Taste of River North - 7.17.11

Sunday, July 17 started out like any other day. We were basically in recovery from The Chicago Challenge, the scavenger hunt that we had done the day before (more on that later). Our big task of the day was to make it over to our neighborhood street festival, the Taste of River North.

Wendy and I moved to River North from Lincoln Park after our first year of living in Chicago. This was a move made for financial reasons (we didn't feel we needed a second bedroom and we certainly didn't need a garage parking spot), but ended up having several other perks. It is much more convenient for both of us--Wendy and my workplaces are almost exactly one mile south and east of our place, respectively. We now have a doorman-- which offers not only a more secure living situation, but I also no longer have to break down any doors due to us locking ourselves out. We also have a huge food and wine market (Galleria Market) on the bottom floor. Needless to say we've enjoyed living in our building.

River North is an awesome neighborhood, to boot. Situated not too far from old site of the Cabrini Green this part of Chicago's downtown was somewhat of a no man's land (depending on what part of RN you're talking about) until as recently as the 90's. Some might tell you a little more recently than that. Now, however, it boasts the highest concentration of art galleries in the US outside of Manhattan, it's teeming with restaurants and clubs, and is a destination for people all over the city. We live in the western part of the neighborhood, which lies a safe distance from the more touristy part of the neighborhood (Hard Rock Cafe, RocknRoll McD's, Gino's) and maintains a good bit of originality. We rarely have to walk more than a couple of blocks to do our banking, pick up a prescription, or even to try a new restaurant. This is the type of thing (among many) that I will miss when we move back to Texas.

Neighborhood street festivals are the trademark of summertime in Chicago, and River North is no exception. After getting ourselves together on Sunday morning, we hit up our home neighborhood festival, Taste of River North, for the first time ever. It did not disappoint. The layout of the festival was different than any other one I've seen, with Kingsbury AND Erie housing a variety of booths in a T-shape (usually these are set up along one strip), all around Montgomery-Ward Park which, in my opinion, is one of the most beautiful parks in the city. Food vendors were from several hot spots in our neighborhood, including Moe's Cantina, Pie Guys, Zocalo, Erie Cafe, Citizen, and many more. Highlights included Zocalo's Sangria, Moe's Paella, and Hubbard Inn's Beet Salad. Live music was playing pleasantly (and not obnoxiously) while we ate, drank, and strolled.

There's really no better way to spend an afternoon.

New Music Mondays at Millenium Park - 7.25.11

Thanks to a plug in the weekly update e-mail from my chief residents, Wendy and I found ourselves biking it down to Millenium Park for our first ever concert at the Pritzker Pavilion. For those who have been to Millenium Park this is the hugh amphitheater with the criss-crossing beams overhead and the amazingly soft grass that is just east of The Bean. (I used to think that the overhead beam-lattice served some sort of acoustic purpose other than holding speakers above the crowd, but I think that's pretty much it....and they look pretty freakin cool).





Anyways, I was actually on STAR (our version of a back-up resident) that afternoon and, of course, I got called. After, taking a few reports and admitting a patient, I was on my way, albeit about an hour-and-a-half late. Lucky for us, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists were still going strong when we arrived on the lawn. Wendy had graciously made a Whole Foods run, grabbing a smorgasbord of nice, summer-y salads and a bottle of wine. We parked our chairs and a blanket on the very back of the lawn after fortuitously seeing a group of people get up. Unfortunately, there were a group of high school d-bags who thought they might be more entitled to that space than us. After a few awkward moments of "Who's gonna give in first?", Wendy making some audible, passive aggressive comments, and one of the guys asking me if I was a nurse or a doctor because he was interested in being a nurse (I was wearing my scrubs), they spread out to some newly open space leaving us with our little slice of Millenium Park.





