Chicago

Denise and I took a weekend trip to Chicago for St. Patrick's day. It's five hours from Saginaw, and we left in the wee hours of the morn in a little rental car from Hertz. A few observations.

1. American freeways are exhileratingly terrifying.

They're one half "Holy shit everything is about to hit me" and one half "Ah, the open road, where a free man can speed to his heart's content". They're awesome and stressful. Vancouver doesn't have them, so they're alien to us. When in the open country, it's pretty fun to zip in and out of the passing lane, and to watch the environment change around you. Once we got closer to Chicago, however, the tension in the car mounted pretty quickly.

Driving up to Chicago was harrowing. There's this long stretch of highway leading straight to the city, which gives a gorgeous panoramic view of the skyline, but none of the signs tell you how to freaking get there. It's like being in a river, and you can't get out where you want to. The same lane split into "express" and "local" - we had no idea what that meant but we figured express was probably the way to go - and none of the signs said Chicago. We barely squeeked in. I was so stressed by the end that I just parked in a random parking much farther away from our hotel than we needed to be, just so I could get out of the damned car. Denise was not too pleased.

2. My love of Chicago vs. my love of Vancouver.

This was my third visit. I adore Chicago. Denise made the observation that the city is pretty similar to Vancouver, and she's right. Except I think Chicago is better.

Here's the thing. I've always had a special place in my heart for Vancouver, but the longer I lived there, the more something was bothering me: it's too pristine. The city popped up out of nowhere and is too young to have made many mistakes. Everything is well planned out, and problems are addressed in a logical fashion. It's admirable. But there's no grit. There's no chip on anyone's shoulder - unless the Canucks lose in the seventh game. Chicago has a similar feel, in terms of its cleanliness, layout, and aesthetic appeal, but there's a sense of pushing and shoving that I really like. Also, it has a far richer history. Plus I don't hate it's hockey team. Sorry Vancouver.

3. What we did in Chicago

We arrived in the city around 10am, and immediately started exploring the city (unfortunately we couldn't check into our hotel until 3pm). We took a walk to the park by the lake, and walked against the grain of hundreds of rowdy St. Patrick's Day revelers. They dyed the river green!

We started to run out of steam around lunch, when Denise discovered the wonders of Chicago shopping. Thankfully not too much damage was done. To our chagrin, the room was still not ready, so we went to check out the Sears Trump Willis Tower, where I fulfilled a promise made long ago to my friends to go use the toilets in one of the tallest bathrooms in the world.

Finally our room was ready, and we took what can only be described as the greatest nap in the history of the world. Our legs were aching and our eyelids were heavy, and those fresh sheets on the bed were miraculous. We woke in time for dinner at Giordano's, what with their delicious deep dish pizza and all.

This trip was really a reminder to Denise and I that we're getting old. By ten pm, we were exhausted and ready to go to bed, but felt like that would be way too lame. So we got dressed up and went to see the hotel manager about what can be done for young twenty-somethings in the downtown of a metropolis.

"Say no more," the middle-aged man said, getting excited. "One block right, one block left, there's a bar that would be perfect. Go have fun."

Re-energized, we thanked him and went out onto the town. The bar he mentioned? A grungy, poorly-lit hole-in-the-wall that was jammed packed with drunk people and was way too loud. We were exhausted just looking into it. So we kept walking and found a quiet lounge more to our liking, with drinks that were way too expensive, and admitted that our days of youthful partying are over.

We left early the next morning, after Denise got some more shopping in. We're both of the mind that we miss living in a big city. Denise even spent the entire day twisting around our schedule for the next two years to incorporate living in Chicago, but it's probably a no-go. Still, it was invigorating to be in a city that was so exciting. We've had a bit of an emotional hangover since coming back to our small town, even though we have few complaints about Saginaw. Who knows when we'll get to live in a city again. Patience, I say.