A Chicago slideshow

An experiment I did using a time lapse feature.

Elwood: If my estimations are correct...

Elwood: If my estimations are correct, we should be very close to the Honorable Richard J. Daley Plaza!
Jake: That's where they got that Picasso.
Elwood: Yep. 

 

As it turns out, there's also a farmers market.

Day Two: Chicago

Slow start to the day. See: $2.50 draft night.

Jen and I made a trip to the Green City farmers market. This was one of the best markets I have ever been to. There was a lot more locally raised meat. Jen picked up some elk jerky and some goat butter. I got a beautiful heirloom tomato and a sweet orange pepper.

I did some solo exploring of the city. I hopped on the red line and headed down to 1060 West Addison. I went there more out of my love of The Blues Brothers Movie than any Cubs allegiance. For as long as I've loved baseball, I've been a Red Sox fan, so I am no stranger to heartbreak.  After that brief visit, I went down to the lake. The thing that impressed me about Lake Michigan is that I could see into the water. It was clearer than I expected.  After a wander into downtown, I went over to Wicker Park to meet up with Jen and some of her friends for dinner.

We got a white pizza with bacon, mushrooms and spinach. Piece Pizzeria & Brewery makes cracker crust pizza. They also brew some damn fine beers. Piece is owned by Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen. I was impressed-- as far as guitarist owned businesses go, this was better than Joe Perry's barbecue joint.

Chicago

Ostrich sausage with venison pâté & plum sauce

It was an easy flight into Chicago. Taking my sister's recommendation, I picked up a 3-day CTA pass. I got off the blue line at Western and went to Ipsento Coffee for a sublime cup of Guatemalan coffee. 


Then it was time to grab lunch at Hot Doug's, The Sausage Superstore. My sister had been talking this place up for a few years and it did not disappoint. There were many great choices. I finally settled on the ostrich sausage with plum sauce and venison pâté and a Chicago classic. (Tip: when you get a Chicago classic hot dog, the pickle is supposed to be in there; it didn't fall into the bun by mistake.)                      

The Hopleaf

Lunch was followed by a nap.


The later that evening, we made it out to the Hopleaf Bar. We stayed only for one beer, but it was great to visit this fine beer bar. The Hopleaf was followed by a visit to Farragut's for $2.50 draft night. I enjoyed a couple of Three Floyd's Alpha Kings. I got some great tips on my future visit to New Orleans from my sister's friend Denise, who's from the area.


Day Two found me rather hungover. No regrets.

Day One

It's a clear, cool morning. Great day to fly.

Day One: packed and on the road

Preparation

The luggage. Not full yet.

Six days until take off. I'm going through everything I think I may want to bring with me.

The first five days are a test of sorts. I have a couple of days with my sister in Chicago and then I'm off to Raleigh, NC for about a day. After that, I'll be back in Boston for 24 hours. During that day I will go through my luggage and figure out what is dead weight and what is missing. The big consideration is whether or not to bring my computer. Let's weigh the pros and the cons:

Pro:

• Speed: I can adjust flights easier and finalize my plans. 
• Connection: Having it with me will make it easier to monitor finances. (This is important as I am looking to travel on the cheap.) Also, since I am working for myself, it would be a useful tool for keeping up with my business.

Con:

• Weight: It's a MacBook, not some little netbook.
• Redundancy: I have an iPhone. It can't do absolutely everything I need.

For the first leg of the trip, I'll bring the computer and see how much it weighs me down.

The next thing to figure out is clothes. I have a hoodie from scottevest. This will be useful for any overworking air conditioning I encounter. I also expect it will serve me well later in the trip when I'll be in the Pacific Northwest. (Cooler in the evening, right?) Of course the big reason for anything from scottevest is the pockets. I can wear this to the security gate with all my crap loaded into the 11 pockets. All I have to do is take the thing off and it through the scanner. Hopefully this will ease some of the anxiety I get, that has me triple checking whether my wallet, phone or keys are still in the little plastic bowl.

As far as the rest goes, I'll bring one pair of pants, a pair of shorts, a bathing suit, 3 pairs of socks, 3 undershorts, 2 t-shirts and a button-down shirt.

Did I mention what I'm packing all of this into? A have a Timbuk2 courier bag. Chock full, this thing is a great carry-on size, but the thing I'm worried about is weight. Over the weekend, I'll do a trial run with this thing packed full. We'll see how it goes.