The music left something to be desired but we did not come for the music. It was about 80 degrees at sundown, with a subtle breeze. We had the Chicago skyline, including the Sears Tower and the Vagina building (you know which one I'm talking about), as part of our backdrop. And we had the energy of the Chicago summer all around us. What a great night. To make it even better, Bruno (in true Bruno-style) opted to take a cab down from Bucktown (about 4 miles) as the concert was wrapping up just to have a few beers and hang out on the impeccably manicured lawn of the Pritzker Pavilion.





Unfortunately, our time on the lawn was cut short by the security staff who said closing time was 10pm, not 11pm as advertised on the website. Luckily, we were able to regroup nicely at a picnic table not far from the bean where we finished our beers and Cheers-ed to Monday Funday in Chicago.

Back to "The Sac"

Our good friend Courtney and her family own a lake home in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin on Lake Wisconsin. This is a small town and lake community (which is apparently the home of Dusty Carlson, as I recently found out) about an hour northwest of Madison and is about a 3 hour drive (with traffic) from Chicago. According to my sources, people from this town are called DuSacians (pronounced du-SACK-ians, or my favorite, du-SAY-shuns). We've been there once before and had an absolute blast, so we were super pumped to be invited back for another round this past weekend.




The crew looked to be slightly different this time (scheduling conflicts prevented some of our favorites from coming up) but we still had some solid players as Courtney's brother Jeff (aka Jeffro, aka Fro) and his girlfriend Alex (the next Veronica Corningstone) were gonna be there with us. Also, Chris and Ashley Therasse, two of our great Chicago friends, were our car buddies.




We hit the road on Friday after putting in a full day at work and could not have been more ready to get out of town. That said, I believe we become so ingrained with the day-to-day routine in the city that I don't think one really knows how much he needs a breath of fresh air until he actually gets out on the open road and into nature. And there is no place that satisfies this inherent itch to flee the city than Wisconsin.




A few thoughts on Wisconsin. This place is amazing. I've had a few Wisconsin adventures since living in Chicago including a couple of lake trips (Geneva and Wisconsin), Packers-Cowboys at Lambeau, a weekend in Milwaukee, and ice-fishing in the dead of winter, and this state never disappoints. The people are friendly. The food is fantastic (cheese curds rule). The rolling hills, corn fields, and the frequent farmhouses/silos all make for awesome roadside scenery. This is the stuff I've always thought of when imagining what the Midwest would be like. Love me some Wisconsin.




Anyway, after a few wrong turns, a gas stop, and a dinner run where I became reacquainted with Wendy's dollar menu in a big way, we made our way up to the lakehouse. Friday night was pretty tame as I think we were all pretty tired from the drive up, but we were still able to knock over a few Miller Lites and get in some solid Taboo before the main event Saturday. Quote of the night, "When I was little, all I wanted to be was a Chinese-Japanese......NINJA!"



Saturday was tubing day! The Nelson's lakehouse is just a short distance from where the Wisconsin River is dammed off to form Lake Wisconsin, so beyond that lies a big, lazy river that is popular for canoeing and tubing. This was not much different from what we know tubing to be in Texas, except that the river was much wider and there was actually water in it. It was an absolutely gorgeous day (a day where Chicago got almost 7 inches of rain, so nice timing). Jeffro's friend Kyle Karmell joined us for this and made a big impression on us in a short time. This guy was a complete animal, and gelled with the crew immediately. Tubing highlights included, but were not limited to:

- A plethora of man rugs (all four of us guys where rocking out the chest mane)
- Jeffro telling us he actually owns the domain name http://www.manrug.com/
- Drinking ice-cold Miller Lite in Miller Country
- Lunch stop at a random, but awesome sand bar in the middle of the river
- Stage-frightened Ashley swimming like Johnny Weissmuller thru a strong current so she didn't have to pee in our presence
- A certain someone's swim trunks being shed



After returning home and taking a quick breather, focus returned to what we do best at the lake: eating and drinking. Summer beer (a Nelson family recipe) was flowing like wine and the grill got fired up for some tasty burgers and Hebrew national hot dogs ("they snap right in your mouth" according to Jeff). We also broke out the Bags (aka Cornhole, aka Bag-O), which is progressively becoming my favorite backyard game (Sorry Mr. Washer). As the night progressed, we found ourselves down in the basement having a dance party, which was nearly derailed when I stepped on Wendy's gimp, marathon toe. Karmell remedied this with a bag of frozen peas and carrots reinforced with a toilet paper wrap (using approximately 2 1/2 rolls)....great idea Kyle.



