Looking up (way up) in Chicago

June 26, 2014 / Greg / Leave a comment

I have yet to set foot in a more beautiful big city downtown than Chicago’s. It’s fairly compact and walkable, has a river running through it (always a plus for someone born near the water), and is unafraid and unashamed of the interplay of modern and older architectural styles present in its skyscrapers. On a sunny day, it really is something special. And luckily for me, on my recent trip there, the sun was out in full force. Perhaps no other single view point provides a better snapshot of the beauty of the downtown area than at the point the Chicago River passes underneath Michigan Avenue:

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Favourite 2014 travel photos. Chicago, IL. April 2014.

Chicago River

June 17, 2014 / Greg / Leave a comment

Rolling with the punches

June 15, 2014 / Greg / 1 Comment

I recently wrote about how friendly I found Nashville to be. But the metaphysical Nashville threw some things at me to test my adoration – I had my pinky finger slammed in a cab door when a bellboy closed it in haste, was stuck for the better part of a half hour in a crowded malfunctioning hotel elevator and got trapped in a cab with a cabbie suffering some sort of emotional distress who wanted to take me somewhere other than back to my hotel (the first time in my life I seriously considered jumping out of a moving vehicle). That would normally sour me on a place, but not with Nashville.

Rolling with the punches is a life lesson travel will attempt to teach you pretty often. If you can take the inevitable challenges travel throws at you with a dose of good humour, you’ll at least end up with a good story in the end. After my finger was slammed and stuck in the cab door and the requisite screaming was done, I asked the bellboy for some ice, a towel and two Tylenol, then got the cabbie to take me where I was planning to go. My finger was all kinds of swollen and sore, but this was my one chance to see the Country Music Hall of Fame. I was even the recipient of a sympathetic free shot of bourbon at a downtown bar later that day when the bartender caught a glimpse of my finger.

Traveling home from Nashville, I had another opportunity to roll with the punches. My flight from Philly was cancelled leaving me with ten hours to kill and a strong likelihood my new flight would never take off. What did I do? I ticked two things off my “not yet in Philly” list. First, a cheese steak from Tony Luke’s, and the best one I’ve ever had in the city in my well researched opinion:

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A warm welcome from Nashville

June 14, 2014 / Greg / 3 Comments

Solo travel gives one an interesting perspective on the hospitality of a place. When you’re by yourself, you become more in tune with those around you. Cabbies, bartenders, waiters, hotel staff and a cadre of locals (in my case, usually found in a craft beer bar, restaurant, art gallery or at a concert) can make you feel welcomed and part of a place, or just another anonymous visitor. Over my short four days in Nashville, I gave this question a lot of thought:

Had I ever been anywhere friendlier?

With the notable exception of St. John’s, NL, I’m having great difficulty in thinking of any city I’ve been that’s been more welcoming. The people of Nashville were unfailingly warm and open. Those I met on this trip quickly felt like long lost friends, eager to share a story and a laugh. What initially was a place that in my mind I might never get back to, now has become a place to which to return.

Sadly, this was only a short visit, but I think I got a great taste of southern culture. I wandered around the last afternoon of the CMA Music Fest hopping from stage to stage to listen in on some country music. I ate almost exclusively from regional specialties – barbeque, hot chicken, catfish, greens, grits, fried green tomatoes… every meal was an experience. I tried a number of great Tennessee craft beers. I did a little evening bar hopping along Broadway to take in some blue grass and old country standards.

I’m pretty happy with what I squeezed around the edges of this work-related trip. It gave me a nice taste of Nashville and was a wonderful warm up for what now will be a “sometime in the future” visit back to Tennessee. I’ll write more on Nashville in the coming weeks…

Of duck tongues and corn fungus

June 11, 2014 / Greg / 2 Comments

On this recent trip to Chicago, my eating out was pretty even split between some delicious downmarket staples and a couple of higher end meals. Chicago is a truly great eating and drinking town, and on this visit I booked restaurant reservations at a couple of places where the menus and reputations for inventive food excited me. So excited in fact, that for my first night in the city I opted for the allure of a delicious meal over a Blackhawks – Canadiens hockey game. That’s right – I chose eating over sports. Maybe I’m becoming more refined as I age…

