Chicago - Giordano's Pizza

We heard many good things about the food in Chicago, and a lot of it was going to be for things that we could not try. The one food festival was at a different time of year, we did not have a lot of money, and it was going to be a fairly brief trip. However, we knew Chicago had it's own style of pizza and hot dogs, and those were priorities, so for those we asked around.

There were three places that came up over and over again. One sounded like Luminati's, which didn't sound right. It was only in researching this article that I realized it was Lou Malnati's. So, when we found a pizza cookbook, and looked in the section in the back and the other two were there, Lou Malnati's totally may have been there and I missed it.

Uno's was mentioned, and was in the book, as was Giordano's, but the biggest factor in us choosing Giordano's was that there was one near our hotel, and so we could have the taxi from Lincoln Park take us to pizza, then walk back, and that just worked.

I have no doubt that any of the other places had really good pizza, and given a chance would be happy to try them, but choosing based on proximity did not hurt us in anyway, because Giordano's was delicious.

It was pretty crowded. We got there and there was a 45-minute wait for a table. They had us put in our pizza order anyway, so that made things more efficient. We gave our order and then waited in the bard, where we could see into the area where they were working the dough.

We ended up choosing the medium pizza with two fillings: Canadian bacon for my sisters and black olives for me. (I feel like sausage would have been more Chicago, but what can you do?)

We got our table in the upper area. The walls were covered with old newspaper pages, giving a sense of history. The first Giordano's was opened in Chicago in 1974,  but the pizza recipe has been in development going back 200 years.

We ordered our beverages, and they arrived, followed soon after by our pizza. It was sliced into eight pieces. The server gave us each one, then left the plate on a stand in the middle of the table. The height was easy for serving, but not an issue for impeding conversation. Still, I think it's real purpose is to show off the pizza. Well, it was impressive.

I like thin crust pizza and thick crust pizza, and American and Italian pizza, but this is it's own thing. It really celebrates the cheese. It was savory and filling. We each had two pieces and were done. No appetizers or desserts were necessary, though their dessert menu was intriguing.

The staff was reasonably attentive, though again, they were pretty busy. The Bears had a home game that day, so that may have led to some increased business, but I suspect they are always pretty popular.

We thought that it would be nice to get back, or to try one of the other recommended places, but there just wasn't time. We are at least glad we got what we did - no regrets about that.

http://giordanos.com/

http://www.loumalnatis.com/

http://761.unotogo.com/zgrid/proc/site/sitep.jsp

Chicago - Lincoln Park Zoo

http://www.lpzoo.org/

Lincoln Park in itself is kind of amazing, with all that there is available, and having a free zoo available 365 days a year is a part of that.

I like to consider the navigability of zoos in terms of whether you can see everything without a lot of backtracking, and I am not sure whether I can be a fair judge of that in this case, because the zoo was under construction. I know that there were parts that we missed by virtue of going one way instead of the other, but I am not sure if that is a normal issue, or just for the construction.

By the same token, many animals seemed to be missing. I am a big believer in giving the animals some ability for privacy, but that should be balanced with being able to go and see animals. Again, I am not sure how much of that was the construction, because maybe some animals had been moved to prevent stress from noise.

My point is that there was a fair amount of frustration with trying to see everything, and yet I know that this is not necessarily a fair evaluation. The real test will be what the zoo is like when the renovation is done, and even for our time there, there was a lot of good.

Because the zoo is free, it can be integrated with the park more. The farm area is actually a little separate, and at one point we found ourselves on a bridge with bicyclists. I ended up going into the Conservatory first, but it would have been easy to spend time at the zoo, stop and visit the conservatory, and then go back into the zoo. Those connections give a feeling that is relaxed but also vibrant.

There were also some good animals that we don't usually get to see. The sand cat was one of my favorite animals at the Washington Park Zoo's night country, and after they renovated it I never saw one again. Lincoln Park had a sand cat, and a fennec fox. They had red pandas.

I also thought they had the best camel habitats. Usually when we see camels, they give rides, and maybe it is just that they are in the staging areas, but here they were in nice grassy paddocks, and I saw one roll over on his side and kick his heels like a dog. The adorableness nearly slew me.

