Chicago aka The Rocky Horror Train Pizza Nap Con

 Day 1:

    We had a plan to meet at the metro and ride the train in.  Most of us really like riding the train because you don't have the restrictions of flying and get to see more of the journey, but no one has to drive.  Parking at the metro also means that we will get free parking and it would be pretty easy to get home when we fly back.  Once we rolled into Union Station we made ourselves comfortable and I got a pesto crepe from Crepe Lena.

  Train to Chicago was a lot of fun.  We had Heritage unit 145 on our train, so I felt special.  We got two adjoining sleeper rooms so we could create a suite.  Unlike the train to Florida, this one made a few stops.  The food was still pretty good but we couldn't just hang out in the observation/dining car.  We also learned that you can turn all the lights out, so I slept a lot better.

Day 2:

  Before we headed to breakfast we saw some police escort some people off the train.  I thought it was going to be the guy who wouldn't wear his mask properly, but it turns out it wasn't.  That guy was in front of us in line for breakfast and practically ordered everything off the menu.  The guy working the counter was alone and had to make the breakfast boxes for everyone on the train.  He was definitely overworked.

  We got off the train and grabbed some snacks before wondering around.  I wanted to do some Geocaching and there was one right there.  Shane got to see his first one.

  We knew one of the foods we wanted to eat were some Chicago hot dogs.  We went to Devil Dog and I got the Chicago dog with fries.  They didn't have any space for dining in right now, so we walked out and ate our food sitting on the curb.  A few police even went in there for their lunch while we were eating.

  There was still a bit more time to kill before we could check into the hotel and Steven's boss suggested we go on a boat tour.  We went with Wendella Boats.  Our tour guide was Joe and he was great.  I would go again and even see if I could get Joe again, though next time I'll try and remember sunscreen so I won't get unburned.

  This was our hotel.  The soap was some of the best I've ever had at a hotel.  When we walked in we didn't know what to expect for the bed arrangement.  We had one bed and one pull out couch.  The pull out couch had you pull the backrest forward to pull the bed out.  That was a new one for all of us.

  While you will get a bunch of different answers on which one is the best, Pequod's Pizza is where we decided to start.  We wanted to start with one that wasn't a chain.  While waiting for a table we saw a limo try and take a sharp left turn and annoy almost everyone around him.

  It was unanimous and we got pepperoni and sausage.  One of the best parts was that we got to sit upstairs and Shane didn't even know there was a second floor.  It takes about an hour to make and I really liked cheese crust, but it was a bit heavy and I didn't even try and eat my second slice.

  We rolled back to the street to get an Uber back to the hotel to watch movies, have a few drinks, and to just digest before falling fast asleep.  Four Rooms is a pretty good movie.

Day 3:

  Who knew lyft had bikes to rent?  People in Chicago do.  I really liked how there were so many bike friendly places to go and even some biking roads that follow along with major roads.  It would be so easy to bike/walk/jog to almost everywhere you need to go to.

  Our legs were hurting from the pedaling so we decided to take a walk around the Navy Pier and spend some money on some shot glasses and sunglasses.  I think a seagull liked the sunglasses that Shane got because he almost flew into him to take him out.  It was a close call and I didn't even have my phone out to record it.

  It was time for a late lunch so we went to Johnny's and got some Italian beef.  It was so good.  I normally hate soggy bread, and the hot peppers were making the bread soggy, but the flavor was so good that I kept eating it.  The fries might have been too much, but the cookie (not shown) was really nice and unexpected, especially since it was in a bag labeled French Fries.

  The Leather Archives and Museum was really cool.  It's pretty inexpensive to get into and while the venue is a bit small, there is a lot in there.  I learned a lot and there was cool art and some history, I would go again to look at more because they had so many buttons and badges to flip through.  Steven had lunch with his boss, so he wasn't with us, so next time he can hopefully join us.

