So in September 2014 I went to Chicago. I blogged about how I almost missed it after sleeping through my alarm, and promised further updates. Unfortunately, due to the move down to London almost instantly afterwards, I ran out of time. I did however, keep a diary for the majority of the trip, which I can dip into when I want. There will be more to come over the next few days, and possibly some food talk.

We began our trip, after eventually arriving, by staying in Lake View at a couple’s Air BnB. I promptly broke the bed, by sitting on it (I hadn’t even started on the burgers and deep dish yet, oops). Unfortunately, on the first day, Tom was feeling pretty horrendous with a Migraine and post long flight come down. So I was left to my own devices. I promptly walked to the lake and got myself sunburnt while I sat looking across the lake and reading.

When Tom was finally feeling better, we did a similar day, where he got to check out the things I had the day before when he was feeling sick. He took a dip in the lake (he was determined) and we checked out a Slam Poetry night, at a club recommended by our hosts (this is one of the things I love about Air BNB, we’d not have gone if we hadn’t been staying there). We also took a chance to grab some Dino’s pizza (although we had another chance at Riotfest. This is some seriously good american style non deep dish pizza. Mac & cheese pizza is a great thing).

Our time in Lake View was short as we wanted to move closer to town for the main chunk of the stay before Riot Fest and moved to our second of three Air BnBs we had booked that week. This was by far the best of the three. With very friendly and chatty hosts (Kira even drove us into town one evening) in a very nice apartment that was perfectly placed for transport, some great eateries and a wonderful dive bar. It was mid move that we grabbed the first burger of the trip, from DMK. I opted for the patrami burger, which was pretty satisfying. A smashed patty from pretty good beef. I’d recommend, but there are better burgers to be talked about later in the trip.

Once moved we headed downtown, and up one of the two main tall buildings that Chicago has on offer; The John Hancock building (if you do it, I don’t recommend tilt, it’s just a waste of money and a gimmick). The views across Chicago and the lake on a clear day like that were superb though. We then headed down to Navy Pier, where were preceded to wait until it was getting dark to go on the Ferris Wheel. For the whole trip we were fairly sure people thought we were a couple, and this was one of the main points. SO romantic.

That’s all for part 1. Check back over the next few days and I’ll stick up part 2. Which features pizza, burgers, hot dogs (all of which in the space of 24 hours) and a big shiny bean.