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Chicago Trip Journal
Posted on 7/19/16 at 1:58 pm
Posted on 7/19/16 at 1:58 pm
Did a trip to Chicago with my dad and brother this past weekend and figured I'd post about our experiences. We went into the trip with our main agenda being to see a game in Wrigley.
Dates: arrived Thursday evening; departed Sunday morning
Transportation: flew round trip NOLA to CHI via Spirit Airlines. Hotel was in downtown Chicago so we rotated between Uber, the subway red line, and walking as we saw fit.
----------
Girl and the Goat
We booked a 10:45 PM slot for Thursday, July 14th on June 26th. They had very little availability when we called so that kind of gives you an idea of how in demand reservations are. The food was SUPERB and definitely met expectations. We used Uber both ways.
Menu with prices.
Top: corn bread w/ cherry relish + honey mustard butter
Bottom: miso hungry w/ miso butter + kimchi relish
I loved the kimchi relish.
Pan roasted halibut
Right: goat empanadas
Left: crisp braised pork shank
All dishes were exceptional, and the pork was heavenly.
-----------------
Walked to Millennium Park from the hotel after an afternoon Cubs game. Park includes The Bean, a live orchestra, and the fountain pictured below. No park fees or anything.
Don't know how one goes about getting their photo on this fountain...
----------------------
Architectural Boat Tour
We booked a 9 AM tour through Chicago's First Lady. Lasted 1.5 hours. Thoroughly enjoyed the tour. Great view of the city that gave a good amount of the area's history. Took us near the Lake Michigan harbor and views included Navy Pier, Sears/Willis Tower, Hancock tower, Trump Tower, and tons of other buildings and parks. We walked there from our hotel.
--------------------
We ubered to the United Center (Chicago Bulls arena) for a quick look at the Michael Jordan statue
-----------------
We walked to The Hancock Center and rode up to a bar on the 96th floor to check out the view. Pretty crazy to be looking down at helicopters in the area. We didn't eat or drink, so this was free. We did wait in line for an hour or so to ride the elevator up though. Went during busy Saturday evening. Afterward, we ate at The Cheesecake Factory located in the bottom of the tower.
A few OT ballers posted up at the Bentley place nearby
---------------------
Attended Friday and Saturday afternoon games between the Cubs and Rangers. This has forever been a bucket list for my brother and I and I wish we could have frozen in time. Beautiful ballpark, perfect weather (I welcomed the cold chill bumps in July), great fans and tradition. They've done a great job disguising new renovations within the old ballpark theme. One of my favorite things was such a strong focus on the actual baseball games -- no on-field game promotions, limited corporate advertising, no gimmicks, just baseball.
Next post...
Dates: arrived Thursday evening; departed Sunday morning
Transportation: flew round trip NOLA to CHI via Spirit Airlines. Hotel was in downtown Chicago so we rotated between Uber, the subway red line, and walking as we saw fit.
----------
Girl and the Goat
We booked a 10:45 PM slot for Thursday, July 14th on June 26th. They had very little availability when we called so that kind of gives you an idea of how in demand reservations are. The food was SUPERB and definitely met expectations. We used Uber both ways.
Menu with prices.
Top: corn bread w/ cherry relish + honey mustard butter
Bottom: miso hungry w/ miso butter + kimchi relish
I loved the kimchi relish.
Pan roasted halibut
Right: goat empanadas
Left: crisp braised pork shank
All dishes were exceptional, and the pork was heavenly.
-----------------
Walked to Millennium Park from the hotel after an afternoon Cubs game. Park includes The Bean, a live orchestra, and the fountain pictured below. No park fees or anything.
Don't know how one goes about getting their photo on this fountain...
----------------------
Architectural Boat Tour
We booked a 9 AM tour through Chicago's First Lady. Lasted 1.5 hours. Thoroughly enjoyed the tour. Great view of the city that gave a good amount of the area's history. Took us near the Lake Michigan harbor and views included Navy Pier, Sears/Willis Tower, Hancock tower, Trump Tower, and tons of other buildings and parks. We walked there from our hotel.
