Wednesday, October 22, 2008

that's the chicago way!

Steven Tsapelas again. Today I got paired up with Angel on our drive from Akron, Ohio to Chicago, Illinois. Our first stop was at a Burger King, where Brian secretly planted a banana peel next to Angel's car door, then asked him to pose like he's cool, while we all waited for Angel to slip on the banana peel. If you look closely in the bottom corner of the screen, you can see it.



Alas, Angel missed the banana peel and we continued through Indiana and into Illinois. Our first stop was at a gas station, which had this very interesting sign...



That's right. Big... Cheap... Bombs. Isn't that awesome? So awesome we got the hell out of there.

After that, we headed into the heart of the Windy City and took this photo where we stand triumphantly in front of the Sears Tower... which is way in the background...

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After five hours on the road, we were famished, and local legend had it that a pizza place called Giordano's had the most delicious deep dish pizza in the land.

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So we met our old Hofstra friend Laura Fu, who helped us take down the incredibly thick deep dish pizza. We got the pepperoni and sausage. It looked like this...



We had made the mistake of ordering the biggest appetizer platter ever before the deep dish pizza arrived. See, it takes them 35 minutes to cook the pizza, so we figured we'd order some appetizers before hand. But the appetizer platter was huge! By the end of the evening, we were stuffed. Still, we managed to pose for this photo...



After this, Laura Fu was kind enough to take us on a tour of Chicago. She was a casting assistant on "The Dark Knight," so she showed us a ton of the locations where they shot our favorite movie of the summer. She also showed us the places where they shot "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." Then she showed us a giant nut...




Laura then had to go to class, so she left us to our own devices to walk around Chicago. Of course, we already had a destination in mind.

You see, somewhere around Indiana, while surrounded by cornfields, Brian and Angel were reminded of one of their favorite movies - "Field of Dreams." Then they thought, "We're passing through Iowa tomorrow. I wonder if that cornfield is really in Iowa." Brian did the research on his iPhone and found out that the cornfield AND the baseball field are actually in Iowa. So, he called the number and found out that it's open for FREE TOURS. Brian asked, "Can we play ball?" And the woman answered, "If you bring your own bats and balls." Since we hadn't packed bats and balls, we headed to a Chicago Target Store in search of them. It didn't turn out so well...


Untitled from Ragtag Productions on Vimeo.


So, we headed to nearby Sports Authority and were quite impressed by the quality of their selection...



Now, here's the thing - I have absolutely no interest in playing baseball on the "Field of Dreams." In the first place, I don't like playing sports. I was in Special Gym, remember? In the second place - I really dislike the movie "Field of Dreams." So, I didn't buy any sporting goods. I'll probably just walk around the cornfields in the LA Dodgers baseball hat my brother bought for me. But, my friends are super excited, therefore they spent a lot of money on sporting goods. And hey, they looked happy.

But there was another movie site I wanted to visit. Something that was a huge part of my childhood ----

The "Home Alone" House.

So, around 8PM we drove to the house which is on a very quiet residential street. We quickly ran up on to the sidewalk and Patrick snapped a blurry photo.



However, Patrick and Brian weren't satisfied with this. They wanted to run up to the front porch and snap a photo DIRECTLY in front of the "Home Alone" house. I'd been waiting for this moment my entire life. But -

I chickened out.

The house lights were on and I didn't want to get caught. But, Patrick and Angel were relentless, so they ran up there and this photo was snapped...



We're currently in Angel's cousin Rene's house. He's being a gracious host and letting us spend the night. Tomorrow it's Iowa followed by Nebraska. We're going to be dangerous in Omaha. Mark my words.


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Field of Dreams was a horrible movie. Home Alone was better. But Ferris Bueller is a million times better.

Do some damage in Iowa. I expect nothing less than a fine for something at some point. Maybe a bar fight.

-Monica

Allan said...

looks like u guys are having a good time, yea i wouldn't spend to much money on baseball stuff.... i woulda rather go to a wal-mart and hope for the best.

Anonymous said...

did you guys see Scruff McGruff?!

Kiki Love said...

OMG! CHicago is the best city EVER! Did you guys like it? Milliniem Park is awesome. I hope you guys had a great time.

Yeah!!!

lyssarae said...

...just for future reference, chicagoans WILL make fun of you if you call that sculpture a "giant nut" again. 'round these parts, we call it "the bean." i mean, i guess you're just tourists, and didn't really know any better...

BUT i'm so glad you had fun in chicago. it's the greatest city to visit! good luck with the rest of your travels, and with the future of WNG!

Laura Fu said...

It's a bean, not a nut, you nuts. I passed by a huge Sports Authority today. I wish I had known it was there, so you wouldn't have had to traipse to Target.

I must know where the McAllister house is! And I want to hear about baseball in Iowa too.