We hunted down a place a "few" blocks from our hotel and staggered out into the viciously windy city to calorie load. In an attempt to be adventurous I ordered the bacon waffles with fried chicken and spiced maple sauce. In hindsight I'm not entirely sure why I did this, but i can only assume I believed I was now a black American basket baller. I was later assured this is a frequent curse of attending a Bulls game. Casey had eggs Benedict upon waffles which looked significantly more appealing! The hot chocolate flights were the saving grace; Miniature hot choccies with either a peppermint, caramel or chocolate twist to them.
Walking back into town after breakfast, we found some "modern art", which seems to be Chicago's big thing. A bit weird and creepy, but a fair few bodiless pairs of legs made great fun to run and play around... until our naughty waffles threatened to resurface.
At last we had made it. The reason we came to Chicago in the first place. The place where the magic happens and dreams come true and youthful good looks last forever... That's right. We were finally at the Bean!! More accurately known as the Cloud Gate, this is by far, hands down my favourite piece of art I have ever seen. Huge, beautiful and reflective of the impressive surroundings, I decided then and there that if we did nothing else that day other than stare enigmatically at the supreme beauty exuded by the Bean that I would be a happy little Geronimo.
Fortunately Casey was able to drag me away from the sirenic pull of the luscious Bean and we charged off into the theater district in an attempt to get some culture up us. I thought watching Chicago at Chicago's Broadway would be spectacular, but as luck would have it, it wasn't showing. After hearing nothing but good reviews and both liking the writers, we instead set our little maple-laced hearts upon The Book of Mormon. A fast moving funny play which tells the tale of two little Mormons who finish their studies at Mormon school (Or something) and are then released into the big, bad world to pass their teachings on. The two we follow get shipped off to Uganda, which is a seemingly impossible task. A definite must see if you can handle laughing at bitter reality. I imagine it'll come to Australia one day... Hopefully the bean does too. *wistful sigh*
The following day we had breakfast in the French restaurant in the hotel lobby. I had some peculiar cheese-melted-on-a-sandwich sandwich (Had some fancy French name in an attempt to disguise the vile heart-disease-inducing meal). Felt a little like I needed another shower after consuming what I could of it.
In an attempt to cleanse our cardiac systems we walked to the Great Lake and walked beside it up to (you guessed it!) the (glorious) Bean. As there was yesterday, there was again an ice skating rink under the beautiful Bean. So we put our wrist-breaking, finger-slicing, patella-shattering fears in the back seat and strapped a couple of boots with knives onto our pesky feet. Despite it being Caseys time (and my third or fourth) there was only one stack, which was executed perfectly by myself. I have not even a clue how it happened but suddenly I was on my stomach with a painful knee. But having the Bean glistening in the winter sun above me was motivation enough to get back on up. The affair ended bitterly in Casey losing one of his gloves... Which was never to be found again. Although I embraced him as he wept over his loss, I myself knew the glove would be happy, having being lost meters from the Bean.
Nothing makes a person happier than trying to swindle their way up a ridiculously high building in an attempt to snap away skyscraper shots. As the Hard Rock Cafe loomed ominously in front of us, we decided that this could just be the one. We entered the empty lobby, found the elevator and hit the button to the 36th floor... Only to find out it had no windows. Ruffled but not put off, we progressed on our tall building hunt. We scoped out the Trump International Hotel & Tower, and wandered in. We were unable to get any higher than the 16th floor (Obviously Donald has better security than the Rockers), where there was a sky lounge. Still high enough to see the Great Lake and a large portion of the city, including all the parallel drawbridges.
Satisfied with our "sky"-high snaps we pressed onto Magnificent Mile to shop along the most famous shopping street in Chicago. Gucci, Guess and Forever 21 (Supre equivalent) lined the streets which were lit mostly by fairy-light adorned leaf-less trees. After dragging Casey about for a few hours we figured we should probably call it a day and get a curry. And what could sound more authentic than Gaylords Restaurant. Controlling our giggles we enjoyed Rogan Josh, mystery chicken and garlic nan. Great fuel for the 27 blocks we had to walk back to our hotel.
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