I grab the train and head out to the suburbs of Bucktown/Wicker Park for a Food Tasting and Cultural Walking Tour.
This is a chance to get out of town into the neighbourhoods and see some of the local and popular food. The tour is capped at 16 people, it's a more mature and I'm going to throw out 'sophisticated' crowd, all from around the US or Canada, so I'm immediately the exotic one here and I enjoy sharing stories of my travels so far and how I ride to work on a kangaroo.
We visit six different food places as well as walking around the streets discussing architecture and the history of the area and the gentrification that has occurred.
First stop is Georges Hot Dogs, the number one rule of a Chicago Hot Dog is no ketchup. But put in everything else you can think of including a pickle on-top.
We then stop for a great iced-chocolate and home made marshmallow.
Next is a local grocer/deli for some antipasto.
Then onto a pizza restaurant which also houses a micro-brewery, we sample the beer. If you notice something strange with the number of beers I have. Well, being friendly with the old ducks paid off, two offer me theirs. I'm not exactly a beer drinker, but I also can't refuse alcohol.
This is a middle-eastern restaurant where we had some delicious falafel.
And finally some ice cream from shop iCream, the fascinating part of this shop is you can create your own. Pick the milk, flavours and add-ins like nutella etc. But wait you say, ice cream takes ages to set, you'd be waiting forever or coming back the next day. Introduce liquid nitrogen and you've now got instant ice cream, genius.
I then race back to town via the 'L', today's schedule is tight.
After making my way down the river, with minutes to spare I board the Little Lady boat for a river cruise, it is hosted by the Chicago Architecture Foundation and discusses the buildings on the city skyline whilst taking in the atmosphere of cruising through town.
Half way through the tour this fantastic smell came across the boat, evidently there is a chocolate factory not far from town and depending on weather conditions a lovely chocolaty small wafts across the city! Yum.
The following building is called Merchandise Mart, across the road from the hotel we stayed in, the building is so large it takes up an entire city block and has its own postcode.
Once back on dry land I grab a bite to eat and head out to the Blue Man Group show.
The show is a sensory overload, a theatrical experience. Three guys that don't talk, painted in blue banging drums with paint and many other unique and funny things. Highly recommended, unfortunately no photos, probably fortunate for my camera, I was in the front row and they provided ponchos for the first five rows!
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