The Lincoln Zoo and Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza

Well yesterday was my final day in Chicago and it was great. We started off eating breakfast at B&B’s again, except this time the waiter knew us and he talked and joked around with us before he seated us. He took us to the back of the place and sat us with the regulars, it was a little thing to do but it meant the world to us. We just got to watch people interact and we were away from the craziness in the front of the restaurant.

Something that was really neat about Chicago was the “EL” which stands for Elevated. Their public transportation system or subway was elevated throughout the city and would pass over you when you were walking all the time. I have never seen anything like it. Well after another great breakfast the grandparents and I checked out of the hotel while Amy and Mom did some last minute shopping. We jumped back into the car and then headed to Lincoln Zoo.

The Lincoln Zoo is a public zoo located in downtown Chicago. It was so fascinating because it was free and had been since 1868 when it was formed. The zoo was very historic looking and was separated into different galleries or houses.We went to the small primate house and the lion house, both which were super awesome.

It was really fun photographing and looking at the monkeys because they were having so much fun. This one shot below of the Jojo the gorilla was one of my favorites of the trip because I just sat next to the glass and we made eye contact just long enough for me to snap this photograph.

After we walked around the Lincoln Zoo we became hungry and decided to head to Gino’s Pizza for Amy and I’s first true Chicago deep dish pizza. When we got there we walked in and immediately I recognized a similarity with a food place I eat in College Station, Tx called Freebirds. The walls were covered in permanent markered signatures. The place had atmosphere. Well the waiter described to us that the deep dish pizza’s take an hour to make; they have a cornbread crust and they layer it with the cheese on the bottom with tons of sauce and then whole Italian sausages on top. Well we ordered a large for the family. When it came it we were blown away, the waiter dish out the pizza to us and we all dug in. Seriously, I was full with only one slice but of course I went for a second.

After the deep dish we packed up the car and drove around the city for a little bit longer and then made our way out of the city.

Chicago is such an unique city. It had similarities with other big cities I have been for example, the chaos of downtown like New York City, a main street with stores like Dublin, and it was also like Dallas because it the building seem to stretch out forever. But overall I could not have asked for a better spring break because I was with family. They truly are the some of the best parts of my life and it was such a blessing to get away from college for a bit and chill with them. To everyone who has been keeping up with my trip to Chicago, I thank you. Hope you enjoyed the photos and stories but keep reading the blog because I put up new stories and photos frequently.

The Art Institute of Chicago and a Big Metal Bean

So today I woke up early and went to a corner bakery at the street level of the hotel and posted up the previous blog. I then went back upstairs to meet up with everyone and then headed back down to breakfast. We at B&B and it was glorious. I had the Lumberjack Omelete, which consisted of meat, cheese, and eggs. It also was glorious.

After we had breakfast and coffee we made our way two blocks north to the The Art Institute of Chicago which house many famous works of art, including Monets’ and a few I have seen in books before. The gallery was an interesting place to photograph because I could either photograph the artwork or photograph people looking at the artwork. Enjoy a sample of some of these photographs.

After we spent hours going through the different levels looking at impression and modern art made our way to one of the tallest buildings in the Chicago skyline, the John Hancock building. We went up 95 stories to the observatory where we had a sandwiches and salads. The view from up here was just great. You could look every which way and even from this high up you couldn’t see the other side of Lake Michigan. After we spent time circling the top we went down and walked the streets for a bit.

Grandma and Grandpa went back to the Palmer’s Hotel and Amy, mom and I walked quite a few blocks down to Millennium Park. We reached the park right at dusk so the skies were blue and the streetlights were starting to come on. At first I was a little disappointed because I thought the photos wouldn’t come out but they did. The park is a very modern looking park, wide spaces and stainless steel everywhere. The park had an outdoor amphitheatre and lots of sculptures around it. One of the sculptures we went to was “The Bean”. It looks just like it sounds; it was a huge metal bean like sculpture in the park that people would walk under and around, that’s it. The reflections that came of this huge metal bean were just super fun to play with. I took a time lapse again as well as many wide-angle shots.

After the girls and I walked around in the park, we went to Miller’s Pub and met up with the Grandparents there for dinner. It was great, the food was awesome and it was literally right next to the hotel. Well I have one more full day here in Chicago; hope you have enjoyed the photos thus far. You’re awesome!

Downtown Chicago and Evanston

Today we woke up early, ate breakfast and stopped at Borders so I could get a moleskin to journal through the trip. Side note, I am infatuated with moleskin journals, all kinds of them. They are sooooo awesome.

Okay so we drove for an hour or so and came into the windy city. Chicago was overcast but before I even fully went into the city I knew I would love it. The city rests next to Lake Michigan and the skyline holds one of the tallest buildings in the world, the Sears Tower. We drove on Lake Shore Dr. around the city through various parks and up to the north side of Chicago. We made it up to Evanston and drove through Northwestern College, which was right alongside the coast of the Lake Michigan. I am not sure I you have ever seen a great lake but take my word for it, they look like oceans. After that we drove by Wrigley Field and what was really neat was the surrounding buildings we installing stands on their roofs so people could see the game from them.

We then drove around til we found a local restaurant called Trattoria Demi. It was a small café alongside the rode. We walked in and there were maybe 20 seats in the whole place. The ceiling was lined with Christmas lights (my fav) and the waiter explained that everything was homemade when you ordered it. So I ordered a meatball sub with mozzarella cheese on it. It was awesome. After that we grabbed coffees at the corner shop on that same street and then we headed off.

We drove onwards past the birthplace of Ernest Hemingway and then through Concordia University. Grandpa and I are very into our family’s genealogy and we both knew that there was a statue that my great great grandfather Franz Englesman created in Humblot park so we drove there and photographed it. This was so awesome I am honoring it with a different blog post later.

After that we went to our hotel called the Palmer House. While walking it felt like I was checking into the 1920’s. The whole city has a nostalgic feel to it, which I love. Chicago is fascinating because there is just so much history to everything here.  Well this hotel is off of State, which is in the heart of downtown. We couldn’t be staying at a better place. Well we unpacked and walked around for a bit. One of the places we stopped was a 12 story Macy’s.

After we walked around we went back to the Palmer House and I through on a sport coat and went with everyone to the all so famous “Berghoff’s Restaurant”. It’s a german restaurant that my family and Grandfather have been talking about since I can remember. That had all the right to talk about it because it was phenomenal. I had Sauerbraten which recipe was found in The Berghoff Family Cookbook. We finished the meal off with German chocolate cake and apple strudels.

After dinner Amy and I walked around State Street, which is one of the main streets downtown and I took some time-laspe photographs. I totally got some weird looks and got harassed by some uber-creepy homeless people but the photos turned out well so I was happy. Anyways thanks once again to all of you who are following my photographic adventures in Chicago this week.