Sarah Too

The Chicago Skyline at sunset.

I really have to thank my friend Amanda for moving to Chicago, and then I have to thank God we live in a place so close to this wonderful city.  As you may recall, Amanda moved to Chi-town in August 2008. Since then, I have been to this city 6 times. I fell deeper in love each time. I imagine more visits in the future. Here are my top reasons why:

This post is a little overdue, but I'm sure you all know by now I'm not very timely with my posts. At the end of February I flew North to visit my friend Amanda. You met her in this post, and you know where she lives from this post. Because I only had 24 hours to experience Chicago during my last trip in August, I went back for the full treatment!

As soon as I landed, Amanda and I were on the go -- straight downtown to the Willis (Sears) Tower. I've been to the top of the Empire State Building, and now this. How exciting!! The Willis Tower is awesome because recently, the SkyDeck was revamped to include clear glass retractable ledges that allow you to step out over the streets of downtown Chicago. Take a look at what I mean:



Depending on how windy The Windy City gets, "The Ledge" is pulled back closer to the building. I found that out of the information posted on the walls, too, I appreciated the information geared toward elementary kids more! I totally wanted to know what people ate for lunch in the 1940s more than I wanted to read about famous Chicagoans. Sorry, but it's true!! Here are some fun facts for your own learning enjoyment:

• The Willis Tower is 1,450 feet (443 meters) high - 1,730 feet (520 meters) including twin antenna towers.
• The Skydeck is 1,353 feet (412 meters) above the ground.
• On a clear day, you can see four states - Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan. Visibility from the Skydeck is approximately 40-50 miles (65 - 80 kilometers).
• The average sway of the building is approximately 6 inches (152 millimeters) from true center.

From the Willis Tower we took a brief walk over the Chicago River.


Then, we headed back to Chez Amanda, which is fabulous, for some down time and settling in before we headed out to Second City for the evening. Second City is an improv theater company, which has generated so much funny over the years. Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Eugene Levy, Bonnie Hunt, Chris Farley, Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey -- all alumni of Second City. We saw Studs Terkel's Not Working and we laughed our little tuckus' off!! Audience participation + funny improv comedians/ens = one funny night. I really didn't want the show to end, but maybe that was the Irish coffee and the vodka cranberry talking?

After the show, the girls split off so we could go "dance it out" at The Apartment. And boy did we dance it out, especially after these bad boys:


Mmmmm....Lemon drops!! Warms you up on a cold winter night...and gives you energy to dance, dance all night long!! Which then comes crashing down when you get home at 3 am, and don't wake up until noon? It was snowing when we left the club, and boy, did I miss snow. Florida hasn't been all that Florida-like this winter with temperatures in the low 50s for most of each day, and lows in the high 30s. So, Chicago was not much of a leap, and hey, at least y'all get pretty snowflakes!! Don't mind the whipping, bone-chilling wind, though. Who needs smooth lips and soft hands??

Anyway, I digress. Saturday morning, after a night of debauchery, dancing, and dodging dodgy characters, Amanda and I made breakfast, then headed out to for some classic, clean wintertime fun -- ICE SKATING!!!!


OMG! Good thing I practiced (roller) skating at my birthday party this past summer!! It was great to be outside, and you can't beat $5 for all-day skating. Going in one direction, like a school of fish, gets a little old, but you won't catch me complaining.

After ice skating, we warmed up with a couple of burgers and some fries at a local dive in Hyde Park -- Woodlawn Tap. Because our night out and ice skating took so much out of us, and the Olympics were on TV, Amanda and I couched for the rest of the day. We wanted to rest up for my last day in town.

On my last day in town, Amanda and I checked out the Unitarian Universalist "church" in Hyde Park. Amanda attends Lutheran seminary, which encourages experiencing other types of worship. I attend life, which encourages experiencing, well, life. So in we went.....AND an hour later, out we came feeling uninspired and slightly disappointed. We had lots to discuss. Is worship supposed to consist of reciting ones accomplishments, curriculum vitae, or resume?? Perhaps not. Both of us were left desiring more from the experience.

We spent the rest of the day exploring Wicker Park, where we discovered the healing powers of HOT PUDDING. I kid you not. This place, iCream Cafe, is AMAZING. The deal is like this: first you select whether you want ice cream, frozen yogurt, hot pudding, or rice pudding. THEN you decide what flavor you want your base to be. THEN, you decide if you want a COLOR to be added. You could have green vanilla pudding! Then, like Cold Stone, you decide what extras you want to mix in -- Nutella? Raspberries? Graham crackers? I chose raspberry HOT pudding with nutella. OMG. I thought I had made a mistake because I actually wanted chocolate hot pudding with raspberries and nutella, but NO. It was I who was mistaken. Raspberry hot pudding is AMAZING!! And when the Chicago wind is whipping through the streets, hot pudding is the ticket. If you don't burn the inside of your mouth with it's hotness!

Before I departed for Midway, Amanda and I caught some super delicious, super cheap, superhuge pizza at Piece Brewery & Pizzaria where we watched the first two periods of the hot action gold medal hockey game between the US and Canada. I learned of our unfortunate loss, and Canada's glorious win while waiting in the security checkpoint line at the airport terminal.

