Back in August, during the dog days of summer, I was wiping the sweat from my brow when I came across this amazing airfare to Chicago. $90 round trip...on American Airlines, no less. John tried to warn me. "It'll be cold," he said. I shrugged and replied, "Eh, we have coats."
Well, let me just say cold in Chicago is WAY different than cold in Texas. We're talking like "Oooh, it's a little chilly. Let me get my sweater" in Texas vs. "Oh shit I can't feel my feet!" in Chicago.
We got our first taste of cold right out of the box. I buttoned up my coat, pulled on my gloves and wrapped my scarf around my neck. All bundled up, I stepped outside the airport terminal and the wind cut right through everything I was wearing and I knew I was in trouble. First stop: a souvenir shop where I can buy a hat!
We stayed at the historic Drake hotel which was conveniently located on the Magnificent Mile approximately two blocks from Lake Michigan. It was built in 1920 and during the '30's was headquarters to Francesco Nitto (a Chicago mobster) who had a suite of rooms here that he used as his office. The hotel is very cool and perfectly located. Directly across the street is Bloomingdale's. What more could you want?
The Drake Hotel - from Lake Shore Drive
The room was great. It was huge! It had more closet space than my master bedroom!
Our "Executive Suite"
Once we checked in, our first mission was lunch/dinner. We'd specifically skipped lunch so that we could get deep dish pizza and enjoy it guilt free. We ended up at Lou Malnati's. We got a "small" which serves two. The pizza had extra cheese, lean Italian sausage and tomatoes with a butter crust. I'm not a pizza connoisseur but that was arguably the best deep dish pizza I've ever had. You cannot get pizza like that in Dallas.
Best Pizza...EVER!
Afterwards, we stopped in Bloomie's to get a hat. Huge mistake. $37 for a knit hat. Seriously! We looked for a souvenir shop where I could get a Bear's hat or something but couldn't find one. With the wind slashing through my coat, John felt sorry for me and pulled out his credit card.
Next stop was the liquor store for a bottle to take to the room. What did they have right up front? Hats! $7.99. Son of a B!
After a quick rest at the hotel, we ventured out again and went to 360 Chicago, which is the top floor of the Hancock Tower. Wow! The entire city was lit up for Christmas and it was gorgeous.
The Navy Pier -view from 360 Chicago
View of from 360 Chicago - Everyone's in the spirit.
The obligatory photo from the venue
The next morning, after an overpriced (even with a coupon) breakfast, we called an Uber and headed out to the Frank Lloyd Wright House. I bummed John's thermal shirt to wear under mine and it really helped. If I'd been able to find my thermal pants, I'd have been a lot more comfortable. I brought boots but I couldn't double up my socks and comfortably wear them. Instead, I wore my running shoes, which, of course, are ventilated to let your sweaty feet breathe. Note to self: Get thermal socks for the next winter vacation! The hat, however, was perfect!
But I digress. So this was the actual house that Frank Lloyd Wright lived in with his family. He was 21 when he built the house. He and his wife had six children. During their tenure in the house, it was constantly being renovated by Mr. Wright (How terribly annoying for Mrs. Wright!). He was one of the first people in the area to have indoor plumbing. But just imagine, one bathroom for eight people. Yikes!
The Frank Lloyd Wright House & Studio
It didn't look like much from the outside but the inside was amazing. Lot's of built in things like bookshelves and couches and some amazing stained glass.
The Living Room - built in couch and beautiful bay windows
This was an interesting tidbit. He (Frank) loved music and had a piano in the house but didn't like that the baby grand took up so much space. So, he cut a hole in the wall so that the piano was flush and then opened the space behind the wall to release the sound. When we were going down the stairs to the lower level, the guide had to tell us to watch our heads so we didn't hit them on the piano.
There's the piano behind John. Note it's pushed into the wall and the gallery above it where the sound came out.
The butt end of the piano protruding into the stairway.
Frank (can I call him Frank? After looking at all his stuff, I feel as though I know him) designed homes for his neighbors and there were several homes on his same street. We took a small stroll down the street and it was obvious which houses were designed by Frank. This was my favorite.
House in Oak Park, IL designed by Frank Lloyd Wright
While we would love to have gone in, these were private residences so that wasn't an option. We kind of felt bad that we were taking a picture of one house as the owner was trying to pull into their driveway.
