So last month we drove to Chicago to take my 9 year old daughter to the airport so she could fly to San Diego to visit her dad and my mom for her Christmas Vacation. I kinda had a plan of what I wanted to do and where I wanted to eat....ok really I knew where I wanted to eat!
So the plan was to take her to the airport then check into our hotel and then go to dinner...in my head I already knew where i wanted to go.
A four hour drive takes us to Midway Airport in Chicago, and because I am a bit neurotic I made sure to get to there 2 hours before her flight took off, you know, just in case.
Over the past couple of years I have seen my share of airports and it just cracks me up how its like a little city inside these places. I walk her through security and to the gate and we wait, I constantly bug those that work at the airport to make sure they know we are there and where she should be waiting..I was also nervous. And poor Josh was waiting for me downstairs at at baggage claim for 2 hours..
So Maddy's plane is finally there, Maddy and I say good-bye and tell her to call me when she gets there and she boards the plane and they tell me that I have to stay until her plane is in the air and the landing gear is up, just in case the plane has to come back for any reason...so I wait....it seemed like forever.
Of course once she is out of my sight I start balling like a baby, Josh is texting and asking if I was ok and if I need a hug...I said I was ok but I was not ok. After a while I walked up to the little guy at the gate door and asked if she was in the air and if I could go and he told me to hang on, then he said she is in the sair and I may leave. I am sure that seeing parent like me, all wet and red faced from crying is a normal site for them, considering he didn't even seem to notice.
I walk down to where Josh is and he gives me a big hug and we get in the car and head over to where we were staying, The Double Tree on the Magnificent Mile.
We pulled up to the valet and a guy came out and told us where to go in to check in then let us know that he can park the car or we can park it. We walked to the front desk and checked and they gave us a couple of cookies….HELL YA!!! I like them already (kinda sad that I get that excited about them giving us cookies, but oh well, I am). We check out our room and made sure everything was clean and all that jazz, you know.
The room was cute, looked just like the picture we saw online when we remade the reservation.
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| The Double Tree (picture from Hotels.com) |
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| The Lobby (picture from Hotels.com) |
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| Duplicate of our room (picture from Hotels.com) |
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| Our View |
I was excited to go to dinner, I wanted to go to the original Uno's Chicago Bar & Grill. I used to work at one in San Diego and the food was awesome and I missed it so much because they closed down all of them in San Diego. I knew what I wanted, a baked chicken spinoccolli pasta (chicken breast stuffed with spinach, broccoli, cheese, tomatoes and other seasoning baked and served on a bed of pesto alfredo pasta) but Josh made sure I looked online at the menu to make sure he could eat something there, since he is allergic to a lot of things and there was plenty for him to choose from. We walked down the Magnificent Mile toward Uno's, there were a ton of people out and about and I will say, I see why they call it the windy city…dude it was windy.
We get to Uno's and I see a line so I go in to ask how long the wait is, I see a guy at a computer taking an order and I hear a woman's voice over the loud speaker calling guests to their table…so I just assumed he was taking to-go orders and I went a little further to the lady at a computer and a list and I tell her it will be 2 of us. She then gives me the spiel about how the wait is 20 minutes but the pizza's take 40 minutes and the gentleman I just passed can take my order now, put it in so we wouldn't be waiting so long at the table. That would be awesome but we didn't come here for pizza (although their pizza is pretty awesome). I go outside and tell Josh that it's a 20 minute wait and he tells me that if I really want to eat here then it's fine. I go back in to find the girl to have her put our name on the list, she looks at me and tells me to order from the guy in the from, at this time I inform her that we are not getting pizzas, she gave me the dirtiest looks and said flatly that that is all they serve, I said "you don't have pastas?" "we have like maybe 2" she replied. I was very confused…she was also not nice.
Now I was already very emotional from dropping Maddy off at the airport, and I also get emotional when it comes to food (not sure why, I just do…call it a girl thing)
I walk out to Josh and tell him what she said and start tearing up…
Then he says lets pick somewhere else, He has been wanting me to go to Ed Debevic's, says it's like the diner I used to work at..so ok we will go there.
