Chicago: the porky city

I had research in Chicago last Monday & Tuesday, so I traveled early to spend the weekend with Sarah… she is State-side again! I refer to Chicago as “the porky city” because somehow I managed to eat eggs, bacon and sausage each of the 4 days I was there. A terrific accomplishment that left me feeling fairly gross.

Sarah & I had dinner with Ben & Josh Saturday night at the Bluebird in the Bucktown neighborhood. We also had drinks at Chaise Lounge nearby. They had heat lamps, so we were able to sit outside and enjoy some of the last scraps of autumn weather.

Dinner with the guys.


A slab of bacon at Bluebird started the road to dietary trouble.


Before we realized cosmos & martinis as night-caps aren't such a bright idea.

Brunched and shopped on Sunday. Walked around downtown neighborhoods and looked at many beautiful town homes. Went to Museum of Contemporary Art. Main exhibition was Sympathy for the Devil, which examines how rock & roll and visual art have influenced each other since the late 1960s. Most memorable exhibition was a real, live, young couple engaging in some sort of tantric tai chi in a very public place! Bonus. The museum is well-curated, and it has a great gift shop (basically I wanted to buy everything).

We ordered Giordano's stuffed pizza for dinner and watched "Casino Royale" on DVD, which was longer and cheesier than I expected. However, the casino scenes were shot in Montenegro. Perhaps this could be a future vacation destination?

I can't really say anything negative about Chicago, except that it's not NYC. I won an advertising competition during my senior in college, and the prize was a week-long trip to Chicago. In February. It was such a fun time. However, by that point, I'd interned in NYC, so my heart already belonged to NYC. And not much has changed in 12+ years. But Chicago is a nice place to visit, and it was a good weekend.

Ridiculous sunset from Sarah's balcony.