We are big in Chicago.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

"something"

The days are getting colder in Chi Town making it easier to sleep in longer, take long hot showers, eat hot breakfasts, read books, and spend entire days inside.  Yesterday started as one of those days until we read about a free burlesque show that happens in our neighborhood on Wednesday nights.  Kristina had never been to a burlesque show, so we bundled up and ventured into the cold for some hot dinner before the show.  We ate at a Costa Rican restaurant where they “charge a quarter to use the restroom and a quarter to flush” or so said the host with a straight face – drawing a reaction of confused horror from a slightly gullible, full-bladdered Kristina.  It turns out that the "host" was actually the owner of the very popular, zagat-rated Irazu Costa Rica Restaurant who took an immediate liking to his victim and even made our 20-minute wait for a table enjoyable.  We drank our byo beer and horchata while we waited and realized that the owner made everyone feel comfortable and welcome.  When we got to our table, he sent us a complimentary plate of  black bean dip and avocado to go with our chips.  The rest of the meal consisted of potato tacos, tilapia casado, spicy costa rican rice, and the two highlights- fried plantains and an incredible soy-oatmeal shake.  

 All of the food and drink was very tasty.  The casado came with a couple of innocuous looking grilled green peppers (see pic just above the rolled tacos).  Todd popped a whole one in his mouth and proceeded to breath fire, sweat, blow his nose and cry for the remainder of the meal.  Lesson learned??
All in all, the meal was excellent and the experience very fun.

We re-bundled up for our walk to the burlesque venue, Debonair but learned that the times stated on their website were outdated and that we needed to kill a couple of hours.  That was not difficult in this particular area of Chicago (Wicker Park) as it is pretty happening even on a Wednesday night.  We found a really cool Pizza place/Brewpub called Piece that had the first game of the World Series on every other of it's 20 big screen TV's.  We got to watch the last couple of innings of the Giants closin out the Rangers and enjoy a Camel Toe Egyptian Pale Ale 9.5 % abv.

Thus braced for the cold again, we returned to Debonair and continued our wait.  It turns out the complimentary champagne mentioned on the outdated website doesn't really exist but the bartender decided to comp us one anyway.  The midnight burlesque show actually got under way at about 12:45 and we'd like to say that it was worth the wait.  It was mostly worth the wait, but it wasn't exactly burlesque.  Judge for yourself but we think it was vaudeville/exhibitionist/fetish/stupidhumantricks mixed up with hipster crowd in goth bar:

 In case you're wondering, the final pic is of a girl creating a shower of sparks using a power-grinder on her metal "bikini"!

After nearly freezing on the way home, we declared the night SOMETHING. . . 

"Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom"

Our skin sucks.  Whether it is from traveling and changing climates, sampling new/different foods, or eating lots of great cheese from Trader Joes (perhaps it's stress!), our skin has not been as clear as model’s skin should be.  So, we recently did some research (as scientists do) and found multiple articles stating that dairy (being a hormone-laden product coming from a hormone infused cow) may affect skin negatively by throwing off a human's natural level of hormones.  We took that information into consideration and decided to test the theory for a month.  That’s right – no dairy for one month.  We started our experiment on October 5th (and again on October 7th- and again on October 10th) and quickly realized how difficult the next month would be.  Giving up dairy is not simply cutting out milk, butter, yogurt, ice cream and cheese.  Apparently, dairy products are in cereals, breads, protein bars and about a million other things you would never think of.  So far, it's been a solid two and a half weeks of absolutely no dairy and neither one of us is gonna get invited to do a Neutrogena ad but abstaining from dairy certainly hasn't hurt us.  We just have to be fairly vigilant especially when eating out.

Today we happened to stumble upon a restaurant called The Chicago Diner.  In our vigilance, we almost dismissed the place as a greasy spoon joint where we would never be able to find anything that our experimental diet would allow.  After another look, we decided to check it out and ended up having one of the best meals we’ve had in Chicago.  We ordered the Rabbit Food Salad, the “Meat” Loaf Dinner, a bowl of Mac & “Cheeze”, a Peppermint Hot Cocoa, and a slice of Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake.

It turns out that the diner is not only “meat free” (as the cocoa cup says) but it is actually vegan, which can usually be translated to "bland" or "unpalatable".  But for the first time in weeks, neither of us missed dairy one little bit.  In fact, the meal was incredible.  Even Kristina could hardly tell that the “cheeze” in the Mac & “Cheeze” was non-dairy.  We will definitely be going back there at least once more before we leave Chicago.  Who'da thought?

Last Windy Hurrah?

As we prepare to depart Chicago, the city sends us off with a bang!

Where to next?...We are fielding suggestions.

Traveling around making our garden grow.

Todd accidentally made it through another musical today.  Originally, we thought we purchased tickets to the play Candide, but were painfully aware during the first three minutes that it was actually a musical.  If it weren't for the wine and snacks snuck into the theater in my large purse, Todd would have left ten minutes in.  As it turns out, it was good that we stayed as Voltaire's wit, satire, and humor shined through even the most agonizing musical number.

