Chicago Day 2

Sunday was a wonderful day in stinky onion city (that’s what Chicago means in Illini Indian native tongue people!).

We were joined at lunchtime by a good friend we haven’t seen in nearly 5 years. Kelly worked with me at an agency in Columbus. We toiled through a lot of knee-deep stink to help keep the agency moving in the right direction. In the end, we escaped to bigger and better things – Kelly to one of the world’s largest agencies, and me to another job I hated. Oh well, I settled at a great company and it seems Kelly is quite excited about her life in Chicago.

Kimmer and Kelly enjoying Cheezborger!!!

We kicked off the day at the famous Billy Goat Tavern. The Billy Goat is famous for three things. Cheezborger! Cheezborger! Cheezborger! So, we all had Cheezborgers, and they were in fact, delicious.  This place was made famous in the 70s when Don Novella (Father Guido Sarducci) wrote the skit that helped to make John Belushi and the Billy Goat famous!

We followed that up with boat and lake tour through Wendella Boat Tours (Kelly’s suggestion). The tour, led by our tour guide Andy, focused on the architecture that makes Chicago great… from the Trump Tower to the Civic Opera House. Once again, this trip – which carries you up the Chicago River, through the locks and into the lake – was filled with interesting historic anecdotes as well as a few really terrible jokes (I loved them!).
After the 90-minute tour we hopped on a water taxi (Kelly’s first time, and she’s lived here for  five years!) and headed down to Chinatown, where a festival was in full swing. We sampled some local candy deliciousness and a few questionable ones – dried ginger, that is NOT candy people!

After this we went into Wrigleyville to check out the scene at the Cubs game (versus the Yankees – it was a mad house!). We grabbed a beer at Red Ivy, then walked down to The Weiner’s Circle. For those of you who have NO idea what the Weiner’s Circle is all about… DO NOT WATCH THIS IF YOU ARE EASILY OFFENDED and DO NOT WATCH THIS AT WORK!… Click here to find out. And no, we did not ask for the Chocolate Shake. Next time.

Then, on our way to the train, we caught a beer at an amazing, beautiful new concert hall called Lincoln Hall. A great way to top off a trip to Chicago.

Special thanks to Kelly!