The next leg of the trip involved us driving from Perry to Chicago. The drive was predicted to be around 9 hours with a couple of bathroom breaks/gas fill-up breaks and a lunch stop in the middle. Also, Sam and I luckily managed to fit all our clothes and necessities into a Superdry bag so just carrying the one thing around with us was easy to keep track of. The drive was relatively easy – well coming from the person sat in the passenger seat anyway – and conversations managed to flow effortlessly between the intervals of our singing extravaganza [ft. The Killers, RHCP, Queen and more – we aren’t considering a tour yet, but if you’d like to keep your eye out for tickets in the future that would be a good shout ;)].
We stopped in Toledo, a city in Ohio where my best friend Ryan goes to College, for lunch at a Lebanese restaurant that sold incredible hummus and grape leaf rolls to die for, not to mention as much fresh, warm, (and free – whoop!) pita bread as you so desire. It was D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S! – I thought I’d reiterate that in case I wasn’t clear enough how great this food was.
Despite the billions of toll booths taking so much of our money basically before our trip was barely started, the hardest part of the journey for me was being the navigator when we approached Chicago. Even when I had to play navigator though, the views around us were beautiful. The skyline was so stunning and all the water surrounding it really was the icing on the cake – or the glaze on the honey bun, as I now like to say. (Explanation of my honey bun obsession will be given in the next post.) Despite the anxiety of having to get us to our hotel, the whole process went rather well and we were unpacked and leaving the hotel to grab dinner in no time.
Dinner that first night was… really something, I’ll give them that. We went to a Mexican restaurant that appeared to have high ratings online yet it didn’t seem pricey. They also had vegan options so it all seemed to be great to begin with… until my vegan tacos arrived. There was absolutely no sauce whatsoever inside them; all the ingredients were completely dry and without any form of spice, oil or flavour. I usually can eat basically anything within the boundaries of my dietary needs. Because it can be difficult to find things for me, I cannot afford to be picky and so it’s typical for me to finish my plate even if the dish isn’t great. This food though… I took the first bite of the taco and it was difficult to swallow. I was really, really upset that I was wasting both money and food, but I had to announce to the guys that I couldn’t possibly eat it. I refused anyone to search for an alternative restaurant as everybody else was content with their meals and I didn’t want to waste any more money. Flacos “not so great” Tacos; the main reason I spent the first night in Chicago without eating.
However, despite the Mexican food not being a hit with me, the glaze on the honey bun really was when we passed a subway on the way back. Ryan had some unused subway gift cards in his wallet, which he insisted he had had so long that they weren’t being used, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to eat and not feel bad about any more about wasting any money; so far so good. We went into subway and they even served Falafel in this store, a usual absence that I have ranted to many friends and subway workers about in the past, so everything was looking even better… that was until the subway worker lied to me about every bread item they had stocked having milk in. To clarify, this girl at first looked me straight in the face and told me the breads had either milk or eggs in and then, when I asked for the list of the ones that just had eggs in (as I can eat eggs but not milk) she changed her story and said everything has milk in. I was so upset. I knew she was most likely wrong but seeing as though I had told her I was allergic and she had not said something along the lines of “I’m not sure” or “I don’t know where the list is to check” (and if she had said something like that I would have just said don’t worry about it and I would have googled the US subway ingredients and find out) I therefore couldn’t just order it and say I’d take my chances as she was so certain everything had milk in and under no circumstances would any of them not have milk in. It was a very sad night for my stomach that evening. [SIDENOTE: the next day I was reminded about the subway incident and decided to google the US ingredients and found out that infact only the flatbreads and the breads topped with cheese have milk in; every other bread would have been completely fine.]
The next day we went out for breakfast at a wonderful waffle and pancake house downtown. Unfortunately, I could only eat the toast on the menu, but I enjoyed it all the same and Sam and Ryan really enjoyed their food too so that was even better! (See pictures at the end to take a look at how happy Ryan was with his meal). We also visited the bean, Willis tower and Millennium Park this day. The lines for Willis tower were so long tht it took almost 3 hours to get up on the sky deck and another 2 hours before we got down on the ground again but it was well worth it once we got up there as it was ever so stunning. (Again, see the pictures at the end in relation to this.) I wanted to visit the planetarium this day also but after the long wait and events at Willis tower, we were all much too tired. We went back to the hotel early, laid in our beds and talked for the next couple of hours – or I should really say 9 hours! We played games of cards the first night and we planned on doing the same that second night, but ended up in deep conversation about all sorts of important subjects instead. The boys ate the famous deep-dish Chicago pizza that night and I ended up going to the subway and getting that falafel sandwich in the end. And by I ended up going, I mean Sam and Ryan went for me as I was too nervous that the same girl would be there from last night and I had the same problem as the day before and her knowing about my allergy but questioning her ingredient information. [SIDENOTE: as it turned out, that same girl was there the second night, in case anyone was wondering.]
The final moments in Chicago Sam and I spent at Buckingham fountain. We got up early, went for a walk with our camera (see pictures below) and went for breakfast before checking out, paying what was owed to the hotel and parking company, then heading back to Toledo. In Toledo we visited the same restaurant that Sam and I enjoyed so much, we met one of Ryan’s friends from college (ate with her and went back to her place for a bit), we bought some lovely merch from the university store and we looked around campus. It was nearly midnight by the time we arrived back in Perry, but it was so worth the tiredness in the morning as our little adventure had been really great- honestly, the pictures do not do it justice. We really were tired the next day though, as Sam and I had to get up early to do our laundry as we had to pack and leave to go to Chautauqua Lake in New York by midday.
So, that’s where I’m going to cut this post as I have lots of pictures I would like to share. I will continue with the stories of New York in the next post. I hoped you enjoyed reading this if you got this far. As usual, if you have any questions or comments I will reply to you as soon as I can but obviously, because we’re on vacation, we don’t get data whist we’re out and about so please be patient with me. I really appreciate everyone who supports me and Samuel on our journeys; to every one of you who reads my blog and cares to keep up with our lives… I love you! And I guess I’ll speak to you very soon with the next update! Oh and I’ll post the pictures below my sign off so don’t forget to keep scrolling if you want to see them.
Thanks!
-Alice xxxx
The Bean
Ryan’s first eggs benedict
The view from the skydeck
It was a bad place to get pictures, we realised in hindsight
Ryan jumped in the glass booth 103 floors high up in the air…
…whereas I struggled to even sit down!
(if you look closely you can see I’m still not sat properly -_-)
Buckingham Fountain<3
