DOWN WITH PANTS!

The Down With Pants! crew traveled to Chicago this past weekend for a quick vacation and a friend's wedding. It was a pretty fun time although not at all relaxing like vacations should be. That's just not possible in Chicago. It's just to busy of a city to allow for any relaxation. It's a nice enough town to visit once in a while but thank god I live in Seattle because anything bigger would drive me crazy and Chicago nearly did. However here are some of the highlights and a couple of lowlights from the trip.

Leona's Restaurant: When in serious need of some food after eating virtually nothing during the flight we arrived and were whisked away to Andy's favorite Hyde Park restaurant Leona's. After some consideration of their huge menu we ordered and were treated to a massive amount of food including french fries smothered in bleu cheese alfredo sauce and the best onion rings I've ever eaten (and I hate onions with a passion). It wasn't the best meal ever eaten but it was the perfect meal for our mood and need for immediate satisfaction.

Second City: Later in the evening we headed to the Old Town district and took in their new revue "Show Title Deemed Indecent By FCC". Having seen some improv and sketch comedy in the Seattle area I was amazed at how big the difference was between the incredible talent of the Second City folks over area performers. It does make sense considering Second City is arguably the best troop in the country. Anyway, it was ridiculously funny and a ton of fun and if you are in Chicago make sure you see one of their shows.

Field Museum: What an incredible museum. We had a lot on our docket for Friday but managed not to do a whole lot of it only because the Field Museum was so incredible. We spent a good five hours browsing around and had to miss a handful of exhibits just to keep the day moving. Of course we saw Sue the largest and most complete T-Rex ever found along with an awesome Egyptian exhibit and virtually every bird known to man in their huge collection of taxidermy. I know, I know....how interesting could taxidermy be? Just trust me, it is.

Navy Pier Ferris Wheel: It gives you an incredible view of Chicago that was worth the five dollar price to ride. However it goes around once really, really slow and isn't much of a ride.

Museum of Stained Glass: We found this little hidden museum on Navy Pier while looking for Skee-ball. It's totally free and has a ton of Tiffany windows, some Frank Lloyd Wright and many more. A huge surprise on this otherwise cheesy tourist trap of a pier.

Pizzeria Uno: We wanted some Chicago deep dish style pizza and we got it at the original location of this now nationwide chain. Delicious. The butteriest crust I've ever tasted.

Lincoln Park Zoo: How can a zoo this good be totally free? They had a ton of animals that I haven't seen in other zoos including a Takin, which is an ox like creature from Asia which we witnessed making sweet love to a barrel. All of this for only the price of parking.

Signature Lounge: The bar at the top of the John Hancock building would have been great had we been able to get anywhere near it, but alas there were just to many people. Combine the fact that we were tired and cranky after the wedding and a little bit snippy to each other and you have a rough experience all around. We knew we should have gone here earlier but it never worked out.