With $1.75 Blatz, Schlittz, and Hamms, the Chip Inn deserves its own post.

This Chipp Inn looks like a small house turned bar. It’s cozy, bartenders are super nice, people are friendly and its cheap. No food but you can order pizza or bring your own. It’s also semi-walking distance from our apartment so we walked there.

The first time we graced the Chip Inn’s presence, I was with a group of 11. Michael bought everyone a round of Blatz and gave the guy a $20 with some ones. The guy promptly tried to give Michael back the extra money. We were shocked! Usually bartenders scoop that up and in some cases won’t even try to bring you back your change thinking you’re giving it all to them. Michael told him it was his and we thought to ourselves how refreshing it was to be around such an honest person in such a big city. Not to mention, when we ordered the next round, he bought it for us! As Michael put it, we’ve gone to some of the same bars over and over, gave money over and over, and the bartender has never bought a single round, let alone a drink! How down-to-earth this place is! Just plain ‘ole nice people enjoying some drinks. They’ve got a full bar too for those non-beer drinkers, but why dabble with anything but a Blitz?

The Chip Inn

This had become a common question for us in the beginning of our move to Chicago. It was so much easier to walk down the street and grab a bite after a long day then to go to the store and make something at the shambles we were calling an apt (stuff was everywhere!).

The area we live in caters to the “go out to eat” lifestyle and every spot down the street is packed with people doing exactly that.

Michael discovered this amazing website that aided in us finding the best deals in our area. Smalltabs.com. It lets you sort by day of the week and by area of Chicago and you can submit your own finds too. I <3 this!

So, this is pretty sums out how our first 2 weeks went down:

Monday:
Mac’s American Pub – $5 cheeseburger w/ fries, $2
Innjoy – $.25 wings with lots of different flavors, not incredibly spicy but tasty, $2 Miller High Life/Miller Lites

Tuesday:
Division Ale House – $2 Fish tacos

Wednesday:
Kelly’s Pub in Lincoln Park – $.25 wings and $2 Coors Lights (Right below a train and total dive but the wings are huge and cheap)

Any day:
Wicker Park Tavern – $1 Cheeseburger w/ fries (All day every day special here, but the catch is it’s a 1/4 lb and you have to buy a $4 beer for each burger. 1/4 lb is fine for me, but for a dude you might want two)

Just Yummy:
Moonshine – No super specials here, just really yummy food and a nice patio
Smoke Daddy’s – Yummy BBQ and usually have live music every night to entertain you. Super small little dive. Also has an incredible chocolate cookie served in an iron skillet with ice cream on top. Delish!

Most of the places I mentioned above have crazy good deals all throughout the week, but these are my favorites. On Fridays and Saturdays, there are usually no specials anywhere, but all in all, you can find a good deal on grub anywhere in the city, and Small Tabs helps you find them.

I love Small Tabs!

The El, or the train as everyone calls it in Chicago, consists of a rainbow of colors. Red, Green, Brown, Pink, Orange, Yellow, Purple and of course, Blue, that carry you all around the loop. Blue is the one I ride on a daily basis and it carries me straight from the airport (it stops inside the airport) through the city and takes me almost to my doorstep. I frequented this train on a regular basis during my travels up here and am pretty familiar with the Blue line. My co-worker has created a system of ranking the train colors based on clean to dirty. Blue is at the bottom of that list.

I’ve learned and continue to learn something almost every day in regards to the train system.

Here are a few lessons I’ve learned the hard way:

1. ALWAYS check the sign at the top so you know what train you got on. My second day here I hurriedly ran down the steps for the Blue line, and upon seeing a train in waiting, I jumped in not paying attention. “Wow”, I thought to myself, “this train sure is empty to be going downtown”. The intercom announced its next stop and I knew I was going the wrong direction. FAIL.
2. Learn how to stand on a train. The best way I’ve found when forced to stand on a train, is with your feet shoulder width apart with one foot facing the front of the train and the other facing the back. This will give you a stronger balance when the train is jerking around, and trust me, it does. And always, always, always, hold on to something. I stupidly made this mistake multiple times in the beginning and toppled over.
3. Don’t talk to strangers. They won’t stop talking to you and 77% of the people that ride the train are weird and want something.
4. Don’t take anything from strangers – not even a flyer – especially from small children or people that look like small children. This should be common sense.
5. Be courteous. If someone needs to get off the train and you are in the way, move. Sometimes you have to get off the train but just hop back on. There are people, like me, that get anxiety that they won’t make it off the train in time, so please, just move out of the way.
6. Don’t stand in the way of the doors. If you don’t, the train won’t move and people get pissed and you have to ride with the glaring at you. Plus, they hurt if you get in their way.
7. Learn the off schedules. If you don’t, you’ll end up sweating next to some slob breathing all over you and your coffee. Nothing spoils your morning like feeling as if you got malaria from the guy on the train. I leave before 8am and don’t get food or coffee until after the train drops me off.
8. Carry a sanitizer of some type. The train is a dirty, dirty place. You think people clean that thing? No way.