After the dance party died down, we all decided on a late night swim ("clothing optional" as Karmell put it). I can't stress enough how perfect the weather was all weekend, but it was especially awesome around midnight when we went down to the water. It was nearly pitch black with literally the only light coming from the stars above. The water was the perfect temperature and we swam under the stars for about an hour. I even saw a shooting star, which I got so excited about that I momentarily forgot how to tread water. The late-night swim was, quite possibly, the highlight of my weekend.



The rest of the evening and the next morning were pretty uneventful. Chris and Ashley (who graciously provided us with transportation to and from the lake) and Wendy and I decided to spend Sunday afternoon in Madison and have lunch. We decided on the Terrace at the Student Union on the UW campus. I never knew this but the campus sits right out on Lake Mendota. Even as a Longhorn, I was impressed. Madison actually reminded me a lot of Austin, which I've heard many times before. Even the Capitol, while being slightly less spectacular, looked very similar to the our Capitol in Texas.



From there, we high-tailed it back to the city we know and love. I don't think we were quite ready to come home though....



What a weekend! Well played Wisconsin. Well played.

Movies in the Park - July 13, 2011

The crew: Chris, Kristen, Chris, Ashley, Us

Full moon and Ferris

Chi History Museum

Does it get better?

One of the things we've had on our bucket list since we've lived here but have never done is Movies in the Park. This is a genius initiative by Chicago Park District during the summer where they play a series of movies (175 to be exact) at parks all over the city. This is a completely free event to be enjoyed by all, and all movies start at dusk. Reviewing the schedule for July, I saw that they would be playing Ferris Bueller's Day Off (quite possibly the greatest "Chicago" movie) on the lawn of the Chicago History Museum (quite possibly my favorite spot in the city) on July 13. This wasn't a tough decision.

Wendy and I rounded up four of our favorite friends to make a night of it. This was a gorgeous Chicago night: a brisk 70 degrees, refreshing breeze out of the North off the lake, and a full freakin moon. Boom.

This was a great venue as it was multi-leveled with the screen at the bottom. The movie is shown on a giant inflatable frame (think bounce-house) with the screen stretched out in the middle. Our view was partially obstructed, but it was no problem as most of us have seen the movie a hundred times. This was more about the atmosphere....

Ferris was obviously classic, as usual. And I think this is the first time I've watched the movie in its entirety since living in Chicago. So it was a blast seeing some of the spots Ferris hit up that we are now so familiar with. I think most of the crowd, including myself, also forgot that Charlie Sheen makes an amazing cameo. This drew some cheers and a few "winning!" shout-outs.

A great Chicago movie on a great Chicago night at a great Chicago venue. Definitely haiku-worthy.

DMB Caravan, aka The Mulch Festival

The Bruno

At the nudging of my buddy, Bruno, Wendy and I decided to take part in the Dave Matthews Band Caravan festival. This is being held in four U.S. Cities in lieu of his normal summer concert schedule. Chicago-Lakeside was lucky to be one of the cities chosen, so Wendy and I decided to buy a one-day pass for Friday, July 8.

