Chicago via Detroit Sports

I've been to quite a few sporting events since in the time that I've lived in Chicago, but even though I may live in the Windy City, I'm definitely still a Detroit sports fan. Ever since a certain boy-next-door became my boyfriend, my level of fan-dom for Detroit sports has gone from very fair-weather to actually engaging in/getting excited about games, ha. I'm giving credit where credit is due here, since before 2010 I hadn't really watched the Detroit Red Wings since the days of the Russian 5 in the late 90's...which, coincidentally, I remember discussing with the same boy-next-door on the school bus :)


I wrote about how I love going to baseball games in my last post, so this time I'll focus on hockey. I've  started to rekindle my childhood adoration for the Red Wings as of late (thanks mostly to aforementioned significant other), and I was fortunate enough to go to two of their away games this year, both in Chicago against the BlackHawks (who do not warrant getting a link to their homepage, take that!). I'm a huge fan of seeing your home team in an away game. Some of you might be wondering if I enjoy getting boo-ed at and harrassed; I definitely don't, but I feel like a pretty legitmate fan for following my team into enemy territory and cheering for them despite the malevolent crowd of the opposing team's fans. I know that since I live in Chicago I didn't technically have to travel to see the Wings play the Hawks, but I had never experienced a game at the United Center, so I still felt like a newcomer to the Windy City's hockey scene.

United Center, 12/17/11

 
I went to one game in December and another in April to see these two Original 6 teams duke it out, and I have to recommend that if you're thinking of going to just one game all season, go to one closer to the playoffs. That's probably obvious, given that the stakes are higher closer to the postseason, but it's not just the teams who get much more aggressive as the playoffs approach. Fans in the United Center were going absolutely insane with their Detroit-hating during that April game! The Blackhawks' spot in the playoffs was hanging in the balance, and the "DETROIT SUCKS" cheers were echoing through the arena louder than thunder. Eric and I sat in Club-level seats (though we did not quite pay the club-level price, muahaha) and found ourselves surrounded by extremely ornery Blackhawks fans. To our delight, the place was also speckled with Red Wings loyals who had traveled the 5 hours to cheer on their team, and there were definitely enough of us to add insult to injury to Hawks' fans' egos whenever the Wings scored that day. Ultimately, the Wings won that game, and Chicago fans' menacing anti-Detroit cheers were made irrelevant. It was a really exciting game, made even more exciting because the battle was fought (and won) far from friendly Joe Louis Arena.

Red Wings Victory! 4/10/11

Although it's nifty to be able to take public transportation to and from sporting events in Chicago, if you do that and you happen to be wearing even the tiniest emblem of "the other team", you have to endure lots of heckling. This is true despite the season, time of day, outcome of the game, or which team is actually better. Detroit fans, take heed: Chicago sports fans hate. your. guts. So even if you're planning to watch the game at a bar, make sure you go to a Red Wings bar (the Tin Lizzie is awesome). If you go to an establishment that does not specifically support your team, you'll probably be harassed to no end, or worse, they might turn off the game halfway through!

showing my sports allegiance at work

I'm hoping to follow the Red Wings to other parts of the country as well in upcoming seasons. Hockey games are the perfect things to get excited about in the dreadful middle of winter, and if I combine them with the chance to travel somewhere new, that's even better! So the joke's on you, January, February and March 2012: despite your best efforts to crush my soul with your frigid weather and lack of daylight, I'll actually have something really exciting to look forward to - Go Wings!

Chicago-style Weekend

Hello all! I thought I'd share some details about my latest weekend here in Chicago since it seemed to be a quintessentially "Chicago-style" weekend. What ingredients, you may be wondering, go into making something perfectly Chicago-style? In my book, the following should definitely be present:

1. Hot dogs
2. Baseball
3. Awesome people-watching 

I got in all three of these, and #3 was made particularly interesting given the Lollapalooza concert-goers that invaded the city this weekend (more on that in a minute, for now, onto #1!)