I had an awesome weekend tooling around town with Amanda and staying at Amanda's fantastic urban pad. Thank you, darling, for showing this gal a great time and for being such a generous hostess. There were no towel animals, but clearly, that did not detract from my enjoyment of the weekend. You did such a great job, I will abuse you for another weekend visit before you leave seminary!!!

Road trips ROCK. I love them. Mom and Dad probably just read that statement and passed out. Road trips as a youngster in the Chevy Impala -- not so fun. For them, or for my two brothers and me squished in the back seat. Maybe because those early road trips were so....um, memorable (??)...road trips now are so fun. Sure the wheels just keep on turnin', but the rest stops, the conversations, and the destinations make it all a good time.

So there we were, Amanda, Tami, and me. Shoving the last bit of stuff into Amanda's trusty Honda Accord, which was weighted down with a bike rack and a U-Haul trailer, ready to roll Amanda's ass up to her new home -- Chicago. The goodie bags filled with chocolate and other sugary sundries were also packed and ready. Let's GO, bee-atches!!

But, let's drop off the cable company's wireless router first. Ok, NOW, we can go. It's 3 PM, and we're bidding adieu to St. Petersburg by heading north up I-275 and I-75. Amanda's pet rabbit, Jackson (Jack), will not cooperate by riding in her jerry-rigged litter box. She will ride like the queen she is by riding...in the back window.


Rock on, little bunny. Just don't pee all over if you get excited. We made a couple of pit stops on our way to our first checkpoint in Tennesee. We had some Subway for dinner, and some McDonald's for fourth meal at 1 AM. Throughout the 12-hour trek, we traded off driving duties. I got the rainy, dark, a traffic-filled shift through Atlanta. Perfect, when a trailer is attached to the back of the sedan. I only made one wrong turn, and I blame the GPS for faulty instructions. I kept right, like you said, lady, and I should have kept from turning off the main highway.

We reached Almaville, TN at 2:30 AM on Friday, and Amanda's dear old friend Jeannie was waiting up for us. I think I remember saying hello before passing out on the couch for the night. The next thing I remember is waking up to the smell of coffee, which is one of the BEST scents in the world! It was a beautiful morning -- sun shining and fluffy clouds, with a hummingbird flitting by the front window -- and we would be spending the next 24 hours here before continuing on to Chicago on Saturday.

Rob and Jeannie are gracious hosts, and they showed the 3 of us around. I love summer in the north! It is so green and the colors so vivid. And the grass!! The real grass!! Again, I was having a little foot orgy in my bare feet on the grass. Right there -- real grass. One of my Top 5 Favorite Things. Feet down.

Later that day, as evening drew close, and after more friends from Cincinnati arrived, we drove to Arrington Vineyards for a picnic dinner. The location is beautiful! On a hillside overlooking the vineyards, you can picnic at the tables there as long as you buy a bottle of wine. And buy we did. The whites went perfectly with our fried chicken dinner and potato salad. We languished as we sipped the last of our bottles and watched the sun set.

After such a restful and enjoyable evening, it was hard to get up the next morning with the knowledge that we had to hit the road. We got a little bit of a late start because we stayed to chat and enjoy a homemade breakfast. Once we were on the road, it was cornfields and horse farms for a very long way through the last sliver of Tennessee and a good chunk of Kentucky. In Louisville, we stopped for "lunch" at White Castle.


OK, here's the thing. I've heard about White Castle before. I had never been there, but I heard the raves, and hell, I saw Harold and Kumar. I thought I was missing something, and I thought that THIS was my moment to experience WHITE. CASTLE.

I was...underwhelmed. Steamed on a bed of onions? Pretty much equals a bland tasting piece of square meat on a tiny bun. Oh well, you can't tell me I didn't try.

We forged on through Indiana, and then, made it to the threshold of Chicago. The tension was palpable. Amanda was at the wheel. I should say that the tension wasn't palpable because Amanda was at the wheel. It was because we were so close to Amanda's new home, and so far from her favorite home. That, and Amanda was at the wheel in an urban setting. SCAAARY!!!

We arrived at Amanda's new lodgings in Hyde Park around 6:30. The unloading of the car and the trailer went relatively smoothly and quickly. Thanks mostly due to the brawn that showed up -- Josh, Mr. Wallace, and Mr. Shadduck -- we moved boxes up 3 flights of wooden stairs and through tight spaces with relative ease. Amanda and I, after a lovely deep dish pizza made in a wood-fired oven, began setting up her new apartment. Our adrenaline took us all the way to 12:30 AM.

The next morning, we took our time starting our day before returning the U-Haul. Once returned, we made our way to the Navy Pier for some sightseeing. My local resident friend, Erik, came to meet us for lunch and a walk around Millennium Park, where we saw....the Bean. That infamous piece of tourist art that provides no end of amusement and distorted reflections. I'll let you enjoy our day, just as we did, in photos:




I loved every moment of my time in Chicago, and I know Amanda is going to take to her new home like a duck to water. Sure, winter is going to blow frozen monkey chunks, but that's only for 8 months. The rest of the time -- it will be gravy. I definitely am going back to visit because 24 hours was not long enough. There is still so much more to do and see. Wrigley Field! Hot dogs! Oprah? Maybe not, but I still haven't wandered the waterfront drunk in the middle of the night, and I still haven't been in a parade singing "Twist and Shout." Next time, Amanda, next time. We're doing the town up right.