Chicago: you light up my life

En route to Chicago we made a couple of stops in Indiana, one to get fireworks from this massive fireworks warehouse right on the border with Ohio, the other for a dinner picnic in West Lafayette. Got to Chicago with a night view of the downtown district, accentuated by frequent flashes of heat lightning in the clouds, and checked into our hotel out by the airport.

In the morning (after giant waffles) Kuem dropped us off close to town (around the Chicago versions of Little Italy and Chinatown) before heading on her way back to Ohio. We made our way to Michigan Ave and then followed it towards town, going pretty slowly as it was around 34C and humid as all get out. Got as far as Grant Park then collapsed on the grass near the planetarium and aquarium with Lake Michigan at our feet and our packed lunch plus a Chicago style hot dog (very messy, though not nearly so bad as a Chilean style one if you recall that debacle).

Stayed put for a good couple of hours before we could consider moving again and then only to find a little beach nestled in beside the planetarium where we paddled in the extremely refreshing (read: freezing cold as ice) waters of Lake Michigan. I honestly don't know how people were in any further than about ankle deep, though you did go numb pretty quick and it was ridiculously hot not in the water.

Walked through Grant Park proper (Lollapalooza will be held there soon, sigh) to downtown. Went briefly into the foyer of the Art Institute, came out and the air was even hotter and heavier for a moment and then came the rain! It poured. And thundered (the loudest, closest thunderclap either of us had ever heard - it literally hurt the ears) and lightning split the sky. So of course we decided to get as close to the Sears Tower as possible, the tallest building anywhere around, and the tallest office building in the USA. I feel like some life lesson I should have learned is not to seek out the tallest structure when there's that much electricity in the air, but i figured it would get hit not us if anything, and anyway nothing that dramatic happened.

Since the storm kind of ruled out any other outdoor activity ideas we decided it must be time for dinner so, trying to dodge the weather as much as possible (Chicago downtown does not provide much shelter e.g. in the form of shop awnings etc), we made our way several blocks to Lou Malnati's deep-dish pizza place that had been recommended to us by a friend of Jon's. It was super packed and we were told to expect an hour and a half wait, which was fine by us as it was dry, there was beer and it was earlier than we'd intended getting dinner anyway. As it turned out the wait was less than an hour until "The Lou". Delicious, and a perfect dish for drying out to.

Caught the train back to the airport/hotel and prepared for our sneaky fireworks mission. Thankfully it had stopped raining, but once again the lightning was putting on a spectacular show. We had half a dozen mortars and a box of buzzy bees to set off without drawing any unwanted attention to the illicit activity (although fireworks are perfectly legal to buy at any time, they're not necessarily legal to set off). Scoped out a quiet, relatively dark carpark around the corner from the hotel and let them fly! It was exhilarating. These were REAL fireworks.

On Saturday we hung around the Wicker Park area/neighbourhood. Wicker Park was pretty nice, a good spot to eat our pizza leftovers, before all the sunbathers came out in force. The area was recommended to us by the same friend as it has some cooler shopping, quite a few vintage places and great wee gift/knick knack shops etc. There was also a block party happening on a side street which was cool to stumble upon, as well as some big urban scavenger hunt so lots of people running around frantically in silly costumes, asking people to take pictures of them doing odd things! Got to see behind the scenes of one of their tasks at "The Boring Store" where they had to write a haiku then shoot targets with suction darts. Good old fashioned fun, but in that heat? no thanks.

After demolishing a scrumptious choc-chip cookie-pizza with vanilla bean ice cream from another Lou Malnati's on the train platform we had to leave to catch our (rather turbulent) flight to Denver. Wasn't cancelled like many flights that weekend and only delayed an hour. Before we left the whole sky turned purple. Thanks Chicago.