Hot Dogs: They might seem simple, but Chicago puts a unique spin on this seemingly commonplace food item. A Chicago style hot dog, if you order it with all the fixin's, comes with: mustard, onions, relish, tomatoes, hot peppers, celery salt and a pickle spear (this last topping happens to be my favorite food group so obviously I'm a fan). You are absolutely not supposed to order ketchup on a hot dog in Chicago, and at Flub a Dub Chub's Hot Dog Emporium, they will take your picture and put it on the Wall of Shame if you do ask for it. Eric and I visited this tiny, partially subterranean restaurant, which happens to be located about 25 steps from my front door. Because of its proximity and the deliciousness of the dogs there, this place has become a must-go-to place to eat for any future visitors (I'm talking to you, Dad!). I had the "Flubby", their classic Vienna dog, with the works, and Eric had the footlong. Both delicious, washed down with ice cold fountain Coke. Simple, but done perfectly. This place gets a big thumbs up from me!

Eric and I also visited Frank's and Dawgs, which was recommended by older sister Katie and her bf Dustin - and this place was definitely worthy of their excellent review! It's starkly different than the aforementioned Flub a Dub's, i.e. anything but simple. Rather, this Chicago hot doggery specializes in gourmet hot dogs (oxymoron?) and sides. No matter what dog you choose, you absolutely have to get the truffle fries. You have to. These came to our table before the dogs, and Eric said he wished they hadn't, because you just couldn't top them. That good. So coming down from our fry high, we were each trying our second choices from the menu (they were out of our unanimous first choice, the China Town Duck). Here were our selections:

My choice: the "Belly up": pork sausage, mustard glazed pork belly, pickled fennel and macerated grapes.

Eric's choice: the "Krazy Kimchi": spicy beef sausage, braised short rib & turnips, kimchi, wild rice & basil.

I was not a fan of the pork belly on mine (it's basically pure lard, yichk!) but I liked all the other ingredients of my dog. Overall I liked Eric's better (yes I made him give me some of his). We also had the truffle mac and cheese, which was good, but didn't hold a candle to the truffle fries. I can't wait to go back here again and try one of their other crazy creations!

Baseball: As you know, Chicago has two baseball teams which splits the city's North and South siders into rival fan bases. I'm not an avid baseball fan, but I love the atmosphere of games, and it seems like the perfect summer activity to do with friends. Plus, Chicago has two teams, two ballparks, and therefore twice as many opportunities to watch games, so I like to take advantage of that! A few weeks ago I saw the Tigers take on the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field, but this past weekend I was at Wrigley Field (see #30 in Stuff White People Like) to watch the beloved (but chronically bad) Chicago Cubs.

view from our seats @ Wrigley Field

Now you might think that because the Cubs are having a pretty terrible season, the price of tickets would be lower. Not so. For whatever reason, people will pay exorbitant amounts of money to get into this ballpark and watch this team sabotage itself all season long! (sorry Cubs fans) However, this fair-weather fan is also a bargain hunter-extraordinaire when she wants to be, so I did not pay full price to watch this game. Eric and I got to Wrigley sometime around the 3rd inning and walked around outside of the field looking for cheap tickets. We were turned down by a bunch of ticket hawkers at first, but by the top of the 5th we got our lower level tickets for around 1/8 of face value (muahaha). We still got to see the most exciting parts of the game, the Cubs came back from being 4 runs down to make things interesting, but in the end, even with home field advantage they couldn't beat Cincinnati (not so shocking). Oh well. Turns out baseball is still wonderful when you have a seat in the shade, a nice cold drink and a boyfriend who won't make fun only makes a little bit of fun of you for not knowing (the very widely known) rules of the game.

Eric with the infamous Harry Caray

And finally, I come to the last ingredient of a perfectly Chicago-y weekend: Awesome People Watching. Half the fun of any activity in Chicago is seeing the throngs of other people who are out and about in the city too. Baseball games are great for this since you get such a wide range of people. When you mix families with little kids, drunken spectators who are hell bent on rallying the crowd, and sometimes an emboldened fan who runs onto the field to plank and gets pulled off by security, it makes for a pretty entertaining day!

