My Kind Of Town

posted by Tygrrius @ 6:02 AM

Of all places to run into Artoo Detoo, I never thought it'd be Chicago's Navy Pier. My wife and I were in the Chicago area last week on vacation and, sure enough, the little astromech droid was there, too. It looks like he's seen a lot of action.


We visited Navy Pier with her parents on an ideal day. The temperature stayed in the low 70's with no humidity. There were beautiful blue skies and white clouds. The pier is a definite must-see, and not just for Artoo. From there we took a thirty-minute skyline boat tour on Lake Michigan, which was an incredible way to view the city.


From the tour boat, I snapped some pictures of the back side of Navy Pier with the city as a backdrop (above), and of the Sears Tower (below).


Later that day, we visited the Sears Tower Skydeck. Since it was such a clear day, there was about a one-hour wait to get up there. The line setup was mass chaos, but it's worth the annoyance to see the spectacular views from the skydeck.


Between Navy Pier and the Sears Tower, I took over two hundred pictures in total that day. I think my finger must've gotten stuck on the button. There was just so much that I wanted to capture. It was a perfect day, one I will never forget.


I've only spent about eight days of my life so far in the Chicago area, so I'm certainly not an expert. My wife and her family are originally from there, though, and they tell me there are certain things I always must do when visiting. All of them seem to involve eating. Yes, they know me well.


You have to eat at Portillo's. They have delicious Italian beef, Italian sausage, and Chicago hot dogs. Fortunately for us, some of their stuff can actually be imported to where we live. One thing that doesn't ship here, though, is what I always seem to order when I'm there: the Combo Beef & Char-Grilled Sausage sandwich. I guess they don't allow that one out of Chicagoland.

And if that's not enough, be sure to get a big scoop of ice cream at Oberweis. When my in-laws told me this place had the absolute best ice cream, I have to admit I was a bit skeptical. Sure, they were right about the whole Portillo's having the best beef and sausage thing. But I really love ice cream.

So, I went with her dad and grandfather to Oberweis and, sure enough, I had the finest scoop of chocolate peanut butter ice cream. That was a fun day, too, probably my favorite of the trip. Her grandfather taught me how to play poker and proceeded to beat both me and her dad pretty handily at it. Fortunately for us, we were only playing for pennies.

Still hungry after ice cream, then why not wrap up your stay with a big slice of sausage pizza from Home Run Inn? The whole "Chicago has the best" theme continued there. And yes, Home Run Inn does indeed have the best restaurant pizza. Ever.

After all that eating, I was a little worried I wouldn't fit back on the sardine plane to get home. Of course, it turns out that being stuck in Chicago wouldn't be such a bad thing. At least I'd never go hungry.

Don't Look, He's Not Out There Now

posted by Tygrrius @ 10:25 AM

Most airplane trips are eventually round-trip, so Friday I experienced my second-ever flight. Though I felt less like a sardine, I unfortunately didn't have a window seat this time and couldn't really look out the whole time like I wanted.

The guy beside me who did have the window totally wasted it. As soon as we started to take off, he started looking straight ahead and never looked out again until we touched the ground nearly three hours later. I noticed many other people doing this, too. What a waste!

There wasn't much to see this time anyway, though. It was a lot cloudier, so all you could really see was vast whiteness. We were just behind the back edge of the wing so I had this urge to say to the frightened stranger beside me, "There's a man out there! On the wing of this plane!"

Knowing my oddball sense of humor, my wife had already warned me not to try this particular little prank. She really didn't want to see me on the evening news.

I get to go up again later this month. I can't wait! Maybe this time, the aircraft will go back into time and we'll have to keep dipping below the cloud cover to see if we've made it home.

Random Thoughts From Another Frontier

posted by Tygrrius @ 7:14 AM

I don't have a lot of time this month, so this will be a short entry. Don't expect any kind of theme, either. Brace yourselves for randomness.

I flew for the first time earlier this week. Not Superman-style, but in an airplane. Awesome experience! I looked out the window the whole time for the three-hour flight. The only downside is that I was in a flying sardine can. I was an idiot and brought a book along to read, thinking that I would actually be able to move a muscle in order to flip the pages.

Oh well, it was still incredible to see the United States at 36,000 feet. Flying amongst the clouds was fun. I must admit, I kept hearing the "Love Theme from Superman" in my head as I watched the beautiful clouds. I'm weird like that.

It was interesting to look down and see the shadows on the ground that were in the exact shape of the clouds. You just can't get a feel for that from the ground.

I haven't watched HBO in years, until stuck here at the hotel. Didn't HBO used to show movies? It's Home Box Office, right? It seems all they show now are crappy "original series." I guess that's part of the de-evolution of cable channels. MTV (Music Television) stopped showing music videos. TNN (The Nashville Network) stopped covering country music (but at least eventually changed its name to reflect that).

Though, actually, HBO does happen to be showing a movie at this very moment: Back to the Future, Part III. I loved the first one. They should've stopped there. Still, it's more interesting than the morning news.

JS will be bringing you any stories that catch his eye. Yesterday, he covered that William Shatner will apparently not be in Star Trek XI, while Leonard Nimoy will appear. If the Nimoy appearance turns out to be true, that raises a couple of interesting points.

For one thing, Nimoy has generally been picky about scripts over the years. He turned down directing and appearing in Star Trek Generations, after all, when Rick Berman refused to listen to his script concerns. Veteran TNG television director David Carson eventually took the helm on that film, while the Spock cameo role was slightly rewritten for Scotty (James Doohan). While Generations was an okay movie, we can only imagine what Nimoy would have done if given control.

More recently, Nimoy has also mentioned that he would only be interested in appearing in Star Trek XI if it was more than a cameo. Does this mean he will have a significant, non-cameo role in the film?

If Nimoy and, hopefully, Shatner can get work out of Star Trek XI, that's great. They both deserve it. From an artistic standpoint, though, I think the characters of Kirk and Spock had the best exits possible in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. While I'm excited to see their early adventures, I think the later years have already been perfectly wrapped up.