Michigan City, Indiana to Chicago, Illinois – 19 October 2023
On our way to our hotel in Chicago we drove through the Chicago O’Hare airport and were lucky enough to see an aircraft taxi-ing on one of the two taxiway bridges just above our freeway. Chicago O’Hare has two such taxi-ways called Alpha and Bravo. Whereas Alpha when designed, was planned to handle future aircraft weighing 365,000 lb, the second taxiway bridge called Bravo is designed to support a fully loaded Boeing 747-200 (836,000 lb)
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We were very happy with the hotel. It has just undergone renovations and the room was very modern, comfortable and had a decent sized kitchen. The hotel also offered free breakfast as well as a separate restaurant. We were going to head straight downtown to do some sightseeing, but discovered it was a 45 mins trip and Derek didn’t feel up to yet another 1.5 hour round trip. Instead we stretched our legs on a nearby walking trail. Chose a flatter route along the Busse Woods loop trail which is part of the 3,558 acre Ned Brown Preserve. This is one of the largest and most diverse locations in the Forest Preserves. Lovely paved trail walk in amongst all the beautiful fall colours with a large number of Canada geese running around.
On our way home we decided we need to try some food that Chicago is famous for and ordered a barbecued chicken and bacon Deep Dish Pizza which we picked up at Giordanos. Deep Dish Pizza was invented in Chicago in 1943. While it is called a pizza, it tastes more like a pie. It has a golden crust of medium thickness which holds a ton of mozzarella cheese, sauce, and meat. It’s made in a signature deep, round, steel pan prepared with lashings of olive oil. Verdict: SUPER Yummy but soooooo filling.
The following day we hooked up with Paul Fehrenbacher who used to work with K9000 USA to see the Mutt Jackson installation at Montrose beach. We had met Paul at a couple of trade shows that we had attended with the rest of the K9000 team a few year’s back. About 7 year’s ago Paul collaborated with the City of Chicago to install a K9000 dog wash area above the Montrose off leash dog beach, which is the largest dog beach in Chicago. He started with two machines and expanded over the years to include 6 dog wash machines, vending machines and a dog shop which absolutely hums in the summertime. What’s cool, is that the Mutt Jackson dog wash area is run entirely by solar power with the waste water (all biodegradable soaps) running into a flourishing flowerbed. It was so exciting to see it – what a great achievement.
After Montrose Beach we drove to Lincoln Park to see the K9000 dog wash trailer. Again a great thrill for me as I had heard so much about the dog wash trailers that USA had built, but had never seen one.
From there we went to drove to Navy Pier which is downtown Chicago. We had a great time exploring downtown Chicago which is the third largest City in the US and home to over 2.7 million people. Chicago sits on Lake Michigan and is known for its beautiful architecture. We walked through the city admiring all the buildings. It has some of the tallest skyscrapers in North America including the Willis Tower which is 110 stories tall. There are glass ledge boxes which extend out 4.3 feet from the Skydeck on the 103rd floor comprised of three layers of half inch thick glass with a clear view of 1,353 feet straight down! but NO we did not go into one!
We did see the largest Starbucks in the world. It was an amazing 5 storied (includes roof top) 35,000 square feet Starbucks Roastery in Chicago. The line up to get in was right around the block. The beautifully architectured roastery provides the ultimate coffee experience providing tours that take you from farm to cup as well as brewing innovations, multiple coffee bars, bakery, gift shop and cocktails. Would have loved to do a tour or even just gone in for a coffee.
At this stage we were extremely hungry so headed to Devil Dawgs to sample our first Chicago Dog. We didn’t think we would like it as much as we did, but it was really tasty. What makes Chicago dogs special? Well, they are layered with yellow mustard, dark green relish, chopped raw onion, a pickle spear, peppers (jalapeno), and tomato slices. The dog is topped with celery salt and served in a soft bun. No Ketchup!
The following day we stayed in the hotel, tired after our previous day explorations. I needed to catch up with work and was still sorting out my ongoing hacker problems with Facebook. That evening we met up with Paul Fehrenbacher again, and got to meet his lovely wife Janelle Franceska at Passero, a restaurant in Arlington heights, Chicago. Apart from the fantastic company, we were able to enjoy a number of dishes Passero is famous for – aracini which was crispy rice filled with tomato mozzarella cheese and vodka sauce, crispy callamari with lemon aioli, fire roasted brussel sprouts with honey and bacon and whipped ricotta with pecans and honey with crostini. The cherry on the top for me was my main – pistachio encrusted Walleye fish.
