America: A Diversion in Chicago

Last time I got sick of writing posts you were in New York. I was in Denver, but that's because I'm lazy and its taken me three weeks to get any photos off my camera. You were in New York, and as far as I'm concerned, that's where you still are.

On the last full day in NYC, we did a walking food tour. Basically a New Yorker who loves his food, herds tourists around like cats, showing them all the best places to eat. We took the train from 50th and 9th, a few blocks from the hostel, to Penn station, where the tour began. After some introductions, we took the train back to 50th and 9th, because it turns out all the best food in New York was on 9th street, just around the corner from the hostel.

He ate with a felafel in his hand.
(I'm regretting this line now. When I first thought of it, I was going to do a title for all the other food tour photos, but it turns out I don't actually know that many titles about bakeries or cheese cake. Feel free to come up with your own for the next 6 pictures. And then keep them to yourself, no one want to hear how clever you are.)

Outside NYC's smallest bakery
There is only room for a line of people parallel to the counter and a thin path for you to get out again. So when 30 tourists show up at once, we have to line up on the street. Completely worth it.

From the cheese cake shop.
Anyone worried for our waist lines can relax, I've missed a couple of healthy options between the bakery and the cheese cake. Also we were walking, so the calories don't count, right?

The NYC 'dog was started in the 1920s to feed unemployed people for 50c. Today it costs just over $2.50 for two hot dogs and a drink. Still the best hot dog I've ever tasted.

As you can see, we found our happy places. If anyone is going to New York, look for "Food on Foot" tours and sign up to one as early as you can. They are a great experience in themselves and the guy who runs it apparently knows every restaurant in New York, so you will eat like kings for the rest of your stay. "Be warned," he says, "if you eat in a chain restaurant in Time Square after one of my tours, I'll find you and kill you."

The next day we picked up our car, and went to Boston. I'm not going to write about Boston, partly because my sickness got worse, so I slept through most of it, but mostly because the only reason I'm writing at all is to do something responsible with my photos, and I didn't take any in Boston, because I was sick and I slept through most of it. Harvard was pretty and I got to eat in Cheers. Well, not the real Cheers, but a place with a very similar name.

Next stop was Washington DC. I spent a day getting better, then we walked around and saw the monuments.

There were so many, we didn't know if we were coming or going...

At one point, I actually exploded!
That sequence was in no way staged.

If this video works, its the ceiling of the Library of Congress, if it doesn't then it is 11MB of fail.

From Washington DC, we drove to Chicago. On the way we spent a night in Ann Arbor, which is a collage town. The whole place is built to sustain Michigan University and populated almost exclusively by students. I had no idea such places existed, I was so impressed by the idea, that I bought a football. This may well be the only time I've ever owned an egg shaped ball unironically.

Day one in Chicago was a day trip to House on the Rock. It's either an impressive, eclectic collection of some guy's junk, or the worst curated museum in the world.

Coolest thing I saw was a pair of wale's ear drums.
There's not much perspective in that picture, but they about the size of my fist. (When I get home you can ask me how big my fists are.)

The next time I took an useful photos was on our first full day in Chicago. (I'm really bad at this tourist thing.)

For the three days we were in Chicago we enjoyed flawless sunshine and 28 C temperatures. Two of us promptly went out and hired bicycles.

Look Mum, no teeth!

Our trusty steeds.
Possibly the worst bikes ever, but a great way to see the view.

The bike paths in Chicago are very straight, much like most of the roads in America. Riding on the right wasn't too difficult, but I'm used to doing shoulder checks over my right shoulder, so in order to see anything, I had to basically turn around.

You can ride along the lake for almost the full length of Chicago, but we only rode for a few hours from Navy Pier, which is more or less the most central point.

Just north of Navy Pier, they have a beach. Chicagoans are very proud of that little beach, and as nice as it looked, I put a toe in the water, there is a reason the only swimmers we saw were wearing full body wet suits. It'll take more that a weekend of sunshine to make that a swimming beach.

The rest of the Chicago weekend was spent eating and drinking very, very well indeed. We all generally decided that Chicago was our favourite place and we would happily live there if it weren't for the sneaking suspicion that for a large part of the year it would be snowing and cold.

After three weeks in the USA we had only made it as far west as Chicago. So we booked tickets to a Football game the next weekend in Boulder, Colorado and set ourselves for four days of driving on very straight, very flat roads.