I also felt that they did a good job of drawing connections between the native habitats and Chicago, with maps, comparisons of temperature and other weather phenomena, and conservation issues. A modern zoo may be taking the animals out of nature, but should not be losing the connection to the nature; it should be heightening it. I think they did that well.

I don't know that I will be making it back any time soon to see how the renovations went, but I would like to give it another shot.

Chicago - Lincoln Park Conservatory

The conservatory was a bonus for us. We knew we wanted to go to the zoo, because we are into zoos, and it was free. On the way I saw what was clearly a conservatory - the building reminded me of the Conservatory on the National Mall in DC. I thought perhaps we would check it out after the zoo, but due to construction in the zoo we were directed to another entrance, and the conservatory was right there and also free. Well why not?

I was immediately rewarded with a beautiful fragrance coming from an orange jasmine tree. Right behind it was Kigelia africana, or a sausage tree. That's what those large pods in the top picture are. That was a pretty cool start.

The building seemed bigger on the inside than it had originally looked on the outside, as I kept finding more plants. The opening area would have been enough, but then there was an opening into the fern room, and on the other side of that there was yet another area, leading to orchids.

I suppose overall the plant life was more tropical. I saw antherium, birds of paradise, and ginger. I would have recognized some of those on my own, the labeling was really good, so I had some help. There were also pools with koi and goldfish, and water features and statuary in general added to the overall aesthetic.

I don't know that the conservatory would be enough of a destination on its own, but there is a lot in Lincoln Park in general that is worth seeing, and if you are going to be there anyway, why not?

http://www.lincolnparkconservancy.org/conservatory.html

Chicago - Wrigley Field and Buckingham Fountain

Our trip overall was great, but one of the disappointments was that we could not tour Wrigley Field. We still went there to see the outside and take pictures, because it felt wrong to miss it. By the same token, it feels wrong not to write about it, even though there is so little to write.

This makes it a reasonable combination with Buckingham Fountain, because we pretty much had a taxi wait for us to take pictures too. Basically, this week's blog is brief photo opportunities.

Wrigley Field is a little outside of the common way for main attractions. The tour bus I referred to last week only goes there during the tourist season, and it is a transfer from the main line. Apparently there is an L stop nearby, so that is an option. We had the cab take us there, stop for a minute, and then continued on to Lincoln Park.

There is a lot of history here, and that may have taken a toll, and that and a need for some upgrading is why we could not take the tour, as it is currently being renovated. We made jokes about only the Cubs would start renovations during playoffs, and I shared the Cubs version of "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" with my sisters. It's basically the same as the regular version, but instead of "And if they don't when it's a shame" it's "And if they don't when it's the same." I got it out of Jeff MacNelly's Shoe years and years ago.

I'll have more to write in coming weeks, as I write about places we could actually get in to.

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/chc/ballpark/tours/index.jsp

http://www.wrigleyfield.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrigley_field

We could have hung out more at Buckingham Fountain. It is really beautiful, especially when lit up at night, and you have a good view stretching forward of Grant Park there. However, we treated it as mainly something to look at and move on.

This was a musical stop too, though, as I did immediately have "Love And Marriage" start playing in my head. I know the fountain has a history long predating "Married With Children", but that's where I first saw it, and the first time I heard the song, and thus shall they always be joined.

http://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/parks/clarence-f-buckingham-memorial-fountain/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckingham_Fountain

Chicago - High level overview

Before I start going over the individual attractions, I think it makes sense to go over the entire trip so you get the flow. From last week's post, you know that all we did Saturday night was get to the hotel.

Sunday morning we took a cab to Wrigley Field, and had him wait while we took pictures. We had wanted to take the tour, but it was closed for renovations. Then we had the cab take us to Lincoln Park Zoo.

As we entered the zoo and got our maps, the attendant mentioned that a baby rhino had been born, and we might want to go to the other entrance to see if he was out. This entrance was right near the Lincoln Park Conservatory, which like the zoo is free. I went through there, and then we did the zoo.

By the time we were done with the zoo it was around 4. We had been asking where to go for authentic deep dish pizza, and the same few places kept coming up, but one of them, Giordano's, was somewhat near the hotel. So we took one more cab to Giordano's, and then walked back to the Whitehall.

