Chicago Day 2

Another beautiful day & night around the City. We were told that it snowed over the weekend, 3 days before we arrived. We had seen some snow accumulations along Pennsylvania but I had checked the weather forecast and temperatures were supposed to be getting milder. Boy! Am I glad it did because we left our winter coats at home. Pheew!

I am going on reverse for a change. On our second full day in Chicago, we had a nice reunion dinner at Tarascas, a Mexican Restaurant at Lincoln Park - a 10 minute walk from our Hostel. We had a fun night with Adrian's former classmates from SIU. Tarascas was so packed, we had to wait 40 minutes for our table. The place served a mean burrito dinner and fusion Mexican/Caribbean food and a "fish bowl" size Margarita. No kidding! There must had been like 4-5 shots in that big bowl. As you can see, our faces were a tad pink from the Margarita plus sun & wind burn from walking around the City. Hey, Chicago isn't called the Windy City for nothing.

Chad & Chris are the SIU boys. Anett and Hilary their respective significant others. Thanks for coming down to see us. We hope to see y'all in the East Coast some day ;) And, congratulations to the parents-to-be; Anett & Chad who are expecting their first baby in August.

The Magnificent Mile



A yellow sight-seeing boat - Chicago River. The river was murky green in color. I wonder if the green dye from St. Patrick's Day had something to do with it???

Look! It's Larry, Curly & Moe. Oh, no. It's the Robert Morris, George Washington & Hyam Salomon Memorial. Location: East Wacker Drive at North Wabash Avenue.

Crossing these roads and reading their names aloud made me feel like someone is about to be whacked or bashed anytime. A befitting reflection of the City's violent mob past???

Someone gave Adrian a photo of a unique round parking lot in the e-mail quite sometime ago. It's nice to see the real thing for myself.

We were heading back to our Red Line "L" and passed the ABC News studio at State Street. A steady crowd of people congregated outside the studio and we couldn't resist peeking into a live news broadcast.


Chinatown

Chicago's Chinatown is so small that we finished the entire area in less than 15 minutes. Hee...hee!

A notable 9 dragon wall read: "Welcome to Chicago's Chinatown".


River North neighborhood

We were walking towards Hard Rock to expand our t-shirt collection when we passed the Chicago Chop House. Yup! I did have morbid thoughts of all things dark & gruesome going on in there. Only if you've seen The Hostel or Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I'm sure in reality it's a nice restaurant serving Chicago's best chops. Just not human or pet chops, I hope?!

Excalibur - Adrian's old party place. It's still a "happening" place. From Chicago Historical Society (c. 1892) to discotheque/club. How swell!

That's it for Day 2.