Following an 8 hour, 400 mile ride through the beautiful countryside of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois, we entered the Chicago area and checked into our room at the Hyatt. Our good friends, Mike and Lexi, picked us up and took us to the best pizza place ever, "Giordano's"!!
A deep dish Chicago pizza to die for!
We arrived at the restaurant at 9 p.m., ate our pizza, (yes, we ate the whole thing! Can you say "Pizza Coma"?) & sat and talked till midnight!
A great time reconnecting with this wonderful young couple. We are so blessed to have them in our lives.
After our 8 hour motorcycle ride and midnight pizza marathon, we didn't get out of bed until 10 a.m. the following morning!
We took the CTA train into the city and boarded the Wendella's River and Lake tour boat. A guided tour of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan.
Then we took off on foot to explore the city and seek out its culinary delights!
But first we came upon a cigar store and Kathie just had to have a Perdomo Corojo! Here she is with her new friends, Jim, Steve and Tim.
We continued our journey and on Steve's recommendation, we headed to Portillo's,
where we feasted on a Chicago style hot dog!
We made our way to the Billy Goat tavern and grill, the restaurant that was made famous by Saturday Night Live's "Cheezborger, Cheezborger Coke no Pepsi".
Took the train back to O'hare and the shuttle back to our hotel for a good night's sleep.
The next morning Mike and Lexi picked us up and were our tour guides for the entire day! First, they took us to a Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field! An amazing ballpark built in 1914 right in the middle of a neighborhood. No parking lots, no parking structures. We saw a gentleman holding a parking $15 sign so we followed him down and alley to were it dead ended. He directed us to park in a single wide 100 year old brick garage! It was amazing! the ballpark is beautiful, the fans were super and the chicago dogs were awesome. We had a great time.
Then it was a off to "the bean" a huge 110 ton stainless steel mirrored kidney bean!
Actual name is the cloud gate. But it is one of Chicago's main tourist attractions. It was an amazingly beautiful bean!
The Hancock Building was our next stop. We rode the elevator to the 96th floor! We ordered drinks and sat for 2 hours and enjoyed the beautiful view from our window seat!
But wait, the day is not over yet! We hunted down an Italian restaurant that was featured on diners drive ins and dives, alas it was closed on this Labor Day Monday :-(
We found a Thai restaurant "Opart Thai" on the southside of Chicago. Lexi had been there 1 other time and it was great. Started our dinner with an appetizer plate, then pad thai noodles, pad kee mao, and fried rice. We finished off with fried bananas and thai custard!
Every part of our journey so far has been Wonderful. Our visit to The Windy City was very special due in large part to the time we were able to spend with
Mike Dewyze and Lexi Lach!
thank you Mike and Lexi for being such gracious tour guides!
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