I declare May 22 the official APT 212 Tour of Chicago Day

Hello readers. I'm back. I love the new banner, but I'm sad that my friend Matt decided I had no qualities to offer potential employers.

As to the title of this post, Yesterday, May 22, was an epic day in the Windy City. At approximately 12PM I met up with Matt Forrest and friend of 212 Matt Hoffman, who was visiting Chicago before heading off to Louisiana to take part in Teach for America. We met at Wrigley Field and decided we would grab some lunch in Wrigleyville. We walked by place after place but indecisiveness seemed to be the theme of the beginning of the afternoon. Hoffman wanted to eat at this place seen on the food network, but it was packed, so instead we went next door to this place that we could not remember the name of after we left.

We took our seats at the table and our waitress (we'll call her Svetlana) gave us menus. As I knew I would order a flatbread, I figured 8.50 for a pizza in Chicago isn't TOO bad. The others were looking at the menu when Svetlana came up to us and told us the specials. 1 dollar appetizers, 2 dollar flatbreads, and 3 dollar ribs! Together, our meal consisted of a flatbread, ribs, four cheeseburger sliders, curly fries, cheese sticks, AND drinks, for UNDER $20. IN CHICAGO! We ate cheaper than in Oxford! It was unbelievable.

After our delightful meal an obnoxious group of Ohio University Bobkittens invaded the bar on the pub crawl, so we immediately got up and left. But not before Matt Hoffman clogged the toilet in the restaurant for those who went to that school in southeast Ohio.

From there we hopped back on the 'L' and went to Wicker Park. We entered a used bookstore which had everything we could imagine. The store was amazing. My brother Ben would have never left--that's probably why we didn't have him come with us. We noticed, as we were looking at books, that there were signs on the bookshelves stating that if the books were removed from the shelves or shelved improperly the price would go up by $1. We debated the ability for them to actually carry this out. In theory, you could screw someone over by constantly leaving a book unshelved and make it more expensive than at Borders. Also, does somebody actually go through at the end of the day and make sure every single book is in order? Job for Matt Forrest?

From there Matt Hoffman wanted to go into a bachelorette party store, but could not bring himself to go in there, so we decided to hop on the 'L' and head over to Molly's cupcakes. This placed had been featured on the food network and Matt Hoffman was determined to go. So off we went to try the best cupcakes in the city. And they were amazing. At first, it was hard to comprehend why they would be more expensive than our lunch. Then we ate them and realized we should have had them for lunch. Best desert ever. We sat there in a food coma for awhile, until Matt Hoffman got reenergized realizing that proceeds from the cupcakes went to local schools. With the renewed energy we decided to walk to Lincoln Park and go to the zoo.

By the time we got to the zoo it was closed. But that did not stop us from going in. We walked around, but the only animals that were out were the sleeping lions and some kangaroos that looked really bored. As we walked further, we noticed the flamingo habitat. We were excited to see some pink birds, but we were then horrified. There were seemingly dozens of flamingos that were huddled into a small indoor habitat. It looked like people in a crosswalk in Tokyo or New York. It was awful. It's not as if they needed to huddle for warmth.

After our zoo trip we walked looking for a park with characters from the Wizard of Oz but we couldn't find it. We ended up walking over a mile searching and then decided we would just go to Millennium Park. But instead of just continuing our walk, we went all the way up to North and Clybourn to catch the 'L' to Lake and then walked up Randolph. Matt Hoffman could not hide his excitement as we were finally going to get to the Barack Obama museum and gift shop he had been talking about all day. But much to his disappointment, it was not there. In fact, there was no evidence of anything Obama related. Matt Forrest and I are still wondering if this in fact was a true building or if he just had a fantasy about this place.

But eventually we reached Millennium Park where Matt Hoffman found his real fantasy. While Matt Forrest and I napped in the park, Hoffman spent an hour staring at his perfect girl. She was attractive, athletic, etc, etc, etc. And she was making out with some guy in the park. Poor Hoffman. He was upset about it the entire way to dinner...and after dinner...and probably still today. We decided to leave the park because their were these creepy orange lights in one of the buildings that kept getting brighter. We couldn't figure them out. So we headed down Michigan Avenue and eventually ended up at Chili's for dinner because it was the easiest place to get in.

The food was fine, but the real winner was the little computer gadget on the table. This thing had trivia, other games, news, sports scores, and you could pay your check on it and receive an email receipt. The only problem we had with this thing was that apparently, according to the box at Chili's there are eight continents. Today, we're still trying to figure out what the 8th one is. North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica...?

After this we walked from the restaurant to the Lion's Den and Apartment Bar and Pub where we met up with some of my high school friends and hung out until we had to leave so we could catch the last 'L' back north. At the bar Matt Forrest ran into someone he knew. Surprise. We can't go anywhere without him running into anyone. It was his older neighbor or something...so he says.

When we got to the Fullerton station some guy dropped his phone on the track and then jumped on to them to get his phone. We were all caught a little off guard by that one. He was okay. Got back on the platform and didn't touch the third rail. There was also a poor, hungry guy who started screaming on the train, but people around us thought he might have a gun or something. He didn't. Thank God.

Then Matt Forrest and Matt Hoffman got off the train at Berwyn and Ben, who had met us at the bar, and I went back to the quiet north suburbs of Chicago, arriving home at 2 AM.

Recap:

Total Time Spent together: 13 hours

Total Miles Walked: At LEAST 8-10

Total Miles Covered: More than At LEAST 8-10

Total Money spent: MUCH less than we thought (with the exception of Hoffman but that's his fault)

Total Amount of Fun: Amazing

I vote it becomes a yearly event and the rest of 212 joins us.

If there is anything I left out, I'm sure Matt Forrest can fill in details later.