Chicaaaaaaago!

My first weekend in Chicago has taught me, if nothing else, how much of a pain in the ass this trip will be if I don't figure out a better vehicle organization system. In a nutshell: for clothes, a suitcase just doesn't cut it. Obviously I packed enough clothes to last me at least a week in between necessary washes, but that also means a pretty hefty suitcase. Between shirts, pants, socks, etc., digging through a suitcase in the back of a Jeep with -8F Chicago weather bearing down is not how I want to spend 30 seconds of my life. Lugging a suitcase around is impractical. Better planning is in order, but I digress.


The best thing, so far, about this town is clearly the food. Had a local pizza favorite, Lou Malnati's on Friday night, which was actually some of the best I've ever had. Thin crust New York style just doesn't do it for me being from the Midwest, and this was much better than Uno's.


On Saturday we dined at a is a Mexican "restaurant" called La Pasadita - which has a pretty ridiculous burrito. The carne asada was absurdly good.


In order to avoid severe coronary damage, however, we had to spread the Chicago culinary extravaganza across several days. The next stop on our list was up in Evanston, IL, near Northwestern, a little place called Sarkis Cafe. Apparently it's a local favorite, and after sampling the food I can see why. They're specialty is a sandwich called the "Disaster" - I tried the "Disaster" on steroids, known as the "Animal:"





Yesterday, on my last day, we decided to hit two of the local favorites, (apparently you can't come here without getting a hot dog) The Wiener's Circle and Smoque, which is a pretty amazing BBQ place for being "in the middle of nowhere" Chicagoland.




I have a lot of the touristy pictures, but if you want to see better pics of the Chicago skyline, just google it....

Picture blogging is a pain in the ass. Off to St. Louis. Ted Drewe's better be open...