We started Monday out at the Shedd Aquarium, and then walked to the Field Museum. Both are located on the Museum Campus, which has some great views. Also, you can easily see Soldier Field from here.

One reason we had picked Sunday for Wrigley and Lincoln Park is that they were in the opposite direction of Soldier Field. There was a game Sunday, and apparently the traffic gets horrible, where a lot of cabbies try and avoid it. That was not a problem on Monday.

(We had considered going to the game, where they were playing the New Orleans Saints, but it was just not economically feasible.)

From the campus we grabbed one more cab, and again, we had him do multiple things, first stopping for a photo opportunity at Buckingham Fountain, and then taking us to the Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower) for the Skydeck. We took in the view from the top, stood on the ledge, and then went back down, where we tried our Chicago style hot dogs.

Tuesday we started out at Navy Pier, and signed up for an Architecture tour on the Chicago River. With a small amount of time to kill, we also checked out the McDonald's of the Future. After our tour, we went back to the Pier, had lunch, checked out iCandy and some souvenir shops, and made our way to the Smith Stained Glass Museum, another free attraction.

Done with the Pier, we grabbed a taxi to Millennium Park, and explored a bit there. We then walked up to the Magnificent Mile, and then walked along the mile, ending at the Disney Store. This was easily our biggest walking day so far, and we were all tired, but at this point we were not far from the hotel, so we kept walking, stopping for dinner (just fast food) along the way.

Those days were pretty full, but by getting everything else done, we only had to worry about the Art Institute of Chicago. We needed one more taxi, this one to take us to the hotel to grab our bags, then on to the airport. Oddly, no one minded the extra wait time, that all went well for them.

The iconic Chicago food item dinners will get blog posts, and lunches were generally on the site of wherever we were, and will be mentioned in those posts (Shedd Aquarium, Navy Pier, and Art Institute). You may be wondering about breakfast.

We sought no variety there. The hotel was close to a McDonalds's, and the hotel had no wifi. I get up earlier than my sisters, and get ready sooner, and I do not have a smart phone like they do. Therefore, every morning I got up, went to McDonald's, logged in and posted the day's blog, wished the appropriate people Happy Birthday on Facebook, and glanced at Twitter, then ordered breakfast and took it back to the hotel. By Wednesday morning, they recognized me, but then we were leaving.

Okay, I did not use the wifi at McDonald's every morning. The first morning I was having a hard time finding the McDonald's, so I logged in at Starbucks to check the address. I meant to order something from them to make up for it, and I got in line, but it was so long! I do feel guilty, but I can't change it now.

There were several Starbucks, but there were even more Argo Tea Cafes. In the immediate area, which covered just a few blocks, there were two Starbucks, but three Argos. I was surprised.

I was also surprised to see that the McDonald's had a drive-thru, which you usually don't see in the city. However, it was very practical. People are in and out, and parking is limited. By the same token, the Chick-Fila right next to it had a curbside pickup spot.

I mention a lot of taxis. The one thing I would have done differently is start with the trolley tour. I talked to someone about it at the Pier, and they give you three days, which would have been perfect. Most of the attractions we had visited were stops on the tour. Some of the things we did together, we did to allow us to walk more and taxi less, but there can be good reasons for not doing the Shedd and the Field together, as that can be pretty overwhelming. Of course, cramming everything that we did into the time we did could also be pretty overwhelming.

http://www.chicagotours.us/

What we totally did right was getting the City Pass. Julie got an additional discount through Intel, but even the regular price would have been a steal for what we got, and in addition to covering most of what we wanted to do, it gave us ideas for other things. Highly recommended.

http://www.citypass.com/chicago

Chicago - Background and the first day

We just got back from Chicago Wednesday night.

I don't think it will require as many separate posts as Disneyland to tell right, but it will certainly require more than one. We didn't really do anything on the first day, but there are some stories, so I will give that here, along with some background.

There were two main things that had me wanting to go, though it expanded. The first was that the Shedd Aquarium has belugas. I first saw a picture of what they called whistling whales in a book about dinosaurs in the library at my grade school. Along with one on pets, it was just one that I loved, and would return to over and over again. I have since seen belugas at Stanley Park, but still, this was a place where they were.

