12:30 pm January 20, 2015

On our way out of Wisconsin, on Monday, we couldn’t leave without stopping by the Mars’ Cheese Castle. This place is definitely a tourist trap, but was entertaining all the same. It is basically a fancy gas station that looks like a castle and is just off the interstate in southern Wisconsin. The highlights of this stop included tacky souvenirs, Wisconsin post cards, free crowns/balloons and some high quality photo ops.

The castle in all its glory.

We had a random man take our photo and he cut out the castle. Fail. But the balloons and crowns were awesome.

I figured the crown should be colored. Pretty sure this got left in Chicago though..

We got to Chicago around noon. In Chicago we stayed with Melissa Bernat, another of my good friends from Valpo. Melissa is a nurse and had worked the night shift that night and gotten home earlier that morning. But she was a champion and hung with us for the whole day on minimal sleep. She lives in the Wicker Park area of Chicago. After unloading our mass amount of luggage, we were definitely ready for lunch, so we called up Liz Madary and Russell Deghi, a few of our other Valpo friends who live just down the street from Melissa, and decided to do lunch at a taco place called Big Star. Melissa informed us that this place is a big hipster hang out, but had great tacos. It was a beautiful day, so we walked there. The place was packed and we had to wait quite a while for a booth to free up, so we sipped on some margaritas by the bar in the meantime. Eventually we got seated and ordered our food. The tacos were stellar (see picture below). I ate all three.

They tasted even better than they looked. And they look amazing.

After lunch it was time for touristy activities. We took the train into downtown Chicago. Sightseeing highlights included, Millennium Park, The Bean, Sears Tower, various other tall buildings, and the Magnificent Mile. We ended at the John Hancock Center. We found a groupon for cheaper admission to the 94^th level sky deck, so we decided to do that. From there we had spectacular views of the whole city. Later, we got an Uber back to Melissa’s place and then all met up at Liz and Russell’s place for dinner. After much debate and discussion, we settled on ordering in pizza from Gino’s East. This was my first time having true Chicago deep dish pizza. It was phenomenal.  After dinner we hung out for a while and played a game called Snappa. It is played in teams of two and involves throwing a die in an arcing path across a table in an attempt to hit your opponents’ cups which are set up on the other side in such a manner that the other team can’t catch the die before it hits the ground. (I think that makes sense, if not, just know that it is a drinking game.) It is actually rather difficult or at least I thought it was difficult. We were also entertained by Layla and Angus. Layla is Kristen’s (Liz and Russell’s other roommate) dog and Angus is Liz and Russell’s. Angus had more energy than you can imagine and probably would have played fetch for days if we would have been willing.

Classic bean selfie. The only thing it's good for really. 

We are sooooo photogenic....

The bean. Because you have to see it.

Dan taking a selfie/looking at his own reflection. A common occurrence on the trip. 

Check out the cool buildings. Nerd alert. 

Just an awesome photo Kileigh took. 

A nice one of Meowlissa and I at the John Hancock.

And another cool photo by Kileigh. Here phone camera is magical. 

Posing with the entire city of Chicago.

Later in the evening, we decided to check out the bar scene. Melissa knows all the daily food and beer specials at nearby places, so we ended up at a bar called Fat Pour for Fat Pour Mondays. They serve craft beer and on Mondays the deal is that you can get at Fat Pour, a 22 oz mug, of the majority of their beers for $5. It was a great deal and we spent the rest of the evening there.

Having fun at Fat Pour

We once again slept in on Tuesday morning. This is becoming the norm, but is definitely needed. We woke up in time for Melissa to watch the majority of the Price is Right which she was quite happy about. But due to extreme hunger, we headed out for brunch before the final showcase. We picked up Liz and Russell again on the way. Melissa chose West Town Bakery and Diner as our brunch destination. She once again described this place a hipster hang out. I’m starting to think that all the places in Chicago are in hipster areas. But hipster or not, the food was once again on point. I went with an avocado benedict option. So good. Melissa also mentioned that this place made cake balls. I inquired at the bakery and found out that on Tuesdays their cake balls were half off. That was all the convincing I needed so I went ahead a bought a dozen in assorted flavors. Don’t worry, I shared them instead of eating them all myself. After the cake ball purchase, we walked back to Melissa’s and said our goodbyes. Our time in Chicago was short, but just as enjoyable and excitement filled as each of our previous stops.

So many cake balls, but they were soooooo good.

We’re now headed to Valpo for the afternoon and evening and then scooting off to Fort Wayne, IN to spend the night. Brunch put us slightly behind our originally planned schedule, but it was worth it and we should get into Valpo around 2 pm.