Chi Town Surprises.

After splurging two days on breakfast, we woke up on Sunday and decided to save a bit by stopping at Dunkin’ Donuts, which was just down the street from the hotel. What a mistake, my meal was small, the coffee was not good, and they were better than the service. Made me want to march right back to Yolk and beg forgiveness for cheating on them. Oh well, we headed off to the aquarium.

Or so we thought. We walked up and saw the line coming out of the building. The line went down the huge stairs. The line went under a tent that had been set up for excited aquarium attenders. The line then curled around the corner and shot further out where we couldn’t see the end. So much for the aquarium. The picture to the right shows us at the halfway point of the line with the aquarium building behind us.

We headed to the Field Museum, which is beside the aquarium, it is more of a history with human perspective museum. We went through the History of the American people exhibit, which was ok. We also took in the extreme mammal display, which was one of the feature exhibits but my favorite was the Tibet exhibit and I also liked Matt’s favorite, which was the Egyptian exhibit. We both liked Sue (the mascot t-rex) and the elephants that were on display. I was disappointed to have missed the aquarium but the museum had some interesting things. When he asked how I liked it, I said, “It was okay, I would have preferred to go to the Museum of Science and Industry.” That’s when he got excited, “Let’s go, I had no clue you would be interested in going to that!”

In a cab, and away we went. This place definitely hit the spot and we could have spent the day there, EASILY. We first hit up the 505U-Boat exhibit and tour. Matt made a good choice and I really enjoyed it. We actually got to go in the U-Boat that was captured in WWII, which the exhibit had been built around. We saw the engine, batteries, the beds, kitchen, and just how small the space was. The tour guide was awesome and animated. It made it even more real to see the bullet holes that were at the top of the sub.

From the sub, we went to the whisper room, which still brings a smile to my face when I remember our conversation. We also took in the circus room, the farm room, and huge electric train set up. Of course, we had to take in the aviation section, complete with fighter pilot simulation. I determined I’m not the best gunner/Goose, I’m not so great being inverted. He definitely made me laugh, after we got out!

From there we headed up to a restaurant that I had heard about from the head chef of one of my favorite reality shows, Top Chef, the Publican. The cab ride was a bit dicey as the driver didn’t know where we were going but we finally made it! We got in and I was excited. The server informed us the menu was meant to serve as family style menu, so order to share. The top of the menu items were smaller while the portions and prices as you move further down the menu become larger. We found two meals midway down the page and went ahead and ordered. He got the steak tartar and I ordered the pork belly. We started with some oysters, as I knew that would make someone exceptionally happy. His tartar arrived first, we dug in. It was great, better than we expected. It came with an amazing egg and some fried kettle chips. The anticipation was high for the pork belly. I was excited to try it and I knew he was still hungry as the tartar wasn’t exceptionally filling. When the pork belly showed up I remember staring down at the plate. With shock. What I was expecting to be a 4 inch by 4 inch piece of meat showed up to be missing quite a bit as it was only 3 inches by 1 inch. As I stared, I heard Matt’s voice, “Where are we going to eat after this?” Don’t get me wrong, the food was delicious and the flavor was amazing and I’d eat that meat all day, we just had different expectations in our head when we saw the menu. I paid for the most expensive meal of appetizers that we’d ever had and we laughed our way to Greek town to have gyros at Mr. Gyros, which was a fast food Greek restaurant with some great personalities serving up gyros.

We left there filled up and began another walk. We walked through the neighborhood and then started heading back toward downtown. Next thing you know, we are heading up the Sears/Willis Tower elevator 103 floors to the sky deck. I’d been there back in high school during the day but they’d really upped the experience. Updated the look and information and I enjoyed it more this time around.

While some people may consider this to be a romantic experience I had the Cabo parasailing adventure in my head. My big, strong, tall, dark, and handsome was very nervous and at those type of heights, he can’t stand to be touched. AND how dare I lean over the inside rail, fully encased by glass, to take a straight down look. I felt a pull on the back of my jeans, “Don’t do that, that’s not right!” We could see the hotel we were staying in, the picture has it just a little to the upper right from the center. We looked around for a bit but then headed back down to a safer level.

We continued the walk home exhausted from the long day. Walking count may be up to 27 miles by now!

Best Appetizer: the pork belly, which was served with grits and cherries.

“What happens if the windows just suck in from the pressure and we plummet to our deaths?” MJR at the top of the Sears Tower.