--------------------
We ubered to the United Center (Chicago Bulls arena) for a quick look at the Michael Jordan statue
-----------------
We walked to The Hancock Center and rode up to a bar on the 96th floor to check out the view. Pretty crazy to be looking down at helicopters in the area. We didn't eat or drink, so this was free. We did wait in line for an hour or so to ride the elevator up though. Went during busy Saturday evening. Afterward, we ate at The Cheesecake Factory located in the bottom of the tower.
A few OT ballers posted up at the Bentley place nearby
---------------------
Attended Friday and Saturday afternoon games between the Cubs and Rangers. This has forever been a bucket list for my brother and I and I wish we could have frozen in time. Beautiful ballpark, perfect weather (I welcomed the cold chill bumps in July), great fans and tradition. They've done a great job disguising new renovations within the old ballpark theme. One of my favorite things was such a strong focus on the actual baseball games -- no on-field game promotions, limited corporate advertising, no gimmicks, just baseball.
Next post...
This post was edited on 7/19/16 at 2:20 pm
5
Posted on 7/19/16 at 1:58 pm to kadillak
Wrigley continued...
The Cubs won both games! "Go Cubs Go" and the rise of the "W" flag at the end of the games are a cool touch. Ryan Dempster did a great Harry Caray impersonation for one of the 7th inning stretches.
--------------------------------
Our flight got delayed Sunday morning so that gave me time to uber down to Ohio Street Beach and jog back to the hotel.
------------------------
There's so much stuff to do in Chicago. A lot of different things to experience and see. Uber was really convenient. Supposedly there's 30k Uber drivers in the area, and our longest wait time was about 10 minutes which was at the airport. It seems like I see a thread every week with questions about Chicago so my hope is that this helps you visualize just a few of the activities available to the area. Let me know if you have any questions.
The Cubs won both games! "Go Cubs Go" and the rise of the "W" flag at the end of the games are a cool touch. Ryan Dempster did a great Harry Caray impersonation for one of the 7th inning stretches.
--------------------------------
Our flight got delayed Sunday morning so that gave me time to uber down to Ohio Street Beach and jog back to the hotel.
------------------------
There's so much stuff to do in Chicago. A lot of different things to experience and see. Uber was really convenient. Supposedly there's 30k Uber drivers in the area, and our longest wait time was about 10 minutes which was at the airport. It seems like I see a thread every week with questions about Chicago so my hope is that this helps you visualize just a few of the activities available to the area. Let me know if you have any questions.
This post was edited on 7/19/16 at 2:17 pm
Posted on 7/19/16 at 4:30 pm to kadillak
Didn't make it past your photos of The Girl and The Goat, but I didn't have to in order to know you had a good trip. 
That was the best meal of my life. That pork shank is the GOAT dish (pun intended).
That was the best meal of my life. That pork shank is the GOAT dish (pun intended).
This post was edited on 7/19/16 at 4:31 pm
Posted on 7/20/16 at 1:20 pm to kadillak
awesome. Im going later this fall.
This post was edited on 7/20/16 at 1:27 pm
Posted on 8/11/16 at 2:48 pm to kadillak
I just booked an October reservation at Girl and the Goat--those motherfrickers were booked up.
finally got one- monday at 4:30PM. I didnt feel like eating at 10:30PM/
finally got one- monday at 4:30PM. I didnt feel like eating at 10:30PM/
Posted on 8/13/16 at 10:35 am to kadillak
The city of Chicago just has the most incredible layout. It's like the city was designed specifically for tourism. I never really had any interest in "big city" vacations - I'd much rather do things like Universal or Disney in Orlando. But a coiple years ago we had to go to the Chicago area for a karate tournament, so we went a week early and stayed in the theater district before jumping over to the tournament site at the end of the week. It was probably my favorite vacation ever. Just an incredible city to visit with so much to do - and everything is so convenient to get to. Can't wait to go back, and it has me wanting to visit New York as well.
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