More lessons to come, stay tuned!

My Chicago transit card - I'm official!

|8/28|
Sunday we got up around 6am in order to head out about 7. We had another full day of driving in store for us, 9 hours or so. We showered and packed up and proudly walked out the lobby of the hotel leaving all the employees at the Westin dumbfounded at how we managed to pull off bringing a dog that big into the hotel.

The drive between Memphis and Chicago is pretty boring I must say. We drove back into Arkansas from Tennessee for a bit, and then on into Missouri. We stopped somewhere for gas and I noticed a giant rooster. I have come across one other giant rooster in my lifetime and was astonished that there, miles and miles away from Texas, there lies another.

Giant rooster

That being the only interesting thing that could potentially occur in Missouri, we drove on. Before we knew it, the Illinois State line was coming up! We were nearly there! Well, not really. Illinois, it turns out, is a very boring, long state.

Illinois State Line

We continued on in the endless dustbowl we had entered. Lunchtime was approaching and we pondered where to eat. There were no cool cities to stop in, so we opted for a Steak and Shake. I’ve never been to a Steak and Shake before, so we headed on in so I could try it. I got a burger and a milkshake and it was pretty yummy, no Whataburger but what could I expect that far away from Texas? The patties are super thin so definitely go with the double if you are a newbie.

We drove on, and on, and on. Nothing interesting at all happened. Petey started to fidget in the backseat, I started to fidget in the front seat, the miles getting smaller and smaller. Finally the faintest sign of the Chicago skyline came into view. We were almost there!

We got to our apartment about 5pm. We brought everything up and showered and changed to meet Michael’s parents, sister and brother for dinner at 6. They picked us up and we went over to this place Piece, which is a pizza place down the road from us. They brew their own beer and I tried the Golden Arm. Pretty light and went down smooth enough. The pizza here is HUGE, thin and tasty. We’ll probably head back another time.

After dinner we went back to the apartment, Petey was anxious with what was going on and I hated to leave him alone in a new place for so long. Going to sleep was strange. The noises from the street kept me up most of the night. I’m just not used to hearing all the sirens, loud talking and street noises accustomed to the big city life. I’m sure I’ll get used to it, but for now I’ll just have to deal with a few less hours of sleep.

|8/18|
Moving day came and was a very long, hot, 9-hour day of watching people do stuff.

Box castles!

So glad the company moved us and I didn’t have to worry about a thing except making sure the helpers thirst were quenched. They had a team of people just do the packing, a team just to pack our TV’s and large glass tables, and a team to load and move everything out. All in all, it was done seamlessly and extremely organized. I was thoroughly impressed.

Moving Truck - no I didn't fill it up, it housed a total of 4 different individual's furniture and boxes

Once the boxes were moved out, I loaded Petey into the car and headed over to my Aunt’s house where we would be holding camp in our “in-between” time. Michael’s last day was 8/26 so we had a time frame where we were homeless!

|8/23|
I went back up to Chicago on the following Tuesday in order to let the movers into our new apartment and unpack a few things so when we arrived the following Sunday we could at least find a pair of socks. Michael’s mom and dad thankfully came with me and helped us out a ton! Again I was impressed at how organized the movers were. I essentially got a tiny bingo sheet with colors and numbers for each box and piece of furniture. As they brought things in I checked them off, periodically yelling Bingo! in order to crack a laugh out of the guys working so hard. Everything came in and was accounted for. I had one casualty in a $20 Target bookshelf, but I would have been shocked if it had made the journey anyway.

I flew back to H-town the following morning and we finished out our work week, eager to start our road trip the next morning!

Well it wasn’t easy to get to this point, but on Friday, August 5th Michael and I had a going away / Bday party. It was Texas themed of course complete with delicious BBQ (Michael and my uncle made 3 briskets!) and a zebra pinata (because I heart zebras).

Das Cowboy Boot

I am so grateful to have such an amazing circle of friends and family in Texas. I had a few drive up from Austin and Dallas and it meant the world to me to have them there to celebrate and say our goodbye’s. Surprisingly, I didn’t shed a tear, but I think its because I enjoyed having the company of all my favorite people around me (and also I told people to just leave to avoid any sappy good-byes).

I have the best friends and family!

Next up, moving day!!

Farewell Texas