Chicago - Day 2

On my free day in Chicago, I figured it was my one chance to see what the city was all about. I've always wanted to watch "Wicked," so I figured what better place than Chicago. I loved the theater in LA, but never thought the shows in norcal were as good as the ones down south. I signed up for lottery tickets for the show. I didn't win, but a sweet lady who was by herself hooked me up and I got to sit on the first row. I was blown away. I was balling the whole I watched Les Miserables, but I thought Wicked was even better. Amazing story line, great talents. Plus, it was a real treat watching the lil kids ask the guys in the orchestra pit questions.

The next stop took me to Millenium park, where they have the cloud gate. I'm not exactly sure what it's supposed to be, but everyone affectionately refers to it as "the bean" because really, it looks like a big metal bean.

I swung by the Chicago Institute of Art to check out their art collection. Seriously, their collection is sick. They've got a huge collection with Monets, Van Goghs, Picassos, etc. It's not the Louvre, but then again, what is. It's like a scaled down version of the Met in New York. It was nice, but it's been so long since I've studied art history. I couldn't really appreciate the art. It wasn't as amusing without the backdrop of the artist who got sued, or got bad reviews for knocking up the art critic's wife...that's the good stuff.

For dinner I swung by Portillo's Hot Dogs. As far as hot dogs go, this place was damn good. Either way, I got hungry again late at night, so I trekked out again for some more pizza. I got lost, but as luck would have it, I walked into Pizzaria Due. The story behind these restaurants is, the chicago deep dish pizza was invented at Pizzaria Uno. The restaurant did so well, they opened Pizzaria Due across the street. The guy even opened up a mexican restaurant called Su casa because he missed his tex mex. The question being, if Uno is the original, why did I got to Due? Well, I didn't know the story until after I ordered my pizza and started reading the menu. Anyhow, my take on chicago deep dish pizza. It tastes almost idential to Zelda's pizza in Sacramento. I shit you not. The sausage and cheese is a little higher grade, but otherwise, we're not missing much out at sac.

My thoughts. New York is great, but I love Chicago and would head out there in a heartbeat if I got no love from Cali urology.

-bender