We woke up the next morning to find snow falling! The ground was covered in snow and the town looked very pretty for it. We had decided to check out Cloudgate (or the Bean as it's known) which was about a 20min walk from our hotel. While walking down the Magnificent mile, which is Chicago's famous shopping street, we got the amazing aroma of popcorn. I looked around and spotted Garrett popcorn which I had read was a Chicago staple and a must try. So naturally we had to check it out. They are famous for the Garrett mix, which is a combination of cheese popcorn and caramel popcorn mixed in one bag. I thought that the flavour combination sounded weird enough to work so went for a bag of that. All I can say is that it was the right choice. Seriously delicious. We couldn't stop eating it, and the small bag was big enough to last us a few days :)
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| Snow glorious snow... |
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| Popcorn goodness |
The Bean is in Millennium Park, which was beautiful in the snow. Chicago has many statues and artworks dotted around the city, which means there is something new to look at around every corner. The bean is quite fun, we spent a good amount of time looking our reflections in it. :)
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| Millenium Park |
When you think of famous Chicago food, you should think of deep dish pizza and hot dogs (with everything except ketchup!) We had read that Portillos is the place to go for authentic hot dogs so thats exactly where we went. The place is made to look like old days market stalls and has all kinds of knick knacks on the walls. I went for the Italian beef sandwich which according to wikipedia is a
sandwich of thin slices of seasoned
roast beef, dripping with meat juices, on a dense, long
Italian-style roll, which originated in
Chicago where its history dates back at least to the 1930s. It was delicious, although Jeremy said he couldn't get over the slightly soggy texture that bread gets from the beef. I really enjoyed it though. The hotdogs were definitely the highlight of the meal though.
We had booked tickets before we left to watch the Chicago Bulls play the Charlotte Hornets, so after a quick stop at the hotel we made our way to the United Center to watch them play. Before the game there was loads going on inside the stadium. We spent a good while walking around and just soaking up the atmosphere. The game itself was really fun, although the basketball is almost a sideline to the production that happens in the timeouts. There was always something different going on between each quarter, with cheerleaders, dancers and the mascots. MacDonalds also had a promo on that if the Bulls won the match and scored more than 100 points each audience member got a free big mac. By the last few minutes the Bulls were on 98 points and winning. Queue the entire stadium on their feet chanting Big Mac, Big Mac and being upset that the team just held onto the ball in the dying moments rather than taking another shot.... Gotta love America!
