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Life in the Windy City.

So Sarah and I just got back from Chicago on Friday. I knew the traffic in Chicago was bad before we got there, but dang.  We ended up not going to the Sears tower or to Navy Pier for three reasons…

1) The weather was nasty (20 and snowing all week)
2) The traffic was nasty (especially in that weather!)
3) Parking and drivng was freaking expensive! (it’s about 12 bucks to park anywhere in the city and there are toll booths like every 4 miles)

I’m sure we could’ve taken the train or something… but we just weren’t familiar enough with the system to be confident enough to use it.  Besides, we did a TON of stuff anyway.  Wednesday we got there and went to Willow Creek’s New Community service.  The auditorium is ginormous.  It seats like 7,200 people and is just amazing.  Words don’t describe it until you can see it for yourself.  So… have a look!

CRAZY!!! After that we went to a pizza place and had Chicago-Style Pizza.  I had the waitress bring out a birthday pizza cookie thing for Sarah and I gave her her presents there too… A ring and a necklace… I’d post pics of them here, but I don’t have any!  So…

So anyway, Thursday afternoon we went to Medieval Times for lunch.  That was fun.  Our knight won… heh heh.

Then Thursday night we went to the Blue Man Group at the Briar Street Theater in Chicago.  We stopped at a small food place called, “Eat A Pita” and had dinner… just some burgers and fries… Cool place.  Then it was on to the show:

Let me explain something to you… I laugh a lot.  I have a good sense of humor.  I love making others laugh.  I have never laughed so hard in my life.  I thought I was going to lose my voice from laughing.  My throat hurt.  I went expecting a concert…. I found a concert and the funniest comedy I’d ever seen in my life… No movie, skit, drama, song, show, comedian…. nothing ever made me laugh this hard.  If you EVER get the chance to see these guys… DO IT!  The tickets are like $54.00 a person… but that is by far the most well spent money for entertainment purposes you could possibly spend.  It was an experience.  Not just a show… but an interactive experience.  They walk the audience, use volunteers, make you feel like one small community of people.  We sat in a theatre of 700 people and it felt like it was 50 people.

Before the show they have these LED screens that scroll text like, “No photos please, no videotaping, etc…”  But when the show is about to start they start scrolling text that the audience just rolls about…. One such line was, “Let’s all take time to say Hi to Brent Pirolli. Brent is an ordinary guy.  He’s done nothing to distinguish himself from anyone else… Which is all the more reason we should let Brent know how much we love him.  Let’s all tell Brent we love him.  Brent, please stand up so everyone can know where you are and tell you that they love you.  Ok everybody, ready go… ‘We love you Brent!'”  By this time I was standing waving to everyone telling them thank you… ::sigh:: Little did I know it was just the beginning of a very funny night.

So then Friday we went to eat lunch at Maggiano’s Little Italy.  I had expected a romantic small atmosphere itallian restaurant… The prices sure reflected that… $37.00 just for lunch… but the atmosphere stunk.  It was so cram-packed with tables that we felt like the guys sitting next to us were having lunch with us… Seriously… Taco Bell gives more distance between seats than this place did.  Kind of a bummer. (And the food wasn’t amazing either…. bah.)

But in the end we had a great time and the Blue Man Group made the trip worth every second of it if nothing else… 

So the moral of the story is… GO SEE THE BLUE MAN GROUP!