Monthly Archives: July 2013

As I mentioned in a previous post, the girl and I had a disagreement. The disagreement was about what we were going to do for the 4th weekend. The original plan was to hit up Pensacola but there were some prior commitments that derailed this plan. We resolved the disagreement(she owes me a vacation day for my choosing) but now I had free plans for the 4th.

My friend Lyndsey had been begging me to come visit Chicago for quite some time and she only had a month left before she moved back to Louisville. I kept hearing rumors of this barcade that was destined for me in Chicago from her and other friends which would become my top destination for the trip. My jeep got fixed in less than a day once I was back from OBX so things were starting to go my way.

I got Leslie to drop me off at the airport and I was bound for Chi~town.

Lyndsey picked me up from the airport and we headed to her apartment in Evanston. To make the weekend better I had two other friends coming up, Chris and Brett to make the weekend the weekend to end all weekends.

The thing about Lyndsey’s apartment is that if more than two electronics were plugged in simultaneously, the circuit breaker would flip. Unlike any apartment I have ever been in, this apartment’s breaker box was in this creepy basement.

In the basement, there was also this creepy painting on the wall that I thought would be blog~worthy.

There was also a public restroom in the basement. I still haven’t figured this out. I don’t want to give the impression that this apartment was rundown. It was actually really nice and in a great neighborhood.

Anyways, we get there late Wednesday night and do some catching up before we hit the hay. Thursday morning, Lyndsey wakes me up with the nightly report of how many shootings occured in Chicago over the night. The nights total, 15.

After we get our coffee, its time to head to the beach. Lyndsey leads the way through some creepy tunnels and then suddenly we find ourselves on the lake’s beach right outside the city.

The beach is in full force for ‘Murica day and it looks amazing. Brett spent the night with another friend and we had planned on meeting him and other friends at the beach. Strategically he was set up right on the corner of the beach and was easily located.

Not only that but he was wearing the most amazing Louisville player’s jersey of all time.

I told them I had another buddy who just moved to Chicago that wanted to join us for the festivities. I described him as very hipster. As we are waiting for him to come find us, we get a call from him saying he is on the beach. At precisely that moment, Brett, who has never met this friend, points him out and says, “There he is.” I asked him how he knew, and Brett said he was the most hip guy on the beach using a phone.

The festivities were fun and games until a cop approached us and told us that beer was not allowed on the beach. We were forced to pour it all out but at least we didn’t get any trouble from the cop.

We used this as a good opportunity to bail on the beach and get some grub. We went to this place called the Pour House where they had amazing entrees.

I decided on the lobster corn dogs.

We decided to head back to the beach for the fireworks show but when we back through the creepy tunnels a heard of hundreds of people came running back towards us in the opposite direction.

Apparently there was a gun shooting on the beach so we followed our instinct and ran with the masses. We ended up at a bar to finish out the night where hilarity ensued.

The next was going to be used for record store hunting(and maybe some video game shops if we were lucky),

First we found the most amazing retro video game store of all time.

The store was ran by a gay guy who refered to himself as ‘R.Kelly’. After I made some pickups for my NES collection he pointed us in the direction of a Korean-Chicken Stir Fry restaurant called Crisp.

We also found some amazing thrift shops in our excursions.

After the shopping, we headed towards Wrigley. The Cubs were playing the Pirates and the sun was shining to the full affect.

Brett and I were hell bent on going to the game but the others did not want to pay the scalpers the sold out price.

After the game we met back up with the rest of the party and decided it was time for dinner.

Deep dish pizza was the decision and it was only a few blocks from Wrigley so we started walking.

On our travels we also passed ‘HQ’. The amazing barcade where our travels would end that night.

We ate our pizza and discussed starting businesses on Kickstarter before it was time to head back to HQ.

On our journey we discovered a falled road sign perfect for amazing pics.

And then it was time for awesomeness.

The menus were made from old comic books.

There was a Kool Aide man sighting.

The bar didn’t disappoint with the selection of games on free play.

Better yet, instead of just playing Sportscenter on all the TV’s in the bar, monitors were playing old school wrestling matches and re-runs of American Gladiator.

When we left I snapped a picture of the glowing neon sign for HQ. Pure awesomeness.

The bar was definitely everything that I hoped it would be but now the trip was finally winding down. We caught a cab back Northwestern land. I was caught in the front seat with the cab driver. He was from Africa and somehow we engaged in a conversation about wars in Ethiopia. A topic I wouldn’t say I’m well versed in, but I winged it.

The next morning everyone had to leave early besides me. My flight didn’t leave until 2:30 PM. So Lyndsey and I decided to go and walk around her neighborhood(See I told you it was nice).

There just so happened to be some sort of local art show going on and it had all of the streets closed off. Lynds and I went off the beaten path and found this hidden gem, a book store in an alley.

The book store was decked out and we spent like an hour in there. Afterwards we headed to a Vegetarian restaurant.

I chose the verde enchiladas. They were excellent. But I was quite saddened as I ate it because I knew my trip was over upon the completion of this meal. We paid up and Lynds took me to the airport. Overall, this was a fantastic trip to Chicago. Much better then my previous few trips where disaster happened in every aspect. I’ve seen Chicago now though, don’t really have any need to go back.