Chicago

During this Covid-19 period, we, as a people, have forgone our historic inclinations to travel far and wide. I, for one, miss the travel bug of climbing into a shiny metal tube destined for faraway locales or even a hop into my truck to careen down long stretches of asphalt to little known backwaters to meet new people and locate some little known facts or places.

I should preface by saying I did recently do just that by transporting my new wife (and dogs) to Texas from their home in San Diego. A long and arduous trip in June in the midst of a heat wave. Well for Diane, any temperature above 90 is a stay on Mercury. It involved a side trip to a friend in Prescott (I am informed it’s pronounced “Prescutt”), Arizona, El Paso, Texas and ultimately to our home in Aubrey, Texas. The dogs, Oliver and the elderly Gordo, handled it well with several stops for potty breaks and two nights in “Dog-Friendly” hotels. It was reminiscent of a similar series of treks I took back in 2005 to move my family from San Diego to Frisco, Texas. I did experience some PTSD flashbacks.

We left the beautiful mountains of California for the flat, high and low deserts of the southwest and, what I like to refer to as the “no FM zone”, where only the most powerful AM radio can be heard as distant crackling dis-embodied voices of radio pastors preach their fire and brimstone sermons for Sunday, as you stare out the windshield at the straight ribbon of concrete to a point you’ll be in about two hours from now. No…we didn’t have Sirius Radio. There was one point where there was no cell service and the old Google Maps failed us.

 But I digress. This tale involves a courageous break in a never-ending shifting quarantine status and a deep need to get the heck out of town. Our friends Chad and Sara had invited us on a one-day foray to Chicago, Illinois. Yes…a little weird but it was as a gift trip for their daughter Lorna and they wanted to make it a party. We were also joined by another friend, Jack. Now I’ve been to a lot of places but never to Chicago. Well, I did make it to Chicago O’Hare Airport for business and pleasure but never to the city. Diane was similarly disposed and agreed it would be cool to go into the City. Thus we got some CRAZY cheap tickets on American Airlines, direct from DFW, for a Wednesday trip to the inner-city.

A little background: Chicago’s first permanent, non-indigenous resident was a trader named Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, a free black man from Haiti whose father was a French sailor and whose mother was an African slave. He came there in the 1770s via the Mississippi River from New Orleans with his Native American wife, and their home stood at the mouth of the Chicago River. In 1803, the U.S. government built Fort Dearborn at what is now the corner of Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive (look for the bronze markers in the pavement). It was destroyed in 1812 following the Battle of Fort Dearborn, rebuilt in 1816, and permanently demolished in 1857.

Incorporated as a city in 1837, Chicago was ideally situated to take advantage of the trading possibilities created by the nation’s westward expansion. Today, 50 percent of U.S. rail freight continues to pass through Chicago. It is the confluence of the Chicago River and the Des Plains River which run into the Mississippi River and, of course, Lake Michigan. It is also the start of the "Historic Route 66" which begins at Grant Park on Adams Street in the front of the Art Institute of Chicago. Oh…let’s not forget The Blues Brothers high-speed chase scenes in downtown Chicago and the Bob Newhart Show.

We can’t forget the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Interestingly, the Chicago Fire Department training academy at 558 W. DeKoven St. is on the site of the O’Leary property where the fire began. There’s the Sears Tower (now the Willis Tower) which was the tallest building in the world until 1998. There is the Trump Tower, which was supposed to be the tallest building in the world until the people of Chicago objected (and then Mayor Daly) and it ended up being the third tallest after the World Trade Center and the Willis (Sears) Tower as of 2001. Since then, there’s been a bunch of new buildings much taller in Asia.

So at O-Dark Thirty, Diane and I made our way to DFW to begin our day. Luckily for them, there was an open Dunkin’ Donuts right there at gate C-12 or Diane might have had me make a trip into town to get her coffee, mini-bagel and cream cheese. Some disappointment, due to a mask miscommunication (I’m sure everybody’s had one of THOSE), she ultimately didn’t get her mini-bagel but, being a real team player, accepted her regular bagel. Turns out, Diane’s not a big morning person…who knew?

