First up, Chicago
After some flight delays we arrived at O'Hare around 6pm. Just seeing how huge O'Hare Airport is got my old ATC juices flowing - it took us about 20 minutes of continuous taxying just to get to the gate. But enough of my plane watching fetish. Once reunited with our bags, it took no time at all to walk to the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station in the terminal, and we were on our way into the city.
Once in the city and in a cab to our apartment I got my first look at authentic Blues Brothers territory. The Blues Brothers is one of my all time favourite movies (I laugh in advance 'cos I know the scene coming up!), and when I saw the overhead railway lines I could once again see Jake and Elwood charging down the roads underneath with a hundred cop cars in pursuit. My instant replays had me grinning like an idiot and digging Susie's ribs. Look, look, look, there's blah, blah, blah.... Every time we stood on the platform of one of the elevated stations I thought of Jake and Elwood in that crummy apartment right next to the rail line with the trains rumbling past the window.
The CBD area of Chicago is just stunning. The super wide avenues, spectacular architecture, and giant skyscrapers like the Hancock Bldg, Willis Tower, Trump Tower, and others had us gawking like... tourists! And the place is so CLEAN! Maybe the wind blows all the crap away? The city had a great feel about it as soon as we got out and started walking around, and the locals all seemed proud to live there.
Susie had booked a Cultural Walking and Tasting experience for our first day, so next morning we navigated our way via BART to the designated meeting place in Bucktown. What followed, led by our charming host Jessica, was a walking local history lesson broken at regular intervals by a taste of foods from a half dozen local long established family owned eateries. We started with the longest continuously running hot dog joint in Chicago. Now, my image of a hotdog was the frankfurt swimming in water that gets dumped in a soft white roll then smothered in "dead 'orse" outside the footy ground, but this was a surprise. This one was a purpose built german sausage accompanied by mustard, onions, tomato, and a couple of other things, which actually tasted okay. Not quite 3 hats, but not bad.
We enjoyed ourselves so much we decided to return to the area that night for a drink and dinner. Our first stop was a prohibition era replica speakeasy called Violet Hue, which our guide Jessica had recommended. Not that you would know the name, or even that it was there, from the outside - just a blank red wall with a blank red door and an orange light over it. If the light is on - Da joint's open! Very dim and intimate inside, with violet hue'd lighting - surprise, surprise. We ordered a couple of exotic drinks at the bar, struck up a conversation with a young local guy, and spent a happy hour before venturing out to find a feed at one of our "tastings" of earlier.
Next day we decided we would check out the Chicago Art Gallery, and Millenium Park, right next door. As our apartment was only a block from the shore of Lake Michigan, we thought we would walk along the waterfront to the park, which turned up a pleasant little surprise. Along the way, we came upon a rather large ocean going ferry looking vessel moored next to a marina totally devoid of yachts. On reading a sign on the pier, we found that the ship, formally an ocean going ferry and icebreaker, was now the floating clubhouse of The Columbia Yacht Club. As we were about to leave, a young guy came past heading for the gangplank. He said good morning, and quick as a flash Susie says, "I'm a member of a yacht club in Sydney, Australia, can we come in?" "Oh, really? Sure, come on in, I'll show you around." Turned out he was the assistant mgr, and gave us a bit of a tour and history lesson. The inside of the ship had been beautifully restored with lots of polished brass and dark wood panelling. I felt like I was a bit player in a Bogie movie. We said goodbye promising to come back for dinner.
Millenium Park, the Bean - a highly polished sculpture which provides incredible reflections of the city, and the Art Gallery were consumed during the rest of the day. We had intentions of making it to a blues club that night, but after a drink at the bar and very pleasant dinner at The Yacht Club, it was all we could do to make it back to our apartment bed.
Next day we packed up and headed back out to O'Hare for our flight to NYC.
New York City. Damn me if it's not just like it is in the movies! Big and brash, a bit dirty, noisy, packed with people all hurrying somewhere, continuous honking of car horns, kinda worn looking, garbage in bags on the sidewalk, steam coming out of manhole covers in the streets, tiring, .... and fun.
We arrived at our apartment at about 6:45pm, gave ourselves a quick detail, and headed cross town to the BB King Blues Club. We had an overpriced meal and were treated to some fabulous blues from Marcia Ball and her band. Two solid hours of upbeat blues that knocked us out. We should have gone home to bed after that, but no, we had got chatty with a couple of gay ladies at our table who invited us to a gay bar uptown, where we had a great time listening to some more energising live music. We finally made it to bed at 1:30. Welcome to New York!
Navigating our way around the subway system was a bit of an exercise at first - the map on my knee was a constant, but after a week in the joint, we're pros. No problem. It's a really old system, noisy as, and the on board announcements are sometimes impossible to hear because of it, but you never have to wait more than a couple of minutes and it will get you just about anywhere.
For the next week we did the absolute tourist route - all the must sees - Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Natural History, Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum of Art, Empire State Bldg, and the Statue of Liberty, pant, pant, pant.
I think, while the museums and galleries were great (you could spend a week in the Met), the one which impressed me most was the Empire State Bldg. For a building finished in 1932, it still looks fabulous and has a real presence about it. Despite being so old, it is still the 7th tallest building in the world, and as it stands pretty much on it's own, looks every bit of it's height. We did an audio tour up on the deck, talked around the town by our old mate "Tony", a died in the wool born and bred Nooo Yawker, which was actually very good and informative.
We also did a guided bicycle tour of Central park. As we were the only punters to front up, we had our guide Daryl all to ourselves. He was Jamaican born, complete with tatts and dreads, and very knowledgeable and entertaining. And yes, we got to see the Dakota Building where John Lennon was so senselessly murdered.
Nearly forgot... we did another walking food tasting tour, this time around the Chinatown - Little Italy, which filled us up and gave us a great feel for the areas. Probably the highlight was the fried pork dumplings in a special soy sauce with a touch of vinegar. Yum, and they are made as you watch - no day or more old stuff, and they are 5 for $1. Lunch for a buck - how about that! No wonder the queue at lunchtime stretches out the door.
Not wanting to leave the nights totally unattended we managed a couple of Broadway Shows - Born Yesterday with Jim Belushi, and Memphis, starring a young guy named Chad Kendall, but the whole cast was fantastic. At Memphis, best seats we could get were front row balcony to the side, which were kinda nose bleed, so at interval Susie spied some empty seats in the second row from the stage, just in from the side. Let's go down there, she says. I was aghast. What if they catch us? But she was having none of that, and down we went, and I sat tensely in the seat until mercifully, the lights went down and we were safe. Good seats? You bloody betcha - the second half of the show was much better than the first!
Now, we're sitting in an Airport terminal again, waiting to board our flight to Barcelona. Bye, bye, USA, it's been fun!