What, you've never heard of Lakeside? Oh wait, neither has anyone else in this city. It is 10 miles south of Chicago and has, according to Wikipedia, been completely barren since U.S. Steel (who formerly occupied the expanse of land) shut its doors in 1992. The concert was a collaboration between the developers and festival/concert promoters. Other than letting the people of Chicago know of Lakeside's existence, I can't imagine what good came out of having a music festival on this desolate tract of land that could not have been more inconvenient to get to. Being car-less Chicagoans (something we're usually proud of), we had to hop on the Red Line to 87th, which is the second to last stop going southbound. We then had to take a 3 mile shuttle ride from the trainstop to the outer edge of the festival grounds. We then had to walk about another mile to get to the front gates. And apparently, no one told Dave and his Caravan that having customers print their tickets from home saves time and man power.

On the train headed up...

Sorry, I tend to be good-before-the-bad kinda guy...

On the way there, we learned there would be some HIGH quality people joining us. A group of MICU nurses (Kristin, Sarah, Katy, and Heather) as well as a good friend of Bruno's from high school and her fiance. Wendy also made good friends (and Bruno, a good impression) with a girl on the train headed down there, Emily from Baton Rouge. Altogether, it was a hodge-podge of awesome people all there to have a good time and listen to some great music.

After mobilizing the troops and snagging some cold beverages (we went with Dos Equis instead of the devil's elixir, Bud Light), we led off the day with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. You might know them for their single, "Home", which is the theme song for a Blue Cross commercial that plays all the time in Chicago and, per Wikipedia, has been in several TV shows and movies. They put on a great show and got our day going in the right direction. We then headed over to Soja for a little reggae, hit up Ray Lamontagne, who is always awesome, and O.A.R. who definitely jammed out some fan favorites. (If you're looking for a detailed review of the music and performances, I'm definitely not your guy). We capped off the evening with a three hour performance by Dave Matthews and his Band. I believe I was the only one in our crew that had not seen him live before. Long story short, he completely brought the house down. This guy knows how to rock out. And he's been doing it since I was in the third grade. It was awesome then (when I was perfecting my one-and-a-half off the diving board) and it's still awesome. I should disclose that we were a drug-free group.

Sarah, Kristin, Katy

The Mulch Festival

Given that the festival grounds were one huge piece of dirt, someone thought it would be a good idea to dump a gazillion tons of mulch down on the grounds. I've been to festivals before where they didn't do this (Austin City Limits, circa 2004), and this actually was a pretty good idea. It tempers the dust if it's dry, and minimizes the muddiness if it's wet. It was still a dust bowl and my feet felt as if I was constantly walking around a baby tree in my back yard, but it could have been a lot worse.

Pros: great music, awesome friends (old and new), accessible food/beer lines/bathrooms

Cons: too far (the train/bus/walk combo is never a good one), too far, too damn far; otherwise the cons are about the same as any music festival (too many people, beer is too expensive, etc)

Totally glad I went. Probably won't go back until they put a train stop there.

P.S. I need to buy a camera!

The 'Red Line' Series

Yet another bucket list item was crossed off the list for Wendy and me this past weekend. We had the privilege of taking part in not one, but two games of the three-game series between the White Sox and Cubs at Wrigley Field. People refer to this as the Crosstown Classic or The Windy City Showdown, but my favorite nickname for the rivalry is The Red Line Series (Named as such since the city's primary north-south rail, The Red Line, connects the two stadiums).
This is the ultimate north-south rivalry, and people here take it very seriously. I'm not even sure I can begin to appreciate the history of the rivalry between these two teams, and the amount of passion and heart that Chicagoans put into rooting for their Sox or their Cubs.

Let me see if I can break down the two organizations, and why they are so different. (Disclosure: I had no biases prior to moving to Chicago and this is all drawn from my own experiences with a little help from Wikipedia) Wrigley Field is the oldest baseball stadium in the National League (2nd oldest overall behind Fenway). It's tucked away in the beautiful, northern neighborhood of Lakeview. The surrounding area, which is a hub for great bars and restaurants in the city, has come to be known as Wrigleyville. Sox stadium, U.S. Cellular Field (aka 'The Cell' or the stadium formerly known as Comiskey) is located on the Southside in a not-so-great part of town. Coincidentally, the two stadiums are nearly equidistant from Madison Avenue (the north-south 'zero' street') with Wrigley Field being 3600N and The Cell being 3500S.