At the appointed hour, we hopped on a FULL flight of masked travelers in our 737 and two hours later (with no food or drink service) landed at O’Hare. With only carry-on, our exit was swift and we made our way to the Ground Transportation side and our Uber. Chad had arranged for an UberXL luxury car and we jumped into our Lincoln Navigator and a drop-off at Millennium Park. This is a large walking park in the heart of the city. Also there is the “Cloud Gate” or more commonly referred to as the "Bean". Of course, we’ve all seen it many times on TV but it’s pretty cool when you’re there looking at its amazingly reflective surface. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get close because of Covid concerns and the recent spate of rioting/protesting where it had been graffitied. Still cool to look at.

Speaking of the protesting, we got there after all the big-time rioting/looting took place but there were still ample signs of the craziness that had occurred. As we walked down Michigan Avenue (locally referred to as the Magnificent Mile) most businesses were open and many still had their layers of plywood over the broken doors and windows. I couldn’t help but notice the only stores hit tended to be high-end stores like Ferragamo’s, Tiffany’s and, wait a minute…the Disney Store? I am struggling to understand the connection between Black Lives Matters and the destruction of the Disney Store. Wow. 

One of the stores left untouched was…the big Starbucks Reserve Roastery. This is the biggest Starbucks I’ve ever seen: five, count ‘em, five floors of coffee  and goodies to eat including a rooftop café. Hey...they even serve alcohol. 

There was a large visible police presence on Michigan Avenue. It seemed every few yards there were either uniformed cops standing around or patrol cars parked in the street. I felt safe but the locals say all the fun is after dark and the Mayor, Lori Lightfoot, has basically instructed the police to stand-down and not engage the protesters. All in all, I do want to say Chicago seemed very clean for a major city. Except for random graffiti, the streets were clean and I didn’t see any trash or many homeless on the boulevard.

And now the pizza debate. One of our missions was to taste deep-dish Chicago-style pizza. I’ve been to “Chicago Brothers Pizza” in San Diego but I’m sure that’s not the real thing. First of all, it’s not IN Chicago. So our friends have been to Chicago before and have sampled a place called “Labriola’s.” 

They thought it was good but wanted to try another Chicago staple, "Giordano's" by the Navy Pier. After walking ALL the way down the pier, we discovered we had to back-track because the joint was back at the beginning of the pier (at the end of the day, those with step counters on their phones had us at like a MILLION steps).

Anyway, we get ourselves seated and had several mask exchanges with our Eastern-European server who set us up with two pizzas and some pasta for Lorna. One pizza was a traditional thin-crust and the other was a deep-dish pepperoni. Ok…my Italian heritage kicked in and I got snobbish. 

We cracked open the deep-dish and were immediately accosted by a river of cheese emanating from the cup-like crust. When I bit into said pizza, all I tasted was the cheese. The crust was tasty and crispy. Now I’m not a complete snob and I’ve never met a pizza I didn’t like but I was a little underwhelmed. I did try Sara’s Gluten-free thin-crust which was good but the crust was a little overdone. Of course, wherever you go, the locals will have their favorites and if you’re brought up in a region where that’s the norm, then that’s what you’ll like and order. No problem. And I should point out, those I spoke with had other pizza joints they thought were classic Chicago Pizza, so the take-away is…we’re just going to have to return and try another joint and keep trying until we’ve hit them all. 

So after a little shopping and coffee drinking, we met up with our Uber driver who whisked us back to O’Hare with plenty of time to get through security and hop on our 2/3s full flight back to DFW on a spacious 787. We did what can only be characterized as a carrier landing at the end of 17 Right and then spent the next 20 minutes (big airport) returning what was left of the aircraft to the gate. All-in-all, a pretty nice 18 hour day of fun and frivolity. We’re thinking about doing something like that again. With the crazy low Covid prices for tickets, it’s a little hard not to.

Not sure what to say about this, found in the Chicago O'Hare Airport Terminal. So....who cleans out the bin and where does it go? Hmmmmmm.....