Chicago gets a bad rep. Thoughts of gangsters, from Al Capone to the more modern-day types, popped into our heads at the mention of the city. Happily, our stay there has completely flipped our preconceptions upside down!
Camping in Chicago is not really an option, so we treated ourselves to an AirBnB stay with the lovely Sam and Rose. Their beautiful flat was a great base to go out and explore the city, and it was wonderful to get to chat to a couple of locals! Just around the corner from the apartment was the Lagunitas Brewery. We’ve been to a whole bunch of brewpubs and microbreweries on our trip so far, but this place is on another level.
As you walk through this enormous beer factory towards their bar, you’re sucked into the “world of pure imagination” scene from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – quite literally. They’ve got the song playing as you pass through the dark, trippy corridor… the bar itself sits high up in the factory, so while you sip on a freshly made Lagunitas brew (or two) you can watch the production line zip by. Seriously magical for any beer-lovers like us! We were so engrossed that the manager had to kick us out at closing time, coaxing us out with a load of free beers.
An Amtrak train quickly took us right into the heart of the city the next day. Our day of sightseeing began in Millennium Park, where we stopped by The Bean. It’s such a pristine version of a city park, with excellent views of the high-rise skyline.
The Chicago river winds between towering skyscrapers as if eroding its way through a rocky canyon. The riverwalk alongside it is a fantastic way to appreciate the city’s impressive architecture, although if we were to go another time (with a bigger budget) we’d probably take one of the architecture boat trips so we’d have a guide to explain the history behind it all.
A couple of foodie things were crying out to be tried while we were in Chicago: deep dish pizzas and hot dogs. Yes, apparently Chicago-style hot dogs are a thing, made out of an all-beef frankfurter and topped with a luminous green relish. To be honest, we didn’t see what the big deal was when we tried one at Portillo’s… but on the walk there, we came across a pop-up Westworld exhibition which got us a lot more excited!
A drink at the top of Hancock Tower gave us an awesome view over Chicago as the sun set that night (and a relatively thrifty way of getting the bird’s eye view, compared to Willis Tower).
Only one thing remained to do: taste a deep dish pizza. The classic (read: touristy) place to get one is Giordano’s. Be warned, if you’re ravenous, this might not be the place for you, as each pizza is lovingly baked once you order it, for at least half an hour. When ours turned up, it was surprisingly different to any other pizza we’d had before. It was almost like a pizza quiche! Delicious in its own right, but not really what I would refer to as a pizza, in my humble opinion.
Anyway, with leftover “pizza” in tow, Aleks and I left the not-so-windy city behind: to start our journey through the national parks of the west!
The Big Adventure 