Chicago, Illinois

When we said we were on our way to Chicago, we were really spurred on by the many encouraging comments we got, like "Do you have a gun yet?" and "Let me know if you need any cash when your wallet gets stolen".

Well, we survived to tell the tale and our experience made it easily our favourite city of the whole trip so far!

Located on the far south side of Lake Michigan, Chicago was the last stop on our tour of the Great Lakes as we headed west.  It's made the most of its magnificent lakeshore, with miles of beaches and stunning parks with distinct personalities.

On the approach via the I-90, the skyline rose triumphantly into view and the huge thunderstorm we drove into only made it more dramatic.

In fact, it seems impossible to find a less than perfect view of this skyline.  Plenty of opportunity to endanger the general public as you walk, ride or drive around open-mouthed, focusing on taking photos.

Chicago's not particularly RV-friendly and from what I hear, you wouldn't really want to park and and sleep at the mall here anyway, unless you consider crime-fighting to be a fun nocturnal sport.  Unfortunately I'd forgotten to pack my Batman costume, so we had to think laterally.

We ended up at a truck marshalling centre, which is basically where all the trucks park and unload while a major event is going on nearby.  It was fenced off, had 24 hour security, was 2 minutes from the city's waterfront trail and not too far from downtown, so we couldn't really ask for more.

Our view from our "campsite" as the storm raged on:

The next day the storm, which shook us so hard that we thought we would be overturned, had given way to brilliant sunshine, so we got on our bikes and headed for the waterfront trail.  This led us a couple of miles up the lakeshore towards the city.

The sky was blue, the waters were shimmering in the sunlight, the waterfront sculptures were majestic, the boats were expensive, and the tramp who fell out of a hedge wearing what looked like a skirt, raincoat and flip flops was drunk.  But he added a touch of character anyway.

We followed the trail as far as Millennium Park, one of Chicago's cultural centrepieces.  It was intended to celebrate the millennium but wasn't completed until 2004.  Ah well, better late than never, it's an impressive mixture of fountains, gardens and sculptures.

One of the most well known exhibits in the park is Cloud Gate (more informally known as "The Bean").  It's a huge steel sculpture by British artist Anish Kapoor that's designed to reflect everything around it:

You can walk underneath it and get some interesting images:

Here I am with the bean doing a hilarious pose that I'm sure no-one's thought of before:

As usual, food was a focal point of our visit, so after the park we made our way to our pre-planned lunch venue, Gino's East (as seen on Man Vs Food), for some authentic Chicago deep pan pizza.

The interior of the restaurant had years worth of graffiti all over it, making it look fairly grimy, but I guess this is an iconic place and the graffiti, along with the celebrity photos on the walls, is how they display their history.  We came for the food anyway!

Frankly I'd be embarrassed if any of my friends reading this needed educating about pizza but for anyone else's benefit, the unique thing about a Chicago deep pan pizza is that they fill the pan with dough, then add the cheese, then the topping, then the tomato sauce.  Kind of the reverse of a normal pizza and it's filled to the extent that it resembles an actual pie.

We went for a large half and half "Meaty Legend" and "Gino's East Supreme" pizza, which the waiter told us was about 7 pounds.  He wasn't helping us out with a british currency conversion; the pizza weighed 7lbs.

I ate my 4 slices.  Sharon let the side down by only managing one and a half, but somehow by the time we left, with 3.5lbs of pizza rapidly expanding inside me and the thought of a 5 mile cycle ride home, I didn't feel like much of a winner!

The rest of that day was basically a write-off thanks to that particular food coma.  The next day we checked out the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower), for some spectacular panoramic views of the city.  At $16, this was about half the cost of the CN Tower in Toronto and in my opinion the views were far superior:

Glass floors seem to be quite an obsession with whichever sadists design these kinds of places.  The Willis Tower boasts an entire glass ledge that you can walk out on.  Determined to redeem myself after the CN Tower, I made it out there long enough for this photo to be taken:

What was underneath me?  No idea, I wasn't stupid enough to look!  Maybe Sharon can tell you:

We wanted to check out the nightlife that night.  Two things stand out to me about Chicago's musical heritage: House and Blues.  With neither of us knowing anything about Blues music, in the interest of experiencing something different we headed out to one of Chicago's most well known Blues venues, Kingston Mines.

Open virtually every night until 4/5am, Kingston Mines has been playing Blues non-stop across 2 stages to locals, tourists, blues legends and celebrities since 1968.  The night we were there, a guy called Sugar Blue was on in one room.  I never thought I'd be talking about the way someone played the harmonica, but then I never realised it was possible to play one like this.  Honestly the guy was pretty incredible, as was his whole band:

In the first room, there are TV screens positioned around the perimeter which show what's going on in the second room, obviously without any sound.  I'd been glancing at these from time to time and was intrigued to hear what this lady, Joanna Connor, was playing:

So when Sugar Blue took a break, we made our way over to the other room, which was standing room only by this point.  I was surprised and enthralled in equal measure to hear her absolutely shredding it on the guitar.  It was relentless:  There were crowd-pleasers and recognisable tracks, punctuated by epic and effortless freestyle sessions.  It was probably a good half hour before she opened her mouth to sing (presumably to give her fingers a rest) and, of course, it turns out she has a powerful and soulful blues voice as well.

Honestly, the fact that you can go to a local club and hear this kind of talent makes it all the more depressing to have Will.I.Am's latest audio abortion bashed against your ear drums 50 times a day on major radio stations.

Nice of her to treat us to her "pleasure" face as well:

On that note, that about wraps it up for an amazing few days in Chicago.  Except for this, which I cannot explain but will just leave here anyway: