2012 Recap: Chicago for St Patrick's Day

View from The Metropolitan Club at Willis Tower

I sometimes get myself into trouble for trying to retroactively post information from a trip I took a while ago, but one of my goals for this blog is to have information from every trip I took in 2012.  I typically keep all my old itineraries and until very recently, I wrote in a journal about my day-to-day life, including vacations. I will try my best to remember what happened, and hopefully my friends can correct me if my memory is not 100%.

Over St. Patrick's Day weekend, I went to Chicago to visit some friends living nearby and join in one of the bigger celebrations of the holiday in the U.S.  Coming from Boston, I didn't have high expectations for Chicago's Irish festivities, but I was pleasantly surprised!  I arrived at Midway on Friday morning via Southwest Airlines.  It was a short trip from Boston, and I didn't have any layovers, but the airport is a good distance from the city and I was sitting in traffic for about 40 minutes until arriving downtown.  I stayed 2 nights at the Westin on Michigan Avenue.  The location was perfect for sightseeing and shopping on the Magnificent Mile!  There was not too much noise, and the building and room was really modern.   As expected when a woman is surrounded by shops, my morning consisted of a lot of walking and shopping.   At lunchtime, I made my way over to Willis Tower (better known as Sears Tower) and ate at the Metropolitan Club in the 67th floor.  The views were great, but the food was lacking.  I did not make it to The Sky Deck on the 102nd floor, but I definitely want to do that next time!  Has anyone done this?  Is it awesome or a tourist trap?

The Bean in Millenium Park

That afternoon I walked around Millenium Park and took photos with the bean.  It really is a nice break in the middle of the city, but there isn't a lot going on as far as a central park type of respite.  If I got the right impression, most of the locals end up walking through the park on the way to and from work, but they don't really hang out there.  From the park, I walked over to the Navy Pier.  Unfortunately, coming in the winter meant that a lot of the typical summer attractions were not yet open, but I enjoyed the general vibe of the area.  My friends and I sat down at Margaritaville for some drinks and people watching.  Because we snacked so much at the Navy Pier, we decided to go straight out that night for drinks and apps instead of a proper dinner.  One of the things I was most looking forward to was going to a Champagne bar.  Why don't we have these in Boston?  Pops For Champagne was pretty close to our hotel, where we ordered a plate of cheeses and a bottle of champagne. It was a lot of fun, but super busy and we were waiting a while before we got a table. I'd suggest arriving early if possible (we got there around 9), or making making a reservation if you have a group bigger than 4 people. 

Green Jello River

The next morning, we all headed down to the river to watch it get dyed green - a Chicago St Patty's Day tradition!  It seemed as though everyone else had the same plan because there was no where to stand.  In the end, that idea was abandoned and we decided to get breakfast at a nearby restaurant, The West Egg, instead.  Conveniently, The West Egg is right next to Timothy O'Tooles, a popular Irish pub.   Even more conveniently, it just so happens to share a restroom with the West Egg and we were able to pop in for a Irish Car Bomb after breakfast.  Shortly after breakfast, the parade started.

Attempting to watch the parade was failed attempt #2 of the day.  Chicago needs to do a better job of providing a way for people to watch these festivities if they want them to keep coming back.  We walked up and down the parade route trying to look for a spot to stand, but found none. We abandoned that idea as well for drinks on the roof deck at The Wit hotel.  If you are looking for a place with awesome views, this is it!  We did eventually make it back to the river, and it was a crazy green jello shade of green.  Very cool and an awesome backdrop for pictures!

Dinner that night was supposed to be a traditional Chicago style deep dish pizza.  I will admit that on occasion, Yelp (my trusted go-to source for all things in a new city) lets me down.  Unfortunately, this was one of those times.  We waited for close to 1.5 hours for a pizza at Giordanos.  In the meantime, we just sat around and chatted.  Once we were finally seated, our pizza came out fairly quickly.  It ended up being a thin layer of crust, two inches of solid cheese mass, and a dash of sauce; definitely not good.  I was really hungry too, so that just made me mad.  I also was made that my tummy hurt the entire rest of the night.  Skip Giordanos if this isn't what you are looking for in a pizza.  Next time, I'm trying Ginos East.

That was pretty much the end of my trip.  The next morning I had an early flight and made my way back home.  I think I need to come back to Chicago to see more of the city before I can really get a grasp for what it's about.  It probably won't be for St Patrick's day though.