Day 25: The Amigos Dip Their Toes in Chicago

After waking up for sunrise and driving 14 hours in the car the day before, The Amigos took the morning easy and slept in to rest up for some exciting days in Chi City.

We took off walking towards Navy Pier around 1pm and took a scenic route through the free zoo (the lions and apes were probably our favorite) and by the lake. To The Ocho's chagrin, some people refer to this as "the beach", which she has a hard time wrapping her head around. There was quite a scene there on this perfect, sunny, 75 degree day. There were a ton of people playing volleyball, frisbee, football, jumping in the lake, and just soaking up the sun. 

Before reaching Navy Pier, we took a detour towards Millennium Park because we more time than we expected taking in the sights to our destination. LT2 and The Captain were invested in seeing the Germany vs. Greece EuroCup game, so we hit up Sweetwater Tavern and Grille, by suggestion of The Ocho's sister (Tres). Surprisingly, we ran into our fellow Eliotite friend, Janet, who was eating lunch with her dad! Janet is a Chicago local who we were already planning on meeting for dinner. We got in a bonus impromptu catch-up session before she took off to do some errands. 

Tres arrived just as Janet left and we took off adventuring to The Bean, where we got some great Amigo pictures (check the Picasa album!). We trekked back to Navy Pier to do the tourist-y thing and rode the Ferris Wheel. This marks the first time The Ocho and Tres had ever ridden one, which the others decided was a childhood necessity. Wow!
It offered great views of the city skyline (again, check our our pictures!). 

From there we walked to Moe's Cantina and had an awesome dinner with lots of margs and sangria with some fellow Harvard alumni. It was so fun to reunite with Janet, Dan, Ebele, and Kiara! Just like being back in the Domus. Ahh, good times. 

As the Captain successfully argued $50 off our bill because of over-priced margarita pitchers (yes, we had that many margarita pitchers) he began to feel the effects of food poisoning.  He fought back the urge to upend his meal on the manager, mainly because the Tres had paid for the dinner and that would have been a waste of her money.  The Ocho, always the caring individual, decided not to leave him alone and soon followed with some food poisoning of her own.  The two of them soon retired to the apartment while the others headed out to further adventures at Chicago bars.

It hardly feels like we've been on the road for 25 days. It is with heavy hearts that we must tell you we are losing an amigo. Whiskers is taking off early tomorrow morning to start a job in New York. We are hoping he will meet back up with us in New York when we get there. We will miss our furriest friend a lot in the next couple days, as we are sure you will as well.