March 2016
Chicago is one of those places that I've been familiar with through the years mainly because of so many various TV shows set there. As a kid, I watched Perfect Strangers (anyone remember TGIF?). In high school and college, it was ER and Chicago Hope. Then more recently, it's been NBC's Chicago Fire, Chicago PD and Chicago Med. On top of this, I feel like I know Chicago and the rest of Chicagoland because I've been a loyal listener of the Eric & Kathy morning show on WTMX in Chicago for well over a decade. However, I'd never actually been to the Windy City. This trip finally corrected that. We spent 7 days in Chicago. We stayed right downtown in the Loop, a block south of the river. Over the course of the week, we walked approximately 50 miles, climbed 201 flights of stairs and road the L 22 times. We covered much of the city (at least the downtown area) while even finding time to spend a relaxing evening with a cousin who lives out there. To say that Chicago is an incredible food city is an understatement. My normal diet was suspended for the week as we checked out the best places to get real Chicago deep dish pizza, Chicago dogs and Italian beef along with stops at Harry Caray's and Mike Ditka's. Oh, and don't forget the Portillo's chocolate cake. Check out a list of our dining experiences below.