Again, this was a wonderful TR, shelemm! Your photos (and the link), and your descriptions made me wonder if you are a professional photographer or a travel writer, or both!. I loved the new to me foods! Many thanks for taking the time to share .

(Here's my TR from a 2017 trip to the clichés! 😁 https://chicagotrio2017.blogspot.com/ )
ps...I just looked at it and parts are duplicated and others left out...sorry, will try to fix.

Hi again, shelemm. My original replies were on a Kindle. The TR comes up completely on the computer. It's in order and there's a "more posts" place to see the rest of the days. Sorry for any inconvenience, TDu.

TDudette I am not a photographer. I just point my iPhone 14 at things that look interesting to me. I think I'm very good at writing extremely short sentences. If someone asked to me submit an article with xxxx number of words, I would probably faint. I know people who are actual writers, and it's a lot of hard work. That's not for me.

But, I am so glad to hear of your appreciation. I remember the days when I would never take photos in a restaurant. But the times are changing, and I am trying to keep up.

I very much enjoyed reading your trip report. All places I wanted to go, certainly. As a kid I remember the Parker Brothers board game, Masterpiece, an art auction game. The guy who invented it was from Chicago, and every one of the paintings you bid on was from the Art Institute. So I really wanted to go! When I had a kid in middle school, I bought an old copy of the game. After we played it a bunch of times, I gifted it to my son's art teacher who had never seen it before.

Also, I love your photos of the Navy Pier, yet another place I missed out on.

Thank you for this enthusiastic and very well written trip report. I’ve lived in Chicago most of my life though we moved to the suburbs in 1979 but we go to Chicago regularly. Our son and daughter-in-law live down there and I’m so happy you showed so much of our city that May most people don’t think of. It’s the neighborhoods that really are very cool.

Maybe next time you can go to Devon Avenue and see a little India. That’s also a very cool place. Then there’s Korea town down by Argyle Street as well.

CN Traveler mag per a readers poll has rated Chicago as the best city to visit in the United States nine years in a row. Thank you for illustrating why.

Deep dish pizza was originally begun after the war at a place called Unos. The whole idea was to give people a full meal at a reasonable price. You have heard of the franchise Lou Malnatis. They specialize in deep dish pizza and also their thin crust pizza is very good too. Lou Malnatis and his wife used to work at the original Unos by the way. I guess they did pretty good on their own!

Speaking of pizza there’s a most unique style of pizza on a place on North Clark Street called “The Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder.” You choose your ingredients and put them in a ceramic bowl. Then the pizza crust is put on top and baked. Then when they serve it, they flip it. It’s really tasty and by the way as a bit of historic trivia for Chicago it’s in the same building that the Al Capone gang used to scout the comings and goings of the rival Bugs Moran gang at their hangout across the street proceeding the infamous Saint Valentine’s Day massacre.

thank you for this great trip report.
Larry

jacketwatch , Thanks for telling me about the Chicago Pizza and Over Grinder. That is a VERY unusual pizza. I looked up some photos. I've never seen anything quite like it.

I got your private message so thanks for the tip.

Nor have I ever seen another pizza like this.

They don’t take reservations and up until recently it was cash only. I think now they take credit cards.

if you ever get back, there are tours of Wrigley Field you could take during the season. The Cubs have to be out of town, of course, but you can actually go to the clubhouse and press box and get on the field.

The Chicago river architectural tour and the Art Institute are both what we’re seeing as is the museum of science and industry

and the Museum of Natural History.

across the street from the art Institute is a restaurant called Russian teatime. It’s been there for quite some time and it’s sort of an iconic spot to go and have lunch or dinner.

Oh BTW your pics of Loyola and the old buildings brings back memories as I am an alum.

I was impressed with the amount of green space at Loyola. There were a couple of enormous lawns that would make any university jealous.

Actually when I was a student in the early 70's there was far more green space than there is now. It has expanded tremendously over the decades as one would expect I suppose.