Once it got too cold to wander around the neighborhood, we called a car and went to the Art Institute of Chicago. This place was amazing. When I go to the museum, I like to look at paintings. I'm not a big fan of sculpture or artifacts (however, they had a Rodin exhibit that we had to check out). I've been to some pretty amazing museums in Europe. Let me just say, the Art Institute of Chicago is probably the coolest museum in the US...that I've been to. It's hands down better than anything Dallas has to offer. You can take photos inside but no flash.
The Thinker - Auguste Rodin
Claude Monet
Vincent Van Gogh
Henri de Toulouse Lautrec
After the museum, we decided to walk back to the hotel. Here are some of the things we saw:
"The Bean" in Millennium Park
The Chicago River - which they turn green for St. Patrick's Day
Fourth Presbyterian Church - Built 1919
The Water Tower
Later that evening, we met with some friends for drinks and they gave us all kinds of suggestions for places to eat and things to do.
For dinner that evening, we went to the Rosebud Steakhouse. We were trying to go to Gibson's but the only reservation we could get was at 4:30. That was a little early, even for us.
The Rosebud was great. It's an Italian steakhouse that had a lot of amazing looking items on the menu. We decided to split a steak because they were all so big! When we told the waiter what we wanted, he didn't blink an eye. When he brought our dinner, he cut the steak into pieces for us, making sure we both got part of the marbling along with the center piece. The service at this place was fantastic. Two thumbs up! For sides, they had tater tots - I kid you not. They were delicious.
Saturday, I think we were drugged. We planned on getting up around nine. At eleven, one of us finally pushed the other out of bed and we got going. We opened the blinds only to find that it snowed the night before. It was beautiful!
By the time we actually got out of the hotel, it was lunchtime. One of the suggestions we got from our friends was to go to Portillo's for a Chicago Dog. Portillo's was a circus. The place was huge! They had some of everything and it would have been difficult to choose.
Inside the chaos that is Portillo's
The recommendation was to get the Chicago dog fully loaded. So we did. It was good they said something because I probably would have gotten a chili dog or a polish dog. It was interesting. There was a pickle and some kind of weird looking relish. Overall, it wasn't bad. Tomatoes on a hot dog are a little strange to me. I don't think I would get it again but, it was definitely worth trying.
Chicago Dog - Claussen pickle, tomato, relish and mustard
After lunch, we took a car to the Navy Pier, which is right on Lake Michigan. We wanted to do a river tour but it didn't appear any of the boats were working.
Entrance to the Navy Pier
In fact, there weren't any people at the pier at all. We walked all the way down to the water where it was eerily still. Then we walked around the corner and almost got blown off our feet from the wind. It was a beautiful view of the skyline, though.
The abandoned (for the day) Ferris Wheel
The empty Navy Pier
Lake Michigan
Skyline of Chicago
We stepped inside a building and found all the people. Everyone was inside except us!
Afterwards, we went to the Chicago History Museum. That was not quite what I expected. A few cool exhibits but in retrospect, I'd rather have done the gangster tour.
Mrs. O'Leary and her lantern kicking cow. It was rumored the cow started the Chicago fire.
They had a Jazz exhibit that was pretty cool.
The snowfall from the night before. It was gorgeous!
View of downtown from Lake Shore Drive
After the museum, we decided to walk back to the hotel. I thought for sure I'd get blown away by the wind walking along Lake Shore Drive (they don't call it the "Windy City" for nothing!) but it was actually quite pleasant.
The beautiful Lake Michigan
Walking along Lake Shore Drive like a native.
For dinner, our friends booked a reservation for us at a place called Prosecco. We had two amazing salads. Mine was a mold of avocado, lobster and shrimp that was absolutely amazing.
The Avocado at Prosecco
John got a new take on a Caprese salad. He had imported baratta mozzarella cheese and tomatoes over prosciutto with some balsamic vinegar. John swears this was the best mozzarella he'd ever had.
The Bufala - Off the menu preparation
Oh kids! They were both amazing.
For dinner, I got Veal Saltimbocca and John got rigatoni with Italian sausage. Both were pretty amazing. Our waiter was a character. He reminded me of a comedic character. He would pop up out of nowhere. He was funny and he did a great job.
So, now we're at the end of our trip and there are so many things that we haven't done. That only means that we have to come back, right? Maybe in the summer?
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