chicago: day two

We had tickets to see the Chicago Cubs take on the Cincinnati Reds Saturday at noon. Luckily, Justin and Brett live pretty close to the stadium, so we set out on a little walking tour of the neighborhood before gametime.

Justin and Brett's building. They had such a great set up and lots of space. They have been doing a ton of work on the interior themselves and it looks awesome! It made me want to renovate something! Maybe I will get motivated for more building projects in my apartment...

Our tour guides took us down this cute little street lined with row houses. Reminded us of Brooklyn!

We didn't document it too well, but each house is supposed to have a unique door even though the house styles repeat as you travel down the street.

Wrigley Field!

Other than the rules, I know very little about baseball, especially stadium history. Apparently, Wrigley Field is one of the oldest baseball stadiums in the country (second only to Fenway Park) and wasn't built like the gargantuan stadiums we know today. The bleachers in the outfield have only been slightly modified over the years and are still quite low. I was amazed to see that the apartment buildings across the streets built bleachers on their roofs and were packed with people watching the game! At first it seemed like such a fun idea, but come to find out, no one even lives in the buildings anymore and they are purely a money making operation for game days. Innovative at least!

Turns out baseball is pretty boring and we skipped out a little early. At least we beat the crowds to try my very first Chicago-style Hot Dog!

Justin and Brett would have rather taken us to the Wiener Circle but these dogs were still pretty good.

no dish + no spoon = no trash

I agree 100% :)

Backyard snooping and general walking tour of the area.

There were so many awesome decks! I wish we could see more of these in NYC.

Justin and Brett's deck was awesome! I could see myself hanging out there a lot.

We stopped to look at a project Brett's firm worked on. The house was incredible!

We had some pre-dinner drinks at this restaurant/bar tucked away on a residential street.

Bike Gang! Luckily Justin and Brett had 3 bikes for us to use while we visited. Then Brett decided to buy a new one! It worked out perfectly for getting all four of us around.

In addition to the hot dog, you must try deep dish pizza when you are in Chicago. We ate at Gino's East which has a great corner location with outdoor seating. We had to wait a bit for a table but it wasn't too bad because the restaurant is BYOB and apparently drinking in the parking lot isn't frowned upon :) We need more places like that in Brooklyn!

I didn't know what to expect with this pizza other than a food coma following its consumption. It was pretty yummy but definitely heavy. I was expecting a lot of bread but it was sooooo much cheese. Glad we tried it but I will stick with the thin stuff!

After dinner, we sluggishly rode out to the lakefront. Look closely and you can see the four of us admiring Lake Michigan. 

Kurt set his little camera to the longest exposure possible to capture the skyline and boats on the water. Such a long, fun day! I was beat and definitely slept well that night!