The other thing was from reading the script from The Ghost And The Darkness, and this quote:

"If you want to decide for yourself, you must go to America. They are at the Field Museum in Chicago, and even now, after they have been dead a century, if you dare to lock eyes with them...(beat)...you will be afraid."

I tried to feel fear. Nothing. William Goldman (the writer) is a bit of a blowhard though, and not above exaggeration.

So, there were those things, but we kept finding more things that were cool, and doable, and we decided to go. The preference was September, but we could not make the schedule work.

We left Saturday around 10 AM, which even with the time difference had us arriving in the early evening. We thought perhaps we could explore Millennium Park, or do something. That did not work out.

We arrived in the middle of a thunder storm. We don't usually get a lot of electricity in our storms out here in the Pacific Northwest. The Midwest is a whole other thing. We landed fine, but it was too dangerous for the ground crew to roll out the largely metal sleeve while the lightning was happening. First we waited on the tarmac, and then we waited in an alley behind our arrival gate, and then we finally got off. The book that I thought I would finish at the hotel that night, I finished on the plane.

As it was already late, and we did not know how long it would take us to get into the city, we ended up eating at the airport, then collected our bags and went to get a taxi. As we were working our way there, the airport felt somewhat stuffy, which was normal, but usually once you step outside that goes away. No, we had a wall of heat and humidity hit us. It was a sauna.

We nonetheless found a cab and made our way to the hotel. Traffic was bad, as rain tends to slow them down too. Anyway, once we checked in to our hotel, the Whitehall.

I originally booked with the Congress Plaza Hotel, which had a great location and decent reviews on Travelocity. Julie kept checking other travel sites though, and found a lot of negative comments on the cleanliness, to where she was not going to go if we did not change it. Everybody said the Whitehall was clean.

It was clean. It is also fairly old, which led to two things. One is that they are trying to get as much as they can into fairly small space. Our room was kind of built sideways, which makes it feel narrow, though the actual square footage is probably not that bad. Some things are actually pretty small, like bathrooms and elevators. It's not a big deal, but it might be hard on claustrophobics.

The other issue, also related to the age I am sure, is that there was no overhead lighting, so it was always kind of dark. We could totally still read, but I could never get any clear pictures. The remote control for the television was not very responsive, so changing channels and volume was very hard. The shower settings were frustrating.

These are minor things, and not that surprising. It's probably the oldest hotel we have ever stayed in. The housekeeping staff was great, the location was pretty good, and the prices were not unreasonable. We could have been much worse off.

Also, there were no bedbugs, lumpy spots in the carpet where you needed to keep your shoes on, weird odors, or any of the other horrors that Julie had read about. Although she did seem a little annoying at the time, discovering those things afterwards would have been bad.

We got settled in, read, and watched some Modern Family. It's not something that you get on a plane for, but it wasn't bad.

Greek Fest - Portland, Oregon

http://www.goholytrinity.org/cGreekFest.html

Since this weekend is Greek Fest, it seemed like a good time to write about it.

Watching young people perform traditional dances and wear traditional costumes is reassuring, letting you know that culture is being preserved, so I like that.

Participating in the dancing when they are teaching you the steps is fun, even if you are almost certain to mess up the steps, especially as they get faster and faster. That is just part of the fun.

I have to admit, though, that a big part of the attraction of Greek Fest for me is the food. They have things that are good, and that you can find anywhere else.

And they have things that you can find as well. I love souvlaki and gyros, but I can find them. For the sit-down dinner, those are things you can get at Greek restaurants. It is only at Greek Fest that I ever find loukoumades and tiropita.

Loukoumades are rather like doughnut holes, only honeyed and cinnamoned. They are delicious and fun to share.

Tiropita is rather like spanokopita, only without the spinach. I maintain that it is much better without the spinach. Yes, there is no vegetable serving, but that green just distracts from the excellent combination of warm cheese and phyllo dough. Lots of places have spanokopita; not so much with the tiropita.

And that's what Greek Fest is for me. I watch some dancing, I do some dancing, and I eat Greek food. I do go into the Church and the market, but it pretty much comes down to food and dancing. That's not bad for any festival.