Jen recently went to Japan in one of the most broad and far-reaching instances of “things that I’m wildly jealous of” in recent history, but due to the way her vacation time worked out, upon returning to the states, she found herself with a couple of days to kill in Chicago before heading home. I have somehow never been to Chicago, despite having been told that I would love it there more times than I can count. My sister also recently moved there for her new job, so I had intended to visit for a while, but kept putting it off. With all this lined up, it would have been negligent on my part to miss the opportunity.
There’s a lot of things to do in Chicago, if you were wondering. We spent most of Saturday in the Field Museum (awesome, if you have the chance to see it, by the way) and barely saw 1/8 of the exhibits. We also checked out the Adler Planetarium, which I really enjoyed (or as Jen might call it, the power nap that you need a ticket for), and took a river architecture tour. It was incredibly foggy, and I should have been annoyed, but to be honest, the kind of added to the experience. I liked it. After all the touring, we ended the night with dinner at the Chicago Diner. As a non-vegetarian, I can honestly say, that was some of the best meatless food I’ve ever had. We liked it so much that we even bought the cookbook.
Sunday, we took the train to Oak Park and spent a good long while in The Book Table, which was among the best bookstores I’ve ever been to. I recommend it highly, although if you’re traveling by air, you may want to do a better job of estimating the space in your luggage than we did. We capped off the weekend with an early dinner and a milkshake in Wicker Park at the Earwax Cafe.
We had a lot of fun, and I really want to go back, if for no other reason than to see more of the Field. That place is MASSIVE, and full of dinosaurs and cool dioramas.
83/101 to go.