  Cookies!  We passed an Insomnia Cookies earlier in the day and I was impressed that you can get cookie deliveries until 3am.  I wasn't hungry, but I got a hankering for cookies the second time around.  They had a big order come in, so we had to wait a few minutes before we could go in and get any ourselves.  I only got one because I didn't want too much sugar, but they weren't too sweet and I could have easily eaten more than one.

  There was a strange guy waiting for the cta train who stood really close to us and didn't seem to believe us when we said we didn't know when the next train was going to arrive.  After all the adventuring there were some naps needed to get enough energy to go to dinner.

  Our second pizza dinner was at Lou Malnati's Pizza, got sausage and pepperoni again because that is the best way to really compare them. This one only took about 30 minutes to make.  I almost ate my two slices because the thinner crust and chunkier sauce made it feel like a lighter pizza.  I like the main part of the pizza better than Pequod's, but the bare crust bits are a bit tough and don't have much flavor.

  On the cta train back to the hotel there was some guy was serenading us on the Pink Line.  He was very confident about his singing abilities, we were less so.

Day 4:

  It was a rainy day, so we had a hard time getting our day started.

  Steven wanted gyros, so off to Greek Town and then to Greek Islands we went.  The portions were crazy and we definitely ate too much.  We could have split entrees and desserts and not felt so full.  We shared the flaming saganaki, I got the moussaka, and we got the baklava.  If we go back we'll have to coordinate food choices better so we have room for everything.

  Shane had to go catch his flight home and the rest of us had to figure out what to do on our own.  Bill wanted to go walk to the waterfront and I needed to get out to get some of the full feeling to go away.  While we were out I saw a guy call out to a pair of ducks and they just walked over to him like little feathery waddling puppies.

  Since we were in Chicago, we had to go to Millennium Park and see Cloud Gate.  The area around it was marked off, so you couldn't get too close.  I think it's pretty funny looking, but in a good way.  It's supposed to be a drop of mercury, but I like how everyone just calls it a bean.

  The Crown Fountain kept getting my attention as we went in, so I wanted to see it before we left the park.  It was not what I was expecting, but was cool and creepy.  A face slowly went through a few emotions on two glass brick towers.  We didn't stay around long enough to see if it was just one face or if it cycled through a few.

  We wanted to get to the third pizza place on our list, but we were all still so full from lunch.  We debated skipping dinner, but our desire to get all the places on the list into the trip won out.  At first we were going to get get a medium, but when we saw it we decided a small would be better.

  Giordano's Pizza took 45 minutes to make, so the production time was right in the middle of the other two.  We wanted to keep the sausage and pepperoni variable consistent.  I joked about it taking 25 mins to seat us, 45 mins for the pizza, so we should pre-order our pizza...turns out we could have!

  I think this is the winner for me.  I like thin crust pizza and this one still has that type of feel to it.  The ratio of sausage to pepperoni was also a lot better.  I also liked the bare crust because it was more light and flakey.

Day 5:

  Time to go home.  We finished packing after a night of not sleeping very well.  Luckily it was an easy ride down the Blue Line to the airport.

  Bill forgot to take his Switch out of his backpack and got his bag pulled to the side.  One other guy had a hunk of frozen meat and the baggage guys said he thought it was going to be a burrito.  There were the usual people who didn't pull out their quart bag of liquids or were trying to bring too much into the terminal.

  Emily and Joey were our flight attendants for the flight.  The flight was nice and smooth and even shorter than we thought.  Once we got our bag it was time to find the free shuttle back to the Metro.  All we had to do was to drop Steven off at his place and then drive home.  Even though there were a lot of naps taken, I think we got a lot done.  I got to see everything I wanted to and eat all the things I wanted to try.

  I got a lot done on the hat too.  It has one less row of increases and while it still seems big, it's more the size I was thinking of with the first one.  The change in the increases isn't making the slope angle I was hoping for, but I like it a lot better.  I have some leftover yarn from the first hat so I probably will have some with this one too.  I'm thinking of making a third with one less increase row.  I think it would be interesting to not only have the columns switch colors, but also change to a new color entirely.