Chicago Trip

I took a quick 3 day trip to Chicago last weekend with friends to see the play "Wicked". I was in serious need of a break from work, the zone, my hamstring... everything and it could'nt have come at a better time.
Our hotel was convenient to everything and we walked everywhere. We started with a tour of the "Miracle Mile" downtown and then spent the evening at the navy pier watching the fireworks. The next day, Ris and I went to the 95th floor of the Hancock building and had an incredible lunch and then explored the downtown shopping district a little bit more. We met up with the others back at the hotel that evening and walked to the theater district to the Oriental Theatre. Let me start by saying that just seeing the theatre is a treat in itself. Built in the 20's, the interior of the theater is lavish mix of art nouveau and art deco - every square inch of wall and ceiling is embellished Indian inspired symbols and figures. The play was also a visual feast and the story was great. I will probably go see it again on tour next spring.

Ris and I headed back home the next morning (we drove of course!) and hit a strange little afternoon storm West of Davenport Iowa, the sun was shining to the south of us while we got hammered by rain for about two minutes. After we drove through it we turned around to look and saw a large rainbow and the end of it was on the highway where we had just driven through.

We were feeling pretty lucky after that and decided to take a wild side trip after we kept seeing road signs for "Bob's Your Uncle Pizza Place" before we got to Iowa City.
Bob's is an Iowa college basketball loving place judging from the hundreds of framed photos of Iowa basketball greats hanging everywhere and the pizza here is served up by tall-nordic/german-basket-ball-playing high school girls. We did what any sensible tourist should do when they are in Iowa and ordered the deep dish Chicago style pizza. Ris and I both agree - it is the best pizza we ever had. In Iowa... go figure!