Chicago

Reluctantly, I left St Augustine, Florida for a week in Chicago. Quite intimidated by the traffic, I took a hotel near O'Hare and plotted my course downtown then into the fringes of the infamous Southside of Chicago on State Street. Somehow, I could hear the music of Jim Croce singing about "Bad, bad, Leroy Brown, the baddest man in the whole d*mn town, badder than ole King Kong and meaner than a junk yard dog". I turned on to the Eisenhower Expressway and headed toward Lake Michigan and was captivated with the idea that I-290 would actually go through the 3rd floor of the old post office building. I guess it was easier to drive through it than to tear it down.

State Street, once you got past a few sleazy buildings headed south, is in somewhat a a reconstruction mode with new high rise condos selling for just under a half million. Hip young females walked dogs and stopped off at coffee shops where five years ago you might have witnessed a mugging.

When you visit another city, people there go out of their way to show you what they think defines their city. In this case, we were directed to what was supposed to be a really good pizza taste. I had never heard of Uno's Pizza but my partner I was working with wanted to give it a try so we headed north to downtown. Finding Uno's wasn't that big of a deal but finding a parking spot posed more of a challenge but Jon slid into one in the middle of a mud puddle. Celebrating our good fortune, we got out, waded through near ankle deep water, fed the meter and headed a couple of blocks west. Finding a seat, we split a deep crust pizza and waited a short time before being served. Personally, I just didn't see what all the fuss was about and thought the best pizza for me would have to be one of Johnny's Sweep The Kitchen special down in Monroe, Louisiana or perhaps a calzone at one of De Angelo's of Baton Rouge. Uno's crust tasted somewhat like baking powder biscuit dough.

Fortunately, our stay was short lived and honestly, I didn't find the Hyatt much of a bargain. That being said, it truly is an interesting city with the elevated trains and high rises waving at the sky.