The nonsensical ponderings of Eric Frisch...

Well, I am back from Chicago!  Our band tour went really well, but the highlight was definitely the non-playing portion that we spent in Chicago.  We only had a day in the city, but I think I was able to make pretty good use of it.  A couple friends and I actually got started late Friday night after we arrived, exploring the downtown landmarks and such until we landed in a little bar and pizza joint at around 2 AM for a quick dinner and drink before bed.  Saturday morning started at Millenium Park, just a couple of blocks from the Palmer House Hilton where we were staying.  I snapped a picture on my phone of the famous Cloud Gate (more commonly known as the "bean").



From there we headed to the river.  Because it was St. Patricks Day, the city was absolutely crazy, and we had hoped to witness the annual tradition of dying the river green.  We had heard that was supposed to happen at 10:45, but at 11:30 we hadn't seen anything yet, and had to get a friend back to the hotel to meet a family member, so unfortunately we missed out on that event.  However, we were able to see it on TV over a Chicago-style deep dish pizza at a great little restaraunt near our hotel named Pizano's where we ate lunch.

Next, we were off to the Chicago Art Institute, which was simply awesome.  I was with a friend who is an art major, and we spent about 3 hours looking at all sorts of exhibits (though we only made it through about half the museum, which is enormous).  I took a few more pictures there...


"Nighthawks"


"Self Portrait" (Van Gogh)


"American Gothic"

After stopping in a couple shops across from the museum, we headed back to the hotel for a couple hours (we had been on our feet all day and really needed a bit of a break!).  Our evening plans came together quickly and spontaneously, but worked out very well.  We decided to try to get tickets for Blue Man Group, so Bryan and I took the subway up to the theatre and managed to get the last group of 3 tickets available.  We grabbed dinner at a little hot dog place up the street from the theatre and then came back for the show at 10.  Unbelievable.  Definitely one of the best performances of anything I've ever seen (not to mention the experience of having one of the blue men rocking out while standing on the armrests of Kate's seat... with her still in it).  Those guys do things with percussion that I could never even imagine.  It was awesome.

There were originally breakfast plans for this morning, but the two previous late nights caused those to be scrapped early this morning, so I just slept in until 10 or so and then packed and got on the bus to come home.  Overall, an amazing trip!  And now... time to spend the next week on spring break here in Columbus.  Life is good.