Restaurants are also great people watching spots, especially if you venture to a neighborhood that you don't normally visit. Sometimes I forget that people over the age of 30 even exist because there just aren't any of them in East Lakeview, I swear. Then when I head down to Carmine's in the Gold Coast, I'm swiftly reminded that middle aged people do, in fact, exist in the city of Chicago! (and some of them like to display their affection for their much younger wives rather publicly while I innocently wait for a table and sip my drink to try not to chortle...bah!)

Also, if you want the prime-time of people watching, come to Chicago during Lollapalooza, the live music fest extravaganza of the summer. For 3 days the city is inundated with teens and 20-somethings from all over the country, dressed in their best hipster gear, carrying around the most random collection of stuff (a cockatiel, gallon of pink lemonade and a lit cigarette would be a normal combo) and they're walking around in various stages of disarray depending on how late into the weekend it is. I didn't even have to go downtown where the venues were to see all these eclectic music fans; they were all staying on the north side of the city with their young friends who make up my entire neighborhood! This makes sense; when you're 20 years old and you've just paid a few hundred dollars for a 3 day concert ticket, you obviously don't stay in some super shmancy, expensive hotel downtown. You shack up with your friends in Lakeview/Wrigelyville/Roscoe Village and provide me with endless opportunities to stare at your wildly flamboyant clothing/items you are carrying/personality in general! Unfortunately I have no pictures to go along with this paragraph, but it's basically a modern day Woodstock, only instead of taking place in some field in the countryside, it's in the city of Chicago.

So thus concludes my musings on whats makes the perfect Chicago-style weekend. Until the next post, adios everyone!

Northern Michigan

My love for northern Michigan is deeply rooted in memories from taking trips up north with my family. We'd pack endless amounts of games/notebooks/coloring books and snacks to keep us occupied and load it all up in the car (which would always be a different kind of company van or SUV, courtesy of Dad's job in the automotive industry) then set off, stopping at least once, but usually twice, during the 3 hour journey, at the best exits off I-75, Birch Run and West Branch before arriving at our destination: Gaylord, MI.

Otsego Lake

We'd make this trip multiple times during the summer and almost every weekend in the winter, but no matter the season, up north was always glorious. For one, life seems to move a little bit slower up there. You can relax, unplug from your hectic life at home, and just enjoy family and nature. You can also always see more stars at night from the less densely populated northern towns, and I'm a big fan of stargazing. And Otsego Lake, where my family's cottage is located, is 5 times as big as the downstate lake we live on. When you're a little kid, this translates into 5 times longer straight-a-ways for tubing, water skiing, or just going fast as the motor will let you while jumping over big waves on a 1980's Four Winns deckboat.

As you get older (and tall enough to see over the candy shelves at Al's Market to realize that they actually sell other stuff too!) you also begin to appreciate the town of Gaylord, not just the lake where you spend most of your life in summertime. You see movies in one of the 6 theaters at Gaylord Cinema, you do tricks off the diving board at the Sportsplex with your cousins, and you search for quirky treasures at the Spud Warehouse on shopping trips with Mom.

You also get delicious brunch at Diana's or the Sugar Bowl (and bonus: Mom and Dad usually pay when you're up north!) and are treated to your family's incredible culinary expertise throughout your stay. This latter category can include any (but hopefully all) of the following: deviled eggs, potato salad, herb bread, baked brie, cucumber sandwiches, fruit salad, chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin cookies, ice box cake...and those are just the appetizers! (well, some desserts might have crept in there too...) But you get the point. You will not go hungry up north. In fact, you will most of the time eat yourself sick because you literally can. not. help. it. But it's worth it! Most of us subsist on frozen dinners and cold pizza the rest of the time (or is that just me?), so why not indulge a little up north!

