Meanwhile, somewhere in America...

The nicest people you'll ever meet.

As we left Chicago it finally rained.  And rained and rained.  It didn't stop until we got out of Illinois.  Luckily we were going to one of the nicest places in the world.

Welcome to Fort Dodge, Iowa

Stan and Gail were people the Liar and I had met in a pizzeria in Vienna, and they invited us to stay with them as we crossed the midwest.  They weren't kidding; we arrived to find four beds made and ready for us, a dinner table laid out and steaks already prepared.  We ate vegetables fresh from Stan's garden and talked about places we had been and things we'd done.

There were two kinds of brownie.

Gail had made an astounding dessert; cakey brownies and fudgey brownies, served with ice cream.  The leftovers were packed for us to take with us on the road.  They provided amazing sustenance for our trip.

I had both.  And ice-cream.

That night we all slept like infants.

Looking out over Chicago

Drew Mitchell is an Australian Rugby Union player.  Lou Mitchell's is a diner around the corner from our hostel in Greek Town.  To date it is the best breakfast we have had in the United States.

A real diner.

After this culinary delight we made our way north east, making for the John Hancock Center.

We kept wondering if "Drake Sold Out" was the name of the show.

We passed the MCA again on our way up and found a fresh food market, which was a delightful surprise.  I always feel bad about bitching while I'm on a massive holiday, but getting fresh food is a real hassle on the road.  This was a great find.

Fruit!

We had picked up 2-for-one vouchers for the John Hancock Center, so it was a very reasonable morning out.

The John Hancock Center in Lego.

As an experience it crapped all over the Empire State Building in NYC.  The JHC experience included a free audio tour, recorded by David Schwimmer, which was just as irritating as it sounds.  It was also very informative.

East

South

West

North

We went for a wander down Michigan Avenue, the Magnificent Mile, making for Millennium Park and the Art Institute of Chicago.

A swarthy man in Lego

The weather was perfect, so we snapped a bunch of photos in the park.

A big silver thing at Millennium Park

The big silver bean.

That evening we caught up with my father's cousin, Fiona, and her family.  They took us to Piece in Damen.  Fiona clearly knows the appetites of twenty-something Australians well, as Piece is a fantastic pizzeria/brewery.

No really, I'll get the large

Fiona, Ray and Dana were great company.  Dana and Ray introduced us to 'white pizza,' made with garlic sauce in lieu of tomato.

Dana holding dessert.  Which I ate.

Fiona takes the Talk and the Skeptic through some must-sees

Ray and Dana with the remains of the white pizza.

Afterwards Ray suggested we check out a bar called Cans (pronounced 'Cairns') where there was a trivia night in action.  We were too late to take part, and irritated other patrons by shouting the answers to general knowledge questions.  It was a good last night in Chicago.

Meanwhile, somewhere in America

Streets and eats in Chicago

The thing I liked most about wandering around Chicago was the city itself.  The buildings all battle for your attention, thrusting their colours and shapes at you as you wander down the street.

Let's meander a little.

Far canal...

The Liar and I went for a wander north-east from Greek Town to make our way to the MCA, while the Talk and the Skeptic went to ride along the lake.

One for my nerd buddies.

What a nice church.

As it turns out, MCA is closed on Mondays, so we chilled on the stairs for a while.

Stairs of the MCA.

The view from the stairs of the MCA.

That evening the Talk, the Skeptic and I jumped the blue line north to Damen for dinner.  A waitress in little Italy suggested we check out Big Star, which did tacos and bourbon like nobody else in town.

I can't remember what this was called, but it had chihuahua in it.

Afterwards we went to watch the Vikings/Jets game at a bar around the corner.  They had a mezzanine level which featured the most comfortable bar area I've used in ages.  We were rooting for the Jets, and arrived just as Brett Favre threw two touchdowns during the 3rd quarter, turning a white-wash into a ball-game.

It's just like a lounge room!

Unfortunately the man can throw a 30 yard touch-down but can't make an 8-yard pass, and the Jets scored an interception and sealed the game up in the closing moments.  We went home disappointed, but glad to have had a great night out.

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.