The Cubby faithful, in my experience, are made up of two types of people: 1.) "North-siders" whose personal or family fanhood goes back to before it was cool being a Cubs fan and 2.) people that aren't from Chicago (and who don't really like baseball) but who have heard of Wrigley Field and like to get drunk at baseball games. It's not quite that black and white but you get the picture. And from what I've seen, the latter "type" tends to be the one you encounter more when you go to Wrigley Field. This video pretty much sums it up. Sox fans are, plain and simple, Chicago southsiders. They are less white, more blue collar, and overall seem to be more knowledgeable about baseball. My dad would refer to them as "salt of the earth."

Why did I become a Sox Fan?

People ask me this a lot. And why wouldn't they? I'm a Texan who has only been living in Chicago for two years. The answer is multi-fold, but the short of it is that I like the Sox because they're the underappreciated, working-class baseball team in this city. They have to win baseball games to put people in the seats, but the people that are there are true fans. In my opinion, moving to Chicago and becoming a Cubs fan is almost a cliche, which is a big reason why I couldn't bring myself to do it. It's also worth noting that it's next to impossible to be passionate about and root for a team if you can't watch them on TV every night, which is why it's hard for me to continue being pumped about a revived Texas Rangers team while I'm living in Chicago.

Friday, we were invited to sit in the Miller-Coors box with some of Wendy's work people. It was a great crowd and a great way to enjoy the game (free food and beer and an awesome vantage point from the mezzanine on the first base line). The Sox scored 4 in the 7th to take it 6-4.

After the game we hit up the Cubby Bear, which is a huge bar caddy corner to the Wrigley Field marquee. This place had all the makings of a great party: wood floors covered in beer and broken glass, a DJ playing mostly 90s hip-hop, creepy dudes around every corner, and drunk people everywhere. It actually was fun for about 30 minutes. Then we decided to move on to a place that was a little more chill where we could get some sun, Casey Moran's. As always, it was an awesome day to be a Chicagoan, we enjoyed the company of some great Miller-Coors friends, and we got to watch the Sox take it down on the north side of town.

After a 28 hour shift in the VA ICU on Saturday-Sunday (and a 5-hour energy), we met up with an old friend of mine from Texas, David Hanss, and his girlfriend Sara. Dave and I overlapped only a couple of years when we were in school in Austin, but we have remained in touch over the years; so I was pumped when he told me he and Sara were coming up to Chicago for July 4 weekend. Sara is from a small Texas town (Santo) a couple of hours south of Wichita Falls, so she automatically earned cool points in my book. We had a great Chicago afternoon. We hit up Benchmark (a new sports bar in Old Town) for lunch and then hopped on the Red Line (Dave and Sara's first 'L' experience) to Wrigley for Game 3. Our seats were in foul territory in right field, right in the warm sunshine on an otherwise cool Chicago summer day (upper 70s low 80s). Other than a beastly Carlos Quentin put out from deep right field to home plate, the Sox were pretty flat and lost 3-1, but still took the series 2-1 and the season series 4-2. There was no shortage of great photo ops that day, and Dave and Sara got their souvenir photo in front of the Wrigley Field marquee.

Definitely an unforgettable Chicago weekend.

Dance Friday!

One of Wendy's favorite things in Chicago is Dance Friday on NBC 5 news. Every Friday morning at 6:55, the cast and crew of the NBC 5 dance in the plaza outside the studio Michigan Ave. down by the Wrigley building. Taking part in this is somewhat of a bucket list item for Wendy (and I guess me too) and this week they were giving away Dave Matthews Caravan tickets. Done.Of course Wendy made a sign for the occasion

We didn't win the tickets, but we had a great time and we got to be on TV! Haha. (See below)