And while Gaylord is my home away from home up north, sometimes you need to go in search of even bigger waters for a boat trip. Lake Charlevoix as well as Burt and Mullet Lakes are two of the Peters' family favorites for just such a trip. Again, this involves packing the car to its gills with clothes/towels/food/drinks/sunscreen/maybe a dog or two and trailoring a boat to another gorgeous lake for a day of fun in the sun. You might putz around Oyster Bay, look in awe at the outlandish mansions on Round Lake or climb the sand dunes along Lake Michigan. You might also stop at the Weathervane for lunch, or go shopping in town while you tie your boat up to somebody else's an open slip in the marina!

This picture doesn't do it justice, but this is one of the giant houses on Round Lake (complete with colossal boat house and boat!)

I also love to read the names of people's boats while on these boat trips. Every so often you find a real gem, though I can't think of a good example at the moment (although I once saw a huge boat named the Jillian with a tiny dingy that was called the Jilly Bean - which for those that don't know - happens to be my nickname since forever. So that was cool). But really, people come up with some interesting stuff when giving a moniker to their ridiculously expensive sea homes.

As you can tell, life on the water is the central theme of these up north trips. I feel very fortunate that I've been able to call northern Michigan my second home for so long. I can also say with certainty that I appreciate being up north that much more now that I'm only able to go a few times a year. There will certainly be more to come from me about some of my favorite up north activities, but for now I'll leave you with a Pure Michigan video. It's for Traverse City instead of Gaylord, but you get the gist of it: northern Michigan = pure happiness.

Lone Star: The National Beer of Texas

In keeping with my theme of beginning to travel more extensively within the United States over the past year and a half, I had a great opportunity this past year to take a trip to a state that I had never been to before: Texas. The mother of them all, this giant southern nation state is so big in size and personality that sometimes the residents consider it to be its own country. Now what would bring me to Texas suddenly after 23 years of neglecting to ever visit the Lone Star state, you ask?

Enter Amelia. Best friend of many years decides to take on an Americorps position in Teh-hass where she'll tutor little Spanish-speaking kids to help them get their literacy skills up to speed. Oh, and did I mention all the tutoring will be done in Spanish? Yeah, this is no easy feat, even for someone who has studied the language for years, and I'm sure it can't be fun when a 6 year old corrects you on a grammatical error or makes fun of your gringo accent. However if you ask her about it, she'll tell you that although it's really challenging work, it's very rewarding. I admire her for investing so much of herself in this kind of service work; I always say she's down in the trenches, doing the painstaking work of eliminating social injustice! Making sure that the next generation of kids are equipped with great literacy skills so that they'll keep up in school instead of fall behind (and potentially drop out) and that is a HUGE contribution to be making to society on a daily basis. I think the biggest contribution that I make on a daily basis is making sure that no Facebook friend's comment goes unliked (wouldn't want them to suffer the paralyzing self-esteem drop from thinking that their cyber musings are unappreciated!). Okay, okay, I'm not that unimportant, but sometimes it feels like it when my friends are off saving the world, one niño at a time. So now that I'm finished with that rant, on to my trip to Texas...

Amelia lives in Austin, which is located in central Texas, a few hours south of Dallas and west of Houston, many, many miles from Chicago. I was very fortunate to have racked up enough frequent flyer miles for a free, round trip domestic flight (that's what flying to and from Vietnam will do for you, hooray!) so I decided to use it on this little viaje to the south. I went in March when it wasn't too hot (temps were in the 70's most days) but it was still a glorious respite from the god-awful wrath that is winter in Chicago. Right from the airport Amelia took me to Callahan's General Store where we browsed among the offerings which included:

Cowboy hats (it's Texas, how could you not?)

Pet accessories

And pets! (baby goats, to be specific, which were hanging out in, not outside of, the general store!)

