Chicago

The Windy City is quite miserable in the winter time. The wind coming off of Lake Michigan is brutal. I once got a minor case of frost bite on my legs from the snow sticking to my pants while the wind was blowing extremely hard. It was alright though, I was tough and fought through it. The city itself is very clean, much more so than NYC. The subway/El makes it easy to get around the city. St. Patricks is a great time to spend in the city. There are numerous Irish Pubs around the city and they dye the Chicago River green. The pizza up there is some of the best around. Pizzeria Uno, Lou Malnati's and Gino's East are some of the better Chicago originals. I have a difficult time eating the sauce because of the chunky tomatoes that all offer, but the toppings and crust are awesome. Each of the pizza joints have several locations around town. Chicago pizza is good, but I am more of a fan of New York Pizza. Other local favorites include the Weiner Circle, where they will yell obscenities at you, Portillo's, which has AMAZING hot dogs (Many Illinois locations) and a cool local restaurant, Harry Carrey's. It's an Italian restaurant located off of Kinzie Street just north of the Chicago River. The only brewpub that I have visited in Chicago is Goose Island in the Lincoln Park area. They have another location in Wrigleyville. The beers were good and the food was tasty as well. I think the entire group ordered burgers and there were definitely no complaints. The beers of choice were the India Pale Ale and the Nut Brown Ale. They have almost 15 beers on draft including several specials throughout the year. Wrigley Field is simply amazing. The Cubs can be terrible and they will still sell out every game. I have only attended one game and it wasn't until the 4th inning that Russ and I found tickets cheap enough to get in. The stadium is very cool and has one of the best baseball atmospheres that I have experienced. The two St. Patrick's days that I have spent up there have been spent at Rush and Division, a small little nightlife area north of downtown. They have several different bars in the area, all of which try to offer up something different. Mother's and Mother's Too were where we spent most of our nights. Across the street at a bar that I can't think of the name, there is a dance club upstairs, which I don't necessarily like, BUT they have a camera up there and you can watch everyone make fools of themselves on the TV's downstairs. They also offer up 22 oz Fat Tires. I know its very sad, but when I found out that Chicago had Fat Tire during St. Patty's day last year, it was one of the highlights of the trip. For sightseeing, check out Sear's Tower and Navy Pier. Chicago ranks up there as one of my favorite cities in the states, however, the winter cold is what knocks it down a few pegs.