my Chicago sights….places the Blues Brothers was filmed. I was pretty close to the Honorable Richard J Daley plaza where the movie ends. I never did quite find it unfortunately. I decided I’d hop back on the train and go find my hot dog.

I got in my car and went in search of Superdawg. I think I probably first saw it on some random Food Network show, and it sounded like an interesting place. At the very least, it had two giant hot dogs on the roof. My superdawg was much like the rest of the food I had in Chicago, quite good. It was a nice way to cap off the trip. I got back to O’Hare and it was time to get back to Dallas to see someone I missed terribly in my time away. The flights were on time and I got back to Dallas just in time to grab dinner with my awesome wife. All in all, it was a great trip. Things went far smoother than I could have ever imagined. It was great to spend time with my buddies. I loved getting to really experience another city. I can’t wait to go back. It will be so much fun to take A with me.