This was a great first-taste of Texas, between the livestock roaming inside the store and out (there were chickens in a coup outside as well) and the strange but endearing knick knacks. I was in Texas for 5 days, so I got to see a lot of different sides of Austin (not just squirrel underpants). Amelia took me hiking in the Barton Creek Greenbelt, which was to say the least, very beautiful. I never pictured Texas being so green! But there we were, hiking through a lush riverbed insulated by trees and plants, smack dab in the middle of what I assumed would be all desert-like.

Amelia, elated that I came to visit :) By the way, this is now the picture that shows up on my phone when you call, ha.

Hiking in the greenbelt was one of my favorite activities of the whole trip. I kept thinking how great it was that there's such a beautiful place where you can be fully surrounded by nature right in the city (Chicago, take note: I would like one beautiful river basin greenbelt, within the city limits, pronto!). My other favorite thing we did was visiting the food trailers. Vendors prepare and sell their delicious bounty right out of a trailer in little "trailer parks" around Austin, and different trailers come and go all the time. But it's not just your average hot dog stand or ice cream truck, no, these trailers are selling eccentric, gourmet street food, if such a quirky category exists. For example, I scarfed down a Predator and Prey bratwurst made from rattlesnake and rabbit meat from the Wurst Tex trailer.

Don't believe me? Check out the ingredients from the menu!

om nom nom

It was incredible. (p.s. when have I ever not liked any kind of hot dog?) But this was RATTLESNAKE meat, you don't get much more hard core than that! These trailers are so cool because they serve every kind of food imaginable (suchi, korean barbeque, waffles, ice cream, you name it, they serve it) and they're cheap (not to mention the incredible people watching opportunities). I also enjoyed a massive cupcake from Hey Cupcake! with the requisite "shot" of whipped cream pumped into the middle of it. Wondrous. Food is such a great way to experience a place, and the food trailers along Congress Street in Austin are, in my opinion, the best way to experience this place.

You can't go to Austin and not experience live music on 6th Street, (Austin is basically the live music capital of the world) so Amelia made sure that I got to do that. If you're a music fan, I'm sorry because I'm pretty uncool (read: embarrassing) when it comes to music (ask anyone who has sifted through my CD collection) so if you were expecting that when I went to Austin I would find all the super awesome, underground music that only super cool legit music fans know about, you would be incorrect. But I did, however, dance in the street like a fool and sing at the top of my lungs to a live band's version of "Your Love" by The Outfield while on 6th Street (I know a good music moment when I see it). 6th Street was full of energy even late, late at night, and it's not for the faint of heart. I'm glad I went and would love to hear more live music if when I return to Austin in the near future.

One of the last stops I made on my trip to Texas was to Magnolia Cafe, which has been featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives (love that show). Amelia, her roommate Carla (also known as DeCarla) and I chowed down on some absolutely delicious grub (I had a baked sweet potato with brown sugar butter and bacon pieces...heaven) while also perusing one of Austin's free newspapers. Amelia read aloud some of the "missed connections" posted in the paper, and we all got lost in a nice little moment of sappiness while eating on the back patio. I would definitely recommend this place to anyone visiting Austin; it was quirky, the food was delicious and it's also right across the street from Hey Cupcake!...bahaha.

So I know I didn't get to see all that Austin has to offer in a quick 5 days, but I did get to see a good representation of the many things you can do there...go hiking, listen to live music, eat at the food trailers, do some of the best people watching imaginable. It was a great introduction to Texas and the Southwest as a whole, and it got me excited to hopefully revisit this part of the country again soon.

An Ode to the Good Old Midwest

As a lifetime resident of the Midwest, I'm not sure how I've managed to get to the age of 24 without having traveled to more places in my home-region. It's not for lack of cool locales, but rather me not begin aware that such cool places existed in my backyard (I've been to Southeast Asia (twice) but I've never seen Milwaukee...).

