Abe Froman - Sausage King of Chicago

After another half day's rest and an easy travel day to Chicago, I was finally starting to feel like myself again. Since I hadn't seen my friend Micall since Italy (and I was semi-pooped) we decided to stay in and catch up on my first night. Not particularly riveting for you the reader, so I will skip ahead to my first full day.

After a quick breakfast, we headed out in search of a local farmer's market. Unfortunately, once we got there, we discovered it was next week and not this week. Booo! So we did a little bit of a driving tour and I caught my first glimpse of "the lake," (which is gi-normus, by the way; it looks like a frickin' ocean!) as well as of the Chicago sky-line. But due to our disappointment re: the farmer's market, we decided to console ourselves with hot dogs. Weird? Apparently Chicago has a thing for gourmet hot dogs. They have not just one, but several places to get such items. Who am I to judge? Hot dogs it is!!

So we made our way to a place called (are you ready for it?) Hot Doug's. Yes, Doug indeed owns the establishment. And apparently the dang things are so good people will wait in line OUTSIDE in this freakishly cold place for said hot dogs. So that's exactly what we did.

(Sidenote: As we approached the end of the line, I was on a phone call with my dad. As I was finishing the call and putting the phone away, I noticed the couple in front of us kept looking back at me (I would guess their age as "young grandparents"). So I made eye-contact and gave them the opportunity to say whatever it was they so obviously had to say to me, and the gentleman said, "You sound like a very good daughter." Obviously this immediately warmed my heart and made me want to cry a little bit, but I kept it under control.)

So while we waited, we chatted with this couple about what makes Chicago great, what should I be sure to do while I'm here, and lastly, international travel (I had shared my story with them a bit). Good times!! Once we made it inside, we had a similar conversation with Doug himself (who was taking orders) which culminated in free drinks for us, woo hoo!

The dogs were certainly gormet, and like nothing else I've had. Two thumbs up. (I also learned that dogs at Wrigley Field are magical due to the celery salt and that when ordered they are either "with" or "without" and this refers to onions. Good to know.)

From here Micall and I did a mini driving tour of the city and decided to tour the Sears Tower. Despite living here for a few years, she had never been. So we figured, why not? We got to see a little video about the making of the building as well as have our picture taken in front of a green screen. Neat, huh?

Actually the views were pretty neat. And as soon as I realized this was one of the places where Ferris Bueller goes on his day o' fun, I decided I too must go everywhere Ferris went. After a little research via the iphone, we learned that Wrigley was not doing tours (the closest I could come to attending a game) and thus, I would have to settle for a drive by. (Which I did.)

Last on our agenda for the day (though a minor detour from Ferris' day) was to see a show at the local venue Schubas Tavern. It's a bar/tiny standing-room-only show venue. Apparently Chicago has all kinds of local music/show venues, but several people I talked to over the duration of the weekend said that this was one of their favorites. Works for me. Tonight Lenka was topping the playbill. I'd never heard of her, but by the end of the night, I loved her. At least one of her songs is on a nationally syndicated commercial and I'm confident you would recognize it. But I'll post more on her later. For now, that wraps up day one in Chicago.