Tonight was a learning experience since we both always thought "Box Seats" in theaters must be for VIPs or at least be very expensive.  It turns out that we got a box all to ourselves for half the price of a mezzanine ticket!  See the photo for our view:

On our way home from the Goodman Theater, we saw a billboard of ourselves promoting Hawaii tourism.  It was too dark to get a photo, but we will try again some other time.  (You can see the photo on gohawaii.com.)

Observation on Chicago Bus Riding

Without fail, when we get on a Chicago bus there is always someone who: thinks his/her telephone conversation is important enough that everyone else needs to hear it, OR is certain that the quality of music coming from the phone must blare for everyone to hear.  Rarely is either one the case.

Big Belugas

For days, we've been left hanging.  Our quests to visit the Shedd Aquarium and the United Center have been unfulfilled.  But, today, our cups were not only filled, they truly runnith over!  We made it to the aquarium where we spent most of our time ogling belugas.  These photos show Todd's new friend Kayavak, an 11 year old beluga whale.  (Check out the video of them flirting with each other!!)

Oddly enough, most of our time at the Bulls game in the United Center was spent ogling other big belugas...

Talk about hanging and cups that runnith over!!!  Go Bulls.

Waimea Bay Or Lake Michigan?

Indian Summer has struck Chicago, and to celebrate the 80+ degree weather, we headed to North Avenue Beach!  Nothing like playing volleyball on a hot Sunday to make us feel at home.  Kristina got her first: game of two's, game of three's, win, kill, dig, serve for point, and kill for "aloha ball".  The backdrop for Chicago volleyball is pretty dramatic:

And the sunset made for a pretty cool skyline photo-op:

On our way home, we stopped at Mana Food Bar in a happening area on Division Street to sample tapas al fresco.  We LOVED the roasted eggplant soup and the quinoa with almonds currants, mint and tangerine dressing!  The Korean seared tofu with shiitake mushrooms and the pumpkin and plantain tamales were good too.  We will definitely be revisiting the food bar for more eggplant soup when it gets colder!

Life Lessons Through Swimming

We spent the last day of our three-day pass at the uber-posh Gold Coast Equinox gym enjoying  four hours of the fitness center perks.  First, we got our butts kicked in a "Pilates on the Ball" class.  Second, we got huge with our usual chest, back, biceps, triceps, and legs lifting routine. Finally, we swam in the lap pool where Kristina swam 25 yards with only one breath!  (For someone who plugged her nose every time she went under water just a year ago, this was worth celebrating.)  Perhaps a life lesson to be learned from this swimming exercise is that some limitations can be overcome.  We are not too sure, but there is something to be said for efficiency, and calm under pressure.

Diesel jeans and calf-height boots are urban-chic!  (You'll see...)

Club Hopping

One interesting thing about moving from one place to the next is the free gym trials that are available in each new city.  In Chicago, there is a plethora of gyms and fitness centers waiting to give tours of their facility and temporary access passes in exchange for a name, email and telephone number.  As long as one doesn't mind doing the tour, listening to their "you're gonna love our gym" spiel, and ignoring their calls, one can basically go from one gym to the next and never have to pay for a membership.  Currently, we are enjoying a three day trial membership to the Gold Coast Equinox gym.  There is a three lane 25 yard lap pool, three studios with many classes to choose from, and locker rooms that are fully equipped with Kiehl's products.  The place is posh and we are sore.  Once our three day trials memberships are up, we have seven day passes waiting for us at Bally!

Science And A Steakhouse

In a city full of professional sports teams and sporting events, October 4th, 2010 was bereft of opportunities for the three of us (Todd, Jim and Kristina) to take in some action.  That turned out to be fortunate for us as we ultimately decided to get more cerebral and visit the Museum of Science and Industry.  We were all impressed with the Omnimax and many of the exhibits.  Todd and Jim got a kick out of the floating ball exhibit (though they couldn't tell you exactly what theory was on display).

We didn't even make it through half of the museum, and we are considering an encore in the next few days.

On a recommendation by Jim Getchel, we dined at Smith and Wollensky on the river's edge.  There, we enjoyed some of Chicago's finest dry-aged beef and an incredible bottle of 2005 Chateau Montelena.  Mmmm and mmmm.  Thanks for the wonderful dinner Jim!  You can come visit us anywhere, anytime.

Lessons Learned - Chicago

While exploring our new city, we have learned a few things about Chicago:
*The public transport system is slightly more efficient than Hawaii's and pails in comparison to NYC's.
*It is called the windy city for a reason.
*Don't go too far west of Western Ave at night.  "We're not in Kansas anymore."
*Geno's East Pizza, while famous, is incredibly unremarkable. Unfazed, we will continue our search for a great deep dish pizza.
*Pleases and thank yous are rare and in fact Todd was almost knocked over by a girl in a hurry for free wine.
*While visible to pedestrians, crosswalks have no meaning to drivers.
Despite the seemingly negative reviews above, there is an undeniable pride amongst the residents of Chicago.  We look forward to being enlightened.