Chicago Highlights

It's well known that I was in Chicago this past weekend celebrating my friend's birthday. The trip was my vacation for the year which came at the perfect time because I was in dire need of a change of scenery. I took a fair amount of photos to commemorate the  occasion and all the events that took place. Generally, a trip like this, would produce a blog that detailed what I did an saw while I was there. I think that's kinda boring and would take too long besides. Therefore, I'll hit you with the highlights, the best parts that I remember and some I didn't until I saw my photos...

We look like the principal characters on a BET sitcom

 This was the weekend birthday crew. It was great to see my best friend and all the people I used to hang out with when I lived in the city, plus my boy from high school. I had no doubt it was gonna be a good weekend. Little did I know how good it would turn out to be. This was at The Spot at the beginning of the night. Here we go...!

I sweated through my shirt... It was that popping

 Several hours later, the crew is juking it at Baby Atlas, a basement bar and dance floor at a place called Matilda's. It had to be 110 degrees in the place. Everyone was pressed in close, dancing and having a good time. I hadn't done that in months. The crowd mentality as the music dropped was ri-damn-diculous.

There was a a dance pole in the corner. We never got that far into the joint to take a spin on it, but there were a bunch of other people who lived out their stripper fantasies. I there was an unspoken consensus in our crew that we were "too old for that."

My boy feels right at home...

 The first night ended at a popular late night diner in the same area of the club. Eggs, corned beef hash, potatoes and toast. The perfect capstone to a night of intense alcohol consumption and sweaty dancing. My high school friend and I got home around 4 a.m. An excellent start to the festivities.

I think this will be my new motto.

Day two. With a few hours to kill before a party at my best friend's house, a day bar crawl was suggested. I already wrote about that, though I must confess that I was unable to finish the play-by-play due to severe inebriation. Allow me to complete the deed. The neon light slogan was inside the Town Hall Pub. It was a dimly lit spot with a long, wood L-shaped bar. Behind the bar, photo booth photos plastered all the available wall space.

DS Tequila Co., Fiesta Bowls

The last stop was the DS Tequila Co. We initially went in to do a shot but ended up being talked into Fiesta Bowls, by our lovely waitress, Rachel. More kudos should go to Rachel, we only wanted to get one Fiesta Bowl, but a quick questioning of our manhood earned her a larger tip. Well played.

Valois! If you don't know, find out.

The third day was the Hyde Park tour. It started with breakfast at Valois, a cafeteria-style restaurant. They might have the best pancakes in Chicago. From there, we took a walk around the neighborhood, taking in the places we used to live as well as seeing all the changes to the area since we had last been there.

Robot Library!

We even spent some time on the University of Chicago campus. We took a look at their new automated  library extension, walked the main quad and spent an hour chilling on a bench. We ended with a stop at a popular cafe near campus. My best friend and I had spent hours there, eating apple pie a la carte and drinking coffee drinks.

Better skyline than NYC. 

On Monday, we did a boat tour of Chicago architecture along the river. Our tour was filled out by a high school class from Fort Wayne IN. Besides learning the history of the various skyscrapers in Chicago, the highlight was when the tour guide used the term "hoi polloi." My friends and I snickered and laughed at the fact that he had used the term. None of the highschoolers got it. That made us laugh more.

All in all, a great trip. I forgot how much I love living in a city. Makes me think about making a change...