My love for travel had mostly manifested itself in international destinations until I moved away from home about 6 months after graduating from college. Naturally at that time in my life I had to take a little hiatus from my jet-setting ways to begin that lovely, soul-crushing process that we 20-somethings know to be called "paying your dues" (also commonly referred to as "putting in your time") aka: getting a full time job. It seemed so unfair, 40 hour work weeks, so little vacation time, and what do you mean no summer vacation?! But what I missed in globe-trotting I began to make up for in Midwest-trotting, without even really noticing it. It may have started as a hassle, having to go back and forth between Chicago (my current digs) and Michigan (my former digs, chalk full of family, friends and memories) but I now realize that I'm kind of situated perfectly for travel to just about any other place in the Midwest. So I'll start this blog off by noting a few of the cities I've visited since moving to the Windy City, and some memorable places in each of them.

Madison, WI
I only spent a few hours in Madison for an afternoon pit stop, but the college-town feel + the proximity of so many lakes + my perception of the city based on the movie Away We Go = I will definitely be back and hopefully soon. Madison gave me a similar, fuzzy feeling that I get in Ann Arbor, MI because the college town aspect makes you start reminiscing about college days, football games, and going back to school in the fall. It was a quick trip so I just got to see a fleeting glimpse of the city and UW's campus. Most of my time there was spent at at Dotty Dumpling's Dowry for dinner, and the food/atmosphere/service/everything was awesome. The walls were covered in UW memorabilia, the waitress was really friendly and the corned beef reuben was delicious (and served with a pickle - a must in my book). 

So my first trip to Madison, although brief, was enough to make me want to go back and spend some serious time there exploring more of the city!

Minneapolis, MN
I was in Minneapolis for a wedding, and it was actually on my drive there from Chicago that I stopped in Madison. Although I'd been to the Mall of America as a little tyke on a family vacation, I didn't remember anything about the actual city of Minneapolis, so I was excited to take more of it in this time around. I stayed from a Thursday night until Sunday, so I had a good amount of time to explore. My boyfriend (Eric)'s cousin was getting married and Eric was in the wedding, which took place at the Basilica of Saint Mary in downtown Minneapolis. 

In our downtime, Eric and I used a little guide that the bride and groom prepared for all the guests, letting us know the cool places to go/things to do while in town. Inevitably we gravitated towards the restaurants and bars on this list, so basically all I did in Minneapolis was eat and drink. It was awesome. We had DELICIOUS brunch at Key's Friday morning before attending the rehearsal at the Basilica. Then there was a very happy, happy hour put on by the mother of the groom at Darby's Pub & Grill, which had a huge, outdoor deck area (perfect for a summer afternoon). That was followed by the rehearsal dinner at an awesome Irish pub, The Local, where I had Magners cider for the first time (won't be the last) and bonded with other wedding attendees, and then we ended the night (yes I went to all these places in just one day) at Brit's Pub. Here I happily sat on the rooftop bar with Eric's family, taking in the downtown views, watching people play bocce ball, and doing Jager shots/eating Scotch eggs with Mr. and Mrs. Coughlin. If you've never had a Scotch egg, it's a hard boiled egg, wrapped in ground sausage then deep fried. It's amazing. Although with Jager, not so much, as we all found out the next morning :) The rest of the weekend in Minneapolis was spent at the Basilica for the ceremony, Semple Mansion for the reception, and of course, another restaurant. Last stop in MN was breakfast Sunday morning at Hell's Kitchen, a kind of rock-and-roll, edgy place to get...brunch? It was an eclectic place to go in the morning, that's for sure, but the food was worth it.

Minneapolis is a really cool city. Target headquarters, another Big Ten campus location, and a ton of different bar and restaurant choices make this city really appealing to me. And it's only a 7 hour drive from Chicago (only!) versus a 12 hour drive from Southeastern Michigan (can you tell my gauge for tolerable driving times has become a little skewed? ha). So more proof that Chicago is a great launching pad from which to see all that the Midwest has to offer. Thanks for checking out my blog, and more posts about travel are sure to come!