Chicago

The lovely Mrs. Jib and I celebrated out third wedding anniversary by spending a couple of days in Chicago. The trip nearly started off very poorly, as I started getting cranky with the idiots who drive in Chicago and we had problems at our hotel. We arrived at the Best Western River North exactly at check in time. The hostess at the desk shuffled through some papers and then asked us to excuse her for a minute. I've been at enough hotels over the years to know that something was wrong. About ten minutes later the hotel manager came out and asked us to step aside and speak with him for a moment. Bracing for the worst, we were told, "We've had an unfortunate emergency guest stay extension." Now I could be wrong, but he seemed to be skirting around something with that statement. I was getting ready to get angry with the hotel manager, but given that sentence, I was pretty sure that I didn't want that room, anyway. My gut instinct was telling me something bad happened there.

The good news was that the Best Western sprung for a new hotel room for us down Ohio Street at the Comfort Inn. Our trip picked up from there. With a free hotel room in hand, we headed off to a nice dinner at the Chicago Chop House. From the Chop House, it was off to Wicked. If you are looking for a show to go and don't mind the drive to Chicago, Wicked is a must. It is an excellent musical that precedes and coincides with The Wizard of Oz, telling the story of Glinda the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch of the West. The play itself is very good, but it is made better by its two stars, Kristy Cates and Stacy Morgain Lewis. Cates plays Elphaba (Wicked Witch of the West), and her voice is a show stealer. In fact, she would be a show stealer if not for the performance of Morgain Lewis as Glinda. Morgain Lewis is great at setting the audience up for laughs, and she has numerous opportunities to do so throughout the show. Three jokes did seem to fall flat during the course of the show, but none were lines by Morgain Lewis. Together the tandem made the show even better. Wicked comes highly recommended by both of us. I will say this, if you come in looking to pick at it from a political standpoint, you might be able to. In fact, I had a few things picked out to discuss, but it is a good enough musical that I was willing to allow a few subtle things slide.

The plan after the show was to spend some time at the Red Head Piano Bar, which was a block from our hotel. We ended up passing on the Red Head because our walk from the theater district back to our hotel took a toll on the lovely Mrs. Jib's feet. Wednesday was pretty normal Chicago site seeing things, the details of which I'll spare all of you. We'd have more pictures, but our best picture taking opportunities were on Tuesday night, and lugging along the Rebel XT was pretty impractical. We've got some great shots of the Oriental Theater and the Chicago Theater on my cell phone, but I still haven't figured out how to get pictures out of my cell phone and onto a computer.

Thank you to everyone who gave us some advice a couple of months ago on places in Chicago to eat & drink. We had a great time and we appreciate the ideas you gave us.