Night one: The moment the reservation window opened for the Girl & the Goat (I think it was three months before my planned visit), I grabbed one and started scouting the menu. The idea of sampling a number of small plates was high on my list, and the restaurant’s ability to scale down dishes to suit a solo diner looking to try multiple things made me very excited. One item that was personally recommended to me by Chef Stephanie Izard on Twitter was the duck tongues. I’ve got to be honest, I didn’t even know ducks had tongues. What a delicious discovery! Here’s what will probably be the best thing I eat all year – duck tongues with crispy wontons, black beans and piri piri:

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It can’t be Nashville every night

June 5, 2014June 5, 2014 / Greg / Leave a comment

When the city for a conference I try to attend each year was announced as Nashville, I got a wee bit excited. I’ve been reading a lot of travel buzz about Music City USA, and as I’ve come to learn more about Nashville, I’m a bit sad to not have some extra time there. This is one of the rare trips where I’m not able to tack on a few extra days, so I’ll be squeezing my tourist adventures into the margins on this one.

With limited time in Nashville next week, I’ve got an almost impossible to achieve itinerary of things to see and do, but I’m going to try my best. There are a few barbeque joints to try and I will find a way to sample the local specialty “hot chicken” at least once (probably twice). Luckily, one of Nashville’s best hot chicken joints is close to the conference hotel. I hope to set aside one evening to take in some bluegrass and alt-country/Americana music at the wide selection of live music joints. I think I can fit in a visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame and perhaps a quick walking tour of downtown Nashville and some of its relatively new public art installations. There’s also the allure of venturing out one night to take in Nashville’s triple A baseball team, the Sounds, and their cool retro guitar shaped scoreboard in left field.

Ambitious plans for a short trip, but looking forward to whatever I can squeeze in. I can always catch up on my sleep on the plane on the way home!

Public art in the Loop

May 31, 2014 / Greg / 2 Comments

On an almost unbelievably perfect early April day in Chicago (clear skies, temperature over 20C), I strapped on my super comfy walking shoes for an urban hike to explore public art near and inside “the Loop”. That’s an area in downtown that’s contained within the elevated train that runs through the heart of Chicago. In the city’s wisdom, there’s an abundance of public art to give life to an area rife with office buildings and miles upon miles of concrete.

Just east of the loop is Millennium Park, home to some of the most iconic of Chicago’s public art, and the first stop on my self-guided tour. The first piece I took in was “Crown Fountain”. It consists of two large skyscraper shaped structures with images of Chicago natives projected on them. Sadly, the fountains spewing from the mouths of the projected images weren’t operational on my visit, but the art is striking nonetheless:

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30 travel memories from my 30s

May 24, 2014 / Greg / Leave a comment

As the calendar counts down to the final days where I am able to call myself a thirty-something year old, I’ve been thinking back on the last decade of my life. All in all, my thirties have felt like they provided a lifetime worth of experiences in a short ten year period. Many of my favourite experiences have come from embracing travel as part of my lifestyle. These are thirty of my favourite travel memories from a great decade. I can only hope the next ten years are as much fun.

1. An evening spent sitting with my then girlfriend, now wife, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower while enjoying a nice bottle of Burgundy

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A night on the south side

May 22, 2014 / Greg / 4 Comments

I’ll admit something that may not be kosher with traditional baseball fans. I greatly preferred the experience of watching baseball on the south side of Chicago in the home of the White Sox compared to taking in a game at Wrigley. Not that Wrigley is without its charms – far from it. But a game at Wrigley is a bit like watching baseball in a theme park dedicated to what it was like to watch baseball fifty years ago.

The White Sox play at the much more modern and comfortable US Cellular Field about a fifteen minute train ride south of downtown Chicago. Given the relative lack of popularity of the White Sox, I was able to snag a prime seat right behind home for the game. I made a beeline to my seat to get a sense of how good I’d have it for the night. I was pretty happy with my selection:

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Chicago’s delicious iconic foods

May 17, 2014 / Greg / 3 Comments

By any measure, Chicago is a great food city. I’ve been there two times now, and have barely scratched the surface of what’s available. On this last trip, I made a point of rounding out my dance card of Chicago favourites. First stop shortly after touching down: the Billy Goat Tavern for a “cheezborger”

Drawing its fame jointly as the backdrop to a famous SNL skit as well as the source of the curse that has kept the Cubs out of the World Series, it’s a great humble bar tucked on the lower level of Michigan Avenue. The cheeseburger (I ordered a triple) was a perfect old fashioned delight and I enjoyed sitting at the bar and talking baseball with the bartender.