Week 93: Chicago!
- elenalilamartin
- Oct 14, 2024
- 5 min read
Week 93: October 6th-12th, 2024
I've always loved big cities, and I've always loved birthdays, so this week was amazing because I got to combine the two and surprise my friend Sam in Chicago for his birthday!
This was a long awaited weekend trip that the five of us girls were desperately trying to keep secret as we planned with Sam's boyfriend. I wasn't worried about spilling the beans myself, but some of us are known to be a bit loose lipped when it comes to secrets and surprises, so we were afraid Sam was going to find out.
The plan was for us to fly in on Friday and gather at the next door neighbor's apartment. Their neighbor was out of town, so she graciously let us stay at her place to save money on hotels. The neighbor would text Sam, asking if he could check that her window was closed because the forecast showed potential rain. We yelled "SURPRISE" when he walked in. The plan was executed flawlessly, and we successfully surprised him! He was so shocked and happy, and even cried a little! It was awesome.
Sam and his boyfriend live in an apartment in West Loop. I loved West Loop! It was a great mix of retail, good food, activities and more. It was crazy that some really famous restaurants like Au Cheval were just down the street.
Sam and his boyfriend share their apartment with two wonderful dogs, Rory and Piper. They are well-behaved and so affectionate! Piper even came in and sat right on our suitcases as we were trying to unpack just to feel involved. She is so me.
After settling in and giving the dogs one last pat, we walked a few blocks from West Loop to the River Walk and got some wine and appetizers at City Winery. Sam and his boyfriend were amazing tour guides as we explored and I really enjoyed being able to walk everywhere because we could see more of the city.
At City Winery, we watched tons of boats go by, ooh-ed and aah-ed at the crazy penthouses at the corn cob building, and were gently reminded of our tax bracket. There were tons of people enjoying the warm Friday night along the River Walk, and for a second, I started picturing myself enjoying living in Chicago.
After a walk home, for dinner, we sat on the apartment's rooftop and enjoyed a classic Chicago deep dish pizza from Nancy's.
It was hilarious, but we all were incredibly fascinated by the McDonald's corporate building in West Loop because they had a rotating menu of global items. We opted out of the McDonald's and enjoyed a delicious birthday cake and watched the latest episode of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.
The next morning, we got coffee and breakfast at Good Ambler (the quiche lorraine was so good!) and then explored Gold Coast and River North for some shopping and sightseeing.
We went into Shinola, a watch and leather goods store, and got our auras read by a woman with a table there. We put our hands on some sensor connected up to a laptop for about 30 seconds while the woman read our aura and explained our lives to us. It was very random, and I'm not sure how much I believe anything she said, but it was definitely interesting.
We walked around the Magnificent Mile and then headed back to West Loop to charge our phones and rest.
I was incredibly blown away by the sandwiches from J.P. Graziano's, a classic Italian sandwich shop where the louder they yell, the more they love you. I still believe in a past life that I was a heavily accented Italian guy in a bustling city somewhere, cause I felt like I was home.
A trip to Chicago wouldn't be complete without a visit to The Bean and Millennium Park. We walked past hundreds of people and even went through a security checkpoint to get into the park. I kept joking that these people must have traveled from far and wide to Chicago to surprise Sam alongside us, but they were really there for the Chicago Marathon, which, by the way, is insane!
We walked past the Art Institute and Lurie Garden to Lake Michigan and I tried to wrap my head around the fact that this massive, endless body of water was NOT the ocean. It was crazy.
After a fun, yelling-to-have-a-regular-conversation dinner and pregame at Bandit, we started our night out at Goodnight John Boy in West Loop and ended the night at Roscoe's in Boystown.
Throughout the trip, the Chicago River was a really cool (and often stinky) character in our story. I loved the River Walk and am so glad the city of Chicago has new ordinances in place for public access to the river front. Apparently all construction and renovation must include free public access to the water.
On my last day, we continued the birthday celebration with brunch right across from the apartment at The Allis at SoHo House. We had the most delicious food and I felt fancy going somewhere that requires a membership like Soho House.
We got lucky with finding a last minute architecture boat tour with enough tickets for all of us and booked it to the river. I absolutely loved the architecture tour and plan to check out the tour guide's podcast, Oh, Malort!, because she was very endearing and funny. There were grey clouds looming over our heads as we listened to her joke about the Willis tower being spelled S-E-A-R-S, and the few drops of rain that eventually fell didn't bug me as we learned more about the city.
Getting older and living farther apart from your friends is hard, but trips like these make it tolerable. If I had my way, I'd have a commune-type property where my friends and family live in one neighborhood with shared amenities and we wouldn't have to catch a flight to see each other. Sometimes, though, traveling to visit friends is fun, especially when it is a birthday surprise! My first introduction to Chicago was amazing, and I plan to return when there aren't screaming cold winds blowing me around. Any place where the train stations have little metal boxes to provide heat in the winter scares me a little.
I always toy with the idea of living in a very different big city like Chicago for at least a year, but that won't happen till at least early 2026. While in Chicago, I got approved for an apartment and just signed a lease at a new place in Mission Valley! Thank you all for suffering through this awful apartment search with me, but we're through the hard part. Now onto unpacking from Chicago, re-packing all my stuff and moving house!
See you next week.
P.S., Apologies for the late post, even though no one is really going to care or take away points from me, but I got in very late and had work all day!
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