Noe's Noise

Two of my friends and I decided to go on a road trip to Chicago this fourth of July. We took Friday off and left our place at 8:30 a.m. to head to Baltimore for breakfast at Blue Moon Cafe. On I-95 north I realized I forgot my wide angle lens. Now I hate back tracking and knew we had a long drive ahead of us, but this would be my first trip to Chicago and I love architectural photography. My friends thankfully didn’t mind going back home after breakfast, which was really delicious. The place makes Cap’n Crunch French toast. Probably ruined all other French toast for me.
Well we got my lens from home and headed out again. To Blockbuster to drop off some dvds. Then we were off. For real. We stopped by Pittsburgh since we’d never been. Ate at Primanti Brothers. The experience was not our favorite but did the job.
We stayed at Andrews University in Michigan, getting in around 1 a.m. and feeling pretty beat. The campus was quite lovely. We went to church and then ate at the cafeteria.
Back on the road to Chicago! The final stretch. Our hotel was right by Grant Park, so we decided to check out Taste of Chicago. It was hot. Very hot. We walked by tons of booths and got some fried dough, fish tacos, jerk chicken, shredded turkey. Then we hung out in Millennium Park, took pictures of the Cloud Gate, aka the bean. Walked to Harpo Studios. Took a taxi to the John Hancock building. Went to the bar on the 96th floor per a friend’s tip.We were just going to go to the bathroom for the view that we heard was the best (cheap), but the host made us take a seat. Then he offered us a window table that opened up. Yes! We got drinks, appetizers and dessert to enjoy our view through sunset. By the way, the vanilla bean creme brule was awesome.
We decided on the necessary deep dish pizza experience. Ordered one from Giordano’s and took it back to the hotel. We walked around the city and down near Navy Pier while waiting for our pizza.
Day two. We had an early lunch at Grand Lux Cafe. The Asian nachos were my favorite. Then off to take an architectural tour with Seadog boat tours. Then we got some popcorn from Garrett’s. We went to eat at Wicker Park, but the place we wanted to try was closed. Holiday. Duh. Got a taxi to Lincoln Park. Then another to a restaurant with too long of a wait. That became the theme of the evening. Decided we could try more deep dish. Eventually got some pizza and salad from Gino’s East. It was much better. Hurried to millennium park for the fireworks. Definitely underwhelmed by the fireworks, but not at all by the city at n