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Part 2 of An American duder and British duderette in Chicago!

Deep Dish Pizza Edition

A couple weeks ago I wrote about the first 2 weeks of my summer in Chicago with Wrighteous86, which you can find here. We did so much over the 6 weeks that I thought it was best that I section things off a bit. So here is weeks 3 and 4.
 

The "British Pub"

Wrighteous had found a pub called “Elephant and Castle” downtown that we planned on visiting, so that I could see how a traditional British pub was conveyed in the US.
 
 
 No beer guts to be seen yet, not off to the best start.
 No beer guts to be seen yet, not off to the best start.
The decor inside wasn’t too bad, more of a restaurant feel than a pub feel, and I realise that it’s supposed to be more of a novelty British pub than a realistic one. There were framed posters of famous British people all over the walls, including Margaret Thatcher...
 
 A favourite in Northern working mens clubs.
 A favourite in Northern working mens clubs.

I ordered some Bangers and Mash and Wrighteous decided to try his first Yorkshire Pudding and I have to say that they were both quite nice, I wasn’t expecting the Yorkshire Pudding to be right, but I was pleasantly surprised. Wrighteous enjoyed it, but preferred my Bangers and Mash, even though they weren’t Heinz baked beans.

After we finished our lunch we passed by a “Tilted Kilt” and Wrighteous thought that it might be somewhere I’d like to check out... We went up the stairs just to poke our head in and have a look around and I’m no feminist, but that place really annoyed me. What about some topless guys wearing kilts, huh?
 
 Classy.
 Classy.
 

Art Institute

 After taking in all of culture at the Tilted Kilt, we decided we wanted more, so headed to the Art Institute where they were holding a Lichtenstein exhibition.
 
No Caption Provided
There was lots of amazing art there, so much that we didn’t get to see it all. I’m sad that we didn’t have enough time to see the Contemporary Art sections, as that is always a laugh. But we did get to see the Lichtenstein exhibit and I took far too many photos.
 
 My Ferris Bueller/Stewie moment.
 My Ferris Bueller/Stewie moment.

Wrighteous was shocked and appalled that this painting made me think of Family Guy rather than Ferris Bueller, but in my defense, I hadn’t seen Ferris Bueller yet at this point.
 

Deep Dish Pizza

Some of you might have seen the Mailbag video of the Giordano’s deep dish pizza that we sent to the Giant Bomb guys, mainly Dave, Vinny and Drew, back in February, as a thank you. If not you can see it here. Though after watching the video, maybe we should have sent them a big box of dry ice instead, next time perhaps!

From the huge list of food that I had to try while in Chicago, deep dish pizza was the one that I was most looking forward to. I love pizza and I eat far too much “Chicago Town, Pizza” at home, so I was excited to try the real deal.
 
 I'm sure this is blasphemous to Chicagoans.
 I'm sure this is blasphemous to Chicagoans.
 
During my time there we had a sausage and pepperoni, cheese and veggie Giordano’s. It looked more like a quiche to me than a pizza, but I was looking forward to it. Two slices was enough to fill me up and I hate to say it, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I was hoping I would. Maybe it was the same problem that I had with GTA IV, I hyped it up too much, got too excited, saw photos and read raving reviews and in the end it didn’t live up to my expectations. It was my fault, not the pizzas, I’m sorry.
 
 Please let me come back, Chicago.
 Please let me come back, Chicago.

Brookfield Zoo

Being an animal lover and wanting to study Zoology in University, we of course had to visit one of Chicago’s Zoos. We had a choice between Brookfield and Lincoln, Wrighteous thought that Brookfield was the better of the two, so we decided to go there on one of the hottest days of the summer. It happened to be an enrichment day at Brookfield, so we got to see lions ripping into a cardboard zebra stuffed with meat, and a grizzly bear fashion his own sunglasses out of a cardboard box.
 
 Poor zebra.
 Poor zebra.

 Finding ways to cool down on a very hot and sunny day.
 Finding ways to cool down on a very hot and sunny day.
We had a great time at Brookfield Zoo, where we got to pet stingrays which was a lot of fun. They felt so strange, rubbery, soft and rough at the same time, and they seemed to love being touched, constantly coming back around.
 
No Caption Provided

Downtown Beach

While Wrighteous was in work, a couple of his friends and I went to a small beach downtown, which I was not expecting to see in Chicago. 
 
 Always reapply sunscreen!
 Always reapply sunscreen!
It was a nice sandy beach, that seemed out of place in the middle of a big city, though along the shore was around 6 feet of hard pebbles and rubbish, old plastic bags and used bandaids. By the time we got home I was red raw, and I’ve learned my lesson not to apply sunscreen only once and then fall asleep on the beach, especially during one of Chicago’s hottest summers for decades.
 

Blue Man Group

That weekend Wrighteous brought me to see the Blue Man Group. I remembered seeing them on TV years ago and thinking that it looked like a lot of fun, so I couldn’t wait!
 
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 And I wasn’t disappointed. It really was an amazing show, if you ever get the chance to go see them, I highly recommend it! I wasn’t expecting them to be funny, I thought it was going to be more of a percussion and special effects show, but they really had me laughing, and at one point screaming...

During the end of the show, music played and giant air filled balls fell from the ceiling and everyone danced and jumped around trying to hit the balls, I was on the end of the row and too short to reach, but was trying my best to. Wrighteous turned and pointed behind me shouting “Look!”, I turned around eagerly expecting a giant ball to be near enough for me to hit and found stood staring at me a blue man. They are creepy the way they stare and I wasn’t expecting him to be in my face, so I think that my shriek was justified! I turned back to look at him again and he started to dance with me, so I boogied on down with a blue man.
 
 Don't look behind you!
 Don't look behind you!

Willis Tower Sky Deck

I’m not a fan of heights, so I was nervous when Wrighteous suggested that we go 103 floors up the tallest building in North America and stand on a piece of glass protruding 1,353 ft over the city, but I was game to give it a go.
 
 I'm not angry, it was sunny!
 I'm not angry, it was sunny!
I was very tentative when taking my first steps out onto the glass, but when I was out there it felt quite exhilarating actually, I could have sat there and looked out over the city all day. I even dared Wrighteous to do some pushups on the platform. 
 
 Show off!
 Show off!

Taste of Chicago

Last but not least we ended week 4 with the Taste of Chicago. I love food so I was really looking forward to it, it was a bit expensive but most of the food was delicious. We tried some Ricobene’s breaded steak, Lou Malnati’s deep dish pizza, Billy Goats Tavern cheeseburgers, BBQ pulled pork, Irish egg rolls, chocolate bananas, coconut ice, Rainbow cones, Churro’s, sweet potato fries, Chicago style fries and Polish pierogis off the top of my head. My favourites being the BBQ pulled pork sandwich, sweet potato fries and coconut ice, they were amazing! 
 
No Caption Provided

In Conclusion

It was another amazing and fun packed 2 weeks, thanks for reading my blog if you did, I hope you enjoyed it! Some time next week or so I’ll try post the final 2 weeks of our time together. It will include beluga whales, Man Vs Food challenges, Museum of Science and Industry, kart racing, Field Museum, winning big in the arcade, lake house fun and me on stage at a Myth Busters exhibit trying to dodge a paintball!
 
 It was a sweaty two weeks!
 It was a sweaty two weeks!
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