(...they don't call it "The Windy City" for nothin', let me tell ya! )
Luckily, being from Toronto, the cold--while significant--wasn't painfully shocking...but painful, nonetheless...
Anyway, travelling for a Raptors' weekend road game has become a bit of a tradition, and since they were playing on a Friday night, and we managed to secure a fantastic deal on a flight from Buffalo ($111 all-in/return) we decided to make the trek.
Thursday night we enjoyed a complimentary night in a fancy-pants room at Casino Niagara (compulsive gambling is good for something after all!) and Friday morning, we got up super early to ensure we had enough time to get across the border, parked and through security in time for our flight.
I must say, the ability to print one's boarding passes 24-hours before one's flight is such a wonderful convenience, it saves so much time (unless, of course, you put your boarding pass down on the table at a restaurant and forget it there..*oops*..not that *I* would ever do that, though,..perish the thought!).
Turned out we needn't have worried--we got across the border with no delays whatsoever and had plenty of time to spare in the terminal once we got through security. We had breakfast and I purchased a USA Today.
I love USA Today. It's total brain candy. Like Smarties. Tiny little bites of multi-coloured deliciosity (Yep, I just made up a word. Suck it if you don't like it). You can bounce back and forth between colours and it's all delectable and you don't even have to think! Wheeeeeeeeee! :)
Our flight was great, too. No hassles, no annoyances. The flight attendants on this particular flight were remarkably amusing (failed stand-up comedians with a penchant for inflatable slides, perhaps?)...very funny, actually. We each got TWO packets of peanuts and--the best part!--unlimited tomato juice! I'm sure whichever non-alcoholic beverage you'd chosen would have been unlimited, but I just looooove tomato juice(especially on airplanes, for some inexplicable reason), so it was tremendously exciting for me.
We landed in Chicago--ahead of schedule!--and since we didn't check any bags, we just headed straight for the El. The transit system in Chicago is incredibly convenient and efficient. We bought our 3-day passes, got on the train, switched trains once, arrived at our destination station and walked a few blocks to the hotel.
On the way, we passed a "soup" restaurant (looked like a take-out place)..in the window, they had a big list of the soups they were serving that day, including a few that were described as vegetarian/vegan. Being a soup lover, and being that it was 8 million degrees below zero, we made a note of the place for future reference.
We checked in to the hotel (Omni Suites on the Magnificent Mile--fantastic experience--everything was great all weekend long. I highly recommend it.) and headed up to our "suite". This particular hotel is "All Suites" so the room was amazing--even better, we got it for 50% off! Some kind of reimbursement dealie for a previous stay at another one of their properties that had gone awry--hey, I'll take it!
We decided that soup from the soup place was in order as it was almost lunchtime and our breakfast had been verrrry early in the morning. We ended up getting the veg chili & the mixed vegetable soup. Neither were overwhelmingly impressive--chili was so-so (I like some KICK in my chili, dammit!) and the veg soup was somewhat bland--but the crusty bread that accompanied the soups was AMAZING!
Prior to our arrival, we hadn't really decided what we were going to do with our afternoon before eating dinner and heading over to the United Centre for the game. With the weather as miserable as it was, we didn't really feel like wandering around and sightseeing--besides which, I think we saw all the top tourist spots on our last trip to Chicago--so we decided to have a nap. Actually, I don't think the nap thing was a conscious decision, it just sort of happened...laid down to watch a bit of TV..woke up 2 hours later...it happens..:)
Feeling revitalized, we showered and got dressed (in Raptors shirts, naturally) and headed out for dinner. We decided on "the Grand Lux Cafe"..which is a chain restaurant, tourist-trap, affiliated with "The Cheesecake Factory" restaurants...anyway, I'd heard really good things about it and, most importantly, it was only 2 blocks from the hotel.
Turns out, it was pretty damn good. The food was fantastic. The service was impeccable. I will, however, warn you--in case you ever have the chance to eat there--the portions are HUGE. Actually, one adjective doesn't come close to adequately describing the enormity of the portions they serve there--gargantuan, mammoth, collosal. There. That's better.
I had a "dinner-size" salad (see below). It pretty much looked exactly the same when I was finished with it as it did before I dug in. But, boy, it was GOOOOOOOD.
Actually, the elephantine portions bother me a bit..unless you're planning to split one meal with one or two other people, it seems like a tremendous waste. Considering half the patrons are probably tourists for whom doggy-bags would be inconvenient, you have to assume a really big quantity of food is wasted at that place every day. A shame.
After dinner, we pondered the route & train(s) we'd need to take to get to the United Centre from our location...the wind and the temperature helped us decide: A cab it was!!
Turns out, it was only about $10 to the United Centre...well worth the expense...I need my butt and I'm almost certain it would have frozen off had I been forced to stand on an elevated platform for any length of time waiting for a train.
We got to the arena and found our gate. We did do a cursory glance around the outside of the building in search of the "famous" Michael Jordan statue that lives there but, not finding it immediately, we abandoned the quest and went in where it was blessedly warm.
The tickets we bought off the internet from a season-ticket holder turned out to be just about the greatest seats in the entire place--5th row (3rd row of permanent seats, 5th row if you include the floor seats) centre, across from the benches--a perfect view of everything! We had a great time and everyone was incredibly friendly--even though we were cheering for the visiting team(some of us..aka ME...being VERY loud about it, too).
I went up the aisle to go the bathroom at one point and asked the usher which way I should go--he said, "Are you here from Toronto?"
It took me a split-second to determine how he knew that I was Canadian--was I emitting some kind of Canuckian vibe that only dogs and ushers can detect?!?
Then I remembered that I was wearing a Raptors shirt. hehehe.
I responded that I was, indeed, from Toronto, and he bellowed, "Welcome to Chicago!"
Isn't that nice? I also saw these signs all over Chicago saying "the mayor welcomes you to chicago"...at first, I was skeptical...by the end of the weekend, I truly believed Mr. Daly was welcoming me to Chicago!
My old friend Chuck Swirsky, who was the TV play-by-play guy for the Raptors for years til he moved back to Chicago to cover the Bulls, told me to get in touch with him when we got to the arena, which I did and he came over to say hello. We chatted for a bit and we got some restaurant recommendations.
We wanted to get a pic of us with Chuck in the home of the Bulls, for souvenir sake, so we asked an usher (not the one who welcomed me to Chicago) to take a pic of us--methinks it might have been her first encounter with a digital camera, as she looked both perplexed and a little frightened, when we handed it to her and the resulting pic (as evidenced by its exclusion from this post) was a classic "heads-cut-off" disaster. Thanks anyway, lady!
I yelled out to Jose Calderon during the warm-up and he turned and looked and saw us and gave us a big wave & a smile and I gave him a thumbs up. A couple of the other Raptors saw us (fans in Chi-town!) and gave us a wink & a nod...they were happy for our presence. :)
Turns out, for the first time in a game for which we travelled, the Raptors kicked ass--it was the return of the Raptors' previously injured starting point guard, Jose Calderon, and he ran the floor like he'd never been gone. It was great. No one booed us, even though we cheered for the visitors, and..the Raptors won!
After the game, we met up with some friends at a random bar for a few drinks..didn't last too long..though we did meet up with some Bulls fans who'd been at the game and, yes, we did gloat, just a little bit...then we went back to the hotel and crashed.
