chicago

what ridiculous fun can be had in this city. and by ridiculous i do not necessarily mean in a childish or frat boy way - though that was covered too. some highlights from just the first day because i don't have time for a complete post:

Arriving at 8:30am - sure, it was no fun waking up as early as we did to catch the plane, but I wouldn't do it any other way. It meant we had plenty of time to drop our bags and

Be at Frontera Grill when they open at 11:30. There was a significant line, but thankfully we snagged a table on the first seating. Oysters, ceviche two ways, carne asada, pork tacos - all delicious - as were the margaritas which set the tone for the remainder of the day. We were desperate to find another cocktail at 1pm. In a town like Chicago, it shouldn't have been an issue but we had only been there a few hours and were already a bit in our cups. So we took this LONG walk around only to stumble in to the lamest bar at 1pm ever. I won't even name the name because maybe it would have been fun at night. So we quickly finished up those drinks and

Headed to the Blue Frog for more drinks which was recommended on Yelp and nearby.

Quick side note: To the iPhone apps Yelp and HopStop: thank you.

So the Blue Frog reviews talked primarily about their karaoke at night, but also of all the old school board games they had. Since it wasn't night and we don't sing anyway, we tried to play a few but was sort of not as much fun as it could have been (we should have played All My Children!) so instead we bellied up to the bar to meet all our new Blue Frog friends and watch Jeopardy! and drink what ended up being too much. These friends included but were not limited to Cliff (the bartender who bled later in the evening) and then Julie and Larissa (there are some people who will find that hilarious - we did). After far too many drinks, food was in order so we settled for a recommendation by the nice frog folks for

Deep dish pizza at Pizano's right down the street from our hotel on State Street. It is sort of a good & bad thing that our only Chicago pizza experience was while we were hammered. I don't think i am a real fan of this style pizza - i really do like my crust doughy and bubbly and wood fired. Still, it was tasty and one slice sure did help with all the alcohol swimming around. But only one slice - man, that was filling. So we arrived in Chicago at 8:30am and we

Passed out in Chicago at 8:30pm. Yep, FAST asleep. 2/3 of us threw up - I was the lone wolf - which means Day One was a TOTAL SUCCESS.