On the way to Ed Debevic's we see the biggest McDonald's we have ever seen…it was 2 stories, really?!? is that needed, so weird.
After walking for a little bit we see a man in a suit standing outside a building, the building was plain and he was clearly a bouncer, so we naturally look up to see the name of it, Ontourage. The man sees us and then asks if we want to see the comedy show in the club or just go to the club, he tells us a little about the club and the comedy show and at that moment I got all kinds of emotional and felt the need to tell this man that he was the nicest person we have come across tonight, I am such a sap! I think I scared him.
We get to the restaurant. Walk inside and it's kinda colorful and customers are wearing hats, so far so good. I walk up to the host and say how many, she directs me to a flying pig and tells me to stand there…so I do. Then I ask a server if we are supposed to just sit down and she snaps back with "no, who told you that?" the server tells us to wait there and she takes off…Josh looks at me and says we do not have to say, he wasn't sure if I was going to be able to handle them yelling at me when I was already emotional. I toughed it out, a manager came by and found us a seat. Our server was Buddy, I think. After looking around, this was more like a broke ass version of the diner I loved in San Diego…
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| DJ?? but no DJ |
I am slightly confused by their outfits….not sure if they just dress in any kind of costume they feel or if there is some kind of reasoning behind it. I saw a man dressed as an elf, a 1950's greaser, and a lady that was dressed in a robe and big curlers…. Supposably the servers are also supposed to dance but that didn't happen while we were there…so we watched youtube videos of it later and….ya I'm not gonna comment on that. As Josh described it, it was like The Corvette Diner took this place and pumped it full of steroids and organized it..
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| the flying pig is in this picture |
We look over the menu and Josh tells me again that we do not have to eat here, but at this moment I am determined to have a good time. So we stay. Josh orders a hotdog and I order a Route 66 burger, which was a burger with avocado on sourdough toast….Josh said his hotdog was pretty good…I was not impressed with my burger or fries, and our server barely came by to check on us and when he did he seemed annoyed…which is fine, it's probably his style or something. We pay and leave…at this point I just wanted to go to the hotel and crash. The walk to the hotel seemed to take forever, it was so windy and cold. We get back to our hotel room and crash after watching a little about weather on the local news station.
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| Our view |
After we wake up, shower and check out we head over to the pier on Lake Michigan…
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| I love that they call this a beach…is it still a beach even if it's a lake? |
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| It looked like most of the sun stuff on the pier was closed, probably opened during the warmer months |
In the photo above (you can barely see) there is a man, a man walking…no…running toward me. He runs up to me and asked me to take his photo with the city behind him, he hands me his camera and I take his photo…then he says "you can pose me" I felt immediately awkward…I mean who says that? I mean really?!?! I just handed him back his camera. I know he saw me with my camera and that is why he asked but still…whoa!! then I kinda felt bad for not posing him, but how would I have posed him….like a woman, "ok, put your hands on your hips…."
Finally we leave and are on the road to go back home….I am not a fan of Chicago…Sorry
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I am slightly confused by their outfits….not sure if they just dress in any kind of costume they feel or if there is some kind of reasoning behind it. I saw a man dressed as an elf, a 1950's greaser, and a lady that was dressed in a robe and big curlers…. Supposably the servers are also supposed to dance but that didn't happen while we were there…so we watched youtube videos of it later and….ya I'm not gonna comment on that. As Josh described it, it was like The Corvette Diner took this place and pumped it full of steroids and organized it..
In the photo above (you can barely see) there is a man, a man walking…no…running toward me. He runs up to me and asked me to take his photo with the city behind him, he hands me his camera and I take his photo…then he says "you can pose me" I felt immediately awkward…I mean who says that? I mean really?!?! I just handed him back his camera. I know he saw me with my camera and that is why he asked but still…whoa!! then I kinda felt bad for not posing him, but how would I have posed him….like a woman, "ok, put your hands on your hips…."
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