Just wanted to pop in a note and let you all know that we arrived home today. We do fully intend to fill you all in on the rest of the trip and hope to fit that in over the next couple of days in between organising a plumber, taking the dog to the vet again and a settling back in to being here.
We still have the rest of our time in Missouri, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Los Angeles to share with y'all so stay tuned.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Moressouri
Gobb: The time had arrived for the first arrival for the Paradox meetup (aka "Paracon 2009"). Well, I suppose technically we were the first arrivals... well, actually DrWolf was the first arrival... ok the first arrival AFTER we got there. Right. Now that's sorted, it was time for us to pick up the lovely Spiff from the airport. Unfortunately, there were four of us who wanted to go, and only room in the car for three (plus Spiff) so one of us had to "take one for the team" as it were, or rather "ride the nobility wave" and stay home. The short straw was drawn by Lisa, who elected to stay behind and do exciting things like tidying up the kitchen a bit.
art_bohemia, DrWolf and I piled into the car and headed off to the airport. The ride itself was entertaining, but probably not worth describing, since it was really only funny if you were there (giggedy goo, ahwooo, free candy etc.) so let's just say it was "uneventful". We found Spiff hanging around the seedy end of the airport arrivals concourse, leapt out, blindfolded her, bundled her into the car and drove away. Ok, we didn't do that but we thought about it, and it probably would've been funny.
Now, Spiff is awesome. Not just a little bit awesome - a lot awesome. Spiff runs the Paradox Wiki (among other things) and we've known her for years. As with the other guys, finally getting to meet her was amazing. Spiff's from North Carolina, and has a southern drawl to die for. She's also surprisingly violent, and spent several days poking, prodding, kicking, hitting and biting us. Well, DrWolf and I anyway. Most of the rest of the group escaped relatively unscathed. Spiff also has a habit of... how can I put this... not lasting the full duration of any party, so when she decided to bet me that she'd be "the last one standing" I was more than happy to accept. Ok, it was only a nickel, but it's the principle of the thing.
Actually, that reminds me. At some point in the afternoon, I bet Spiff a nickel for something else (I can't recall what). She didn't have a nickel, so she borrowed a quarter from Lisa, and asked me for change. It turns out that it was my quarter to begin with so... Spiff, you still owe me a nickel.
The rest of Friday afternoon was fairly relaxed, just hanging out, mellaxing and catching up with the gang. Over a few drinks. At some point, another couple of people we've known online through STC arrived - Barf_De_Bard (aka Silent) and his wife Betty Swoobs (fnarr! fnarr!) and increased the mirth and merriment. Both are terrific people and great to hang out with.
OK, I need to pause here and apologise to non-Paradox-players for all the silly names in this post. The names you're reading are obviously not real names - they're Paradox/KoL character names - but since I don't have anyone's permission to publish their real names in here, and I know some people are funny about that, I'm sticking to the character names. Bear with me. Just keep in mind that our friends aren't REALLY called "Betty Swoobs", "Spiff" or "Jesus" (who, by the way, utterly failed to turn my water into wine and is therefore clearly an impostor!)
I digress. Friday night, we headed to Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar, where they serve some amazing food and some even more amazing drinks. Look, I'll be honest here: my recollection of Friday night is somewhat hazy, and my grasp of the details isn't great. I know I had a couple of serious cocktails (Bahama Mama and Long Island Iced Tea sound familiar) and I know that I resisted the temptation to take on the hot wing challenge (eat a ridiculous number of chicken wings in stupendously bum-burningly-hot sauce to win a prize). I also know that I convinced DrWolf to drink a Foster's beer and that someone took a photo of the empty can in front of me. Haha, very funny. No, I can't remember who did that, but whoever it was is clearly a comedic genius.
It's entirely possible that the person responsible was MasTechno, another Paradox player (Paracite) who came down to Missouri from Minnesota (and didn't I have hours of cheap fun trying to pronounce that with the right Minnesowtan accent!?) to join us for the weekend. Mas is also someone we've known for ages, and who's been a big contributor to Paradox over the past year or so. A great player, radio DJ and good guy to catch up with. Again, thanks for coming down, Mas!
Let's see, what else can I remember from the restaurant? Oh, the wings I ate were seriously tasty - they have 14 different sauces ranging from mild (Sweet BBQ) to blow your head off (Blazin') and I chose the Mango Habanero sauce as per Grokly's recommendation. It's the third or fourth hottest, and very very tasty. Also, I remember discovering that it's NOT politically correct to say "Sup Nigga!?" to your white friends in a mixed-race bar. I made that (totally innocent) error, and suddenly had people looking vaguely nervous. And by "vaguely nervous" I mean "like we were about to get killed". My bad.
After dinner, we headed back to art & Grok's where, for some reason, DrWolf decided to bet me (yes, a nickel) that he could pick me up over his shoulders. Uh-huh. Fine. He did it, and I paid up.
Apparently, Kratar had something to prove, because he decided he was going to pick Wolf up to... I dunno, show us how it's done, or something. We decided NOT to break him, and instead let him demonstrate with Spiff.
Following these shenanigans, we headed over to Travoltus' house for some further hang-out time (read "Irish Car Bombs"). As I mentioned earlier, my recall of the evening isn't great - must be the jet lag. Here, have some random photos instead.
Unfortunately I didn't last long, and ended up heading inside for a little snooze on the sofa. Where I discovered Spiff ALREADY PASSED OUT ON THE SOFA, and proceeded to use her as a pillow while we had a nap for a couple of hours before heading back to art & Grok's house.
I don't even want to talk about the drive back, except to say that it's NOT a good idea, when driving, to remind passengers that their lives are in your hands, while simultaneously displaying "jazz hands" and looking behind you, grinning maniacally. Wolf, you know exactly what I mean.
I'm going to end this now, but I need to say one thing:
Spiff! You owe me TWO nickels!
Lisa: It's also worth noting that part of the mellaxing done that afternoon involved having Popeye's Chicken for lunch. Stu and I had been completely obsessed and were pointing out Popeye's places everywhere we went, the first of these was one we saw in New Orleans. This entire obsession is based on the movie Little Nicky where Popeye's is a favourite amongst the characters and is described as being freaking awesome as well as the shiznit. So ofcourse, we simply had to try some.
Gobb: Popeye's chicken is NOT freakin' awesome. Sure, it's good, but while it definitely has the shiz, it's missing the nit. Adam Sandler lied to us.
Oh yeah, and if anyone has any photos from Friday, especially before and during dinner, please pass them on. Apparently we didn't use the camera much, so there are big gaps everywhere.
art_bohemia, DrWolf and I piled into the car and headed off to the airport. The ride itself was entertaining, but probably not worth describing, since it was really only funny if you were there (giggedy goo, ahwooo, free candy etc.) so let's just say it was "uneventful". We found Spiff hanging around the seedy end of the airport arrivals concourse, leapt out, blindfolded her, bundled her into the car and drove away. Ok, we didn't do that but we thought about it, and it probably would've been funny.
Now, Spiff is awesome. Not just a little bit awesome - a lot awesome. Spiff runs the Paradox Wiki (among other things) and we've known her for years. As with the other guys, finally getting to meet her was amazing. Spiff's from North Carolina, and has a southern drawl to die for. She's also surprisingly violent, and spent several days poking, prodding, kicking, hitting and biting us. Well, DrWolf and I anyway. Most of the rest of the group escaped relatively unscathed. Spiff also has a habit of... how can I put this... not lasting the full duration of any party, so when she decided to bet me that she'd be "the last one standing" I was more than happy to accept. Ok, it was only a nickel, but it's the principle of the thing.
SPIFFEH!
The rest of Friday afternoon was fairly relaxed, just hanging out, mellaxing and catching up with the gang. Over a few drinks. At some point, another couple of people we've known online through STC arrived - Barf_De_Bard (aka Silent) and his wife Betty Swoobs (fnarr! fnarr!) and increased the mirth and merriment. Both are terrific people and great to hang out with.
OK, I need to pause here and apologise to non-Paradox-players for all the silly names in this post. The names you're reading are obviously not real names - they're Paradox/KoL character names - but since I don't have anyone's permission to publish their real names in here, and I know some people are funny about that, I'm sticking to the character names. Bear with me. Just keep in mind that our friends aren't REALLY called "Betty Swoobs", "Spiff" or "Jesus" (who, by the way, utterly failed to turn my water into wine and is therefore clearly an impostor!)
I digress. Friday night, we headed to Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar, where they serve some amazing food and some even more amazing drinks. Look, I'll be honest here: my recollection of Friday night is somewhat hazy, and my grasp of the details isn't great. I know I had a couple of serious cocktails (Bahama Mama and Long Island Iced Tea sound familiar) and I know that I resisted the temptation to take on the hot wing challenge (eat a ridiculous number of chicken wings in stupendously bum-burningly-hot sauce to win a prize). I also know that I convinced DrWolf to drink a Foster's beer and that someone took a photo of the empty can in front of me. Haha, very funny. No, I can't remember who did that, but whoever it was is clearly a comedic genius.
It's entirely possible that the person responsible was MasTechno, another Paradox player (Paracite) who came down to Missouri from Minnesota (and didn't I have hours of cheap fun trying to pronounce that with the right Minnesowtan accent!?) to join us for the weekend. Mas is also someone we've known for ages, and who's been a big contributor to Paradox over the past year or so. A great player, radio DJ and good guy to catch up with. Again, thanks for coming down, Mas!
MasTechno. He's from Minnesowta. Ah geez.
Let's see, what else can I remember from the restaurant? Oh, the wings I ate were seriously tasty - they have 14 different sauces ranging from mild (Sweet BBQ) to blow your head off (Blazin') and I chose the Mango Habanero sauce as per Grokly's recommendation. It's the third or fourth hottest, and very very tasty. Also, I remember discovering that it's NOT politically correct to say "Sup Nigga!?" to your white friends in a mixed-race bar. I made that (totally innocent) error, and suddenly had people looking vaguely nervous. And by "vaguely nervous" I mean "like we were about to get killed". My bad.
After dinner, we headed back to art & Grok's where, for some reason, DrWolf decided to bet me (yes, a nickel) that he could pick me up over his shoulders. Uh-huh. Fine. He did it, and I paid up.
Apparently, Kratar had something to prove, because he decided he was going to pick Wolf up to... I dunno, show us how it's done, or something. We decided NOT to break him, and instead let him demonstrate with Spiff.
Following these shenanigans, we headed over to Travoltus' house for some further hang-out time (read "Irish Car Bombs"). As I mentioned earlier, my recall of the evening isn't great - must be the jet lag. Here, have some random photos instead.
Unfortunately I didn't last long, and ended up heading inside for a little snooze on the sofa. Where I discovered Spiff ALREADY PASSED OUT ON THE SOFA, and proceeded to use her as a pillow while we had a nap for a couple of hours before heading back to art & Grok's house.
I don't even want to talk about the drive back, except to say that it's NOT a good idea, when driving, to remind passengers that their lives are in your hands, while simultaneously displaying "jazz hands" and looking behind you, grinning maniacally. Wolf, you know exactly what I mean.
I'm going to end this now, but I need to say one thing:
Spiff! You owe me TWO nickels!
Lisa: It's also worth noting that part of the mellaxing done that afternoon involved having Popeye's Chicken for lunch. Stu and I had been completely obsessed and were pointing out Popeye's places everywhere we went, the first of these was one we saw in New Orleans. This entire obsession is based on the movie Little Nicky where Popeye's is a favourite amongst the characters and is described as being freaking awesome as well as the shiznit. So ofcourse, we simply had to try some.
Gobb: Popeye's chicken is NOT freakin' awesome. Sure, it's good, but while it definitely has the shiz, it's missing the nit. Adam Sandler lied to us.
Oh yeah, and if anyone has any photos from Friday, especially before and during dinner, please pass them on. Apparently we didn't use the camera much, so there are big gaps everywhere.
Somewhere south of Kansas City, Missouri
Ok, so now that we have gotten dinner out of the way in LA it is time to tell you about the next part of our journey. I hope you all appreciate that Stu and I are working diligently to bring you up to date as we are aware that we have spent a lot of time actually holidaying (imagine that) and have neglected to keep this online journal up to date.
Gobb: Yeah, sorry about that. At some point we decided to treat this like our honeymoon. Ok it's four years late, but we didn't really have much of one at the time, and we thought we might as well enjoy it. At this stage, it doesn't look like we're going to catch up fully until we get back home in four days, but we'll see.
Lisa: Now, where was I.... Ah yes, we had just arrived in Missouri, much to our own, and I suspect others', excitement. It is probably worth mentioning at this point that the luggage we were carrying at the time was holding its own and there didn't appear to be any other casualties on the way to Kansas City. We attempted to stay up late and party with our very good friends but unfortunately Stu was suffering from a bit of a headache and I only lasted an hour longer than he did.
We took it fairly easy on the Wednesday, it was nice to be in good company and just having a general rest from the sight-seeing trail. Art and I hit the shops for a little while to stock up on supplies and I was amazed at just how cheap everything was in the town we were staying in (which is even smaller than Alice Springs yet closer to a major city) compared to Australia.
That night we had a few drinks with Travoltus, played some guitar hero and had an awesome pot-roast served up to us by Kratar. That was the night Stu and I were introduced to the movie "Rustler's Rhapsody" which lead to a number of movie quotes being delivered during conversation for the rest of the trip. Where's the hair? It's in there... Ahwoooh.
Gobb: Oh I like that.
Lisa: On Thursday, