Saturday, March 9, 2013

Nathan and Will visited, and so should YOU

Nathan and Will just left after a week's worth of visiting. I'm using their visit as an excuse to compile a list of awesome Chicago things to do. This is for you, friends-who-have-yet-to-vist-Chicago!

Come see us, and you'll have the chance to...

- Eat deep-dish pizza three times, from three different restaurants ("or my name's not Nathan Van Patter!"): Giordano's, the Medici, Lou Malnati's.

- Stroll on Broadway, buy a hat in the wrong size, and have it re-sized by the excellent folks at Goorin Brothers Hats.

- Hike to and from a free acoustic blues luncheon at Buddy Guy's Legends (in the biggest blizzard in years, if you're as lucky as Nathan and Will were).

- Be overwhelmed by the size of the Art Institute of Chicago ("We spent so much time there, and we didn't even see the famous Seurat!")

- Taste the Chicago Mix (caramel popcorn and cheddar popcorn), not from tourists' favorite Garrett, but from Southside gem MotherButter's.

- Cobble together a donut tasting in the city's new artisanal donut mecca, River North, featuring FireCakes, Fritz Pastries (visiting the neighborhood for a pop-up shop), and (almost, if they hadn't sold out for the day!) Donut Vault.

- Get coffee at Intelligentsia, Bow Truss, and Bridgeport Coffee Company.

- Share a Pork & Cider meat pie at Pleasant House.

- Watch a 95-year-old bridge across the Chicago River undergo a total reconstruction (all right, you can only really do that if you visit in the next three weeks).

- See the seething arctic ice at the edge of Promontory Point (if this doesn't sound fun, visit in the summer and replace "see the seething arctic ice" with "swim").

- Play the Haunted House game A LOT (I am always up for this, btw).

- Join Haymarket House for whatever happens to be going on (ironing a book? tasting 12-year single-malt scotch? building shelves? playing TWO games of Dominion simultaneously?).

- Learn to navigate the CTA and the Chicago street grid.

- Contradance at University of Chicago (or decline to do so, due to fatigue from so much walking around).

- Be surprised by whatever new exhibit is at the Chicago Cultural Center.

- Pick up Indian takeout from Rajun Cajun and Chicago-style hot dogs from Hyde Park Gyros.

- Find the Lincoln Park Conservatory's small dinosaurs (they're really in there!).

- Visit the Lincoln Park Zoo (at closing time to see the animals doing their thing).

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh my gosh, yes! I've never been to Chicago. Can I come visit one day? It probably won't be this year, though...

Unknown said...

Super jealous. I don't know that I'll ever be able to visit; but then again, my name isn't Nathan Van Patter, so it's less of a requirement to come and eat three deep dish pizzas at three different places in a week.

Denise said...

I would love to be able to visit! I'm trying to go to 3 different places domestically this year so Chicago is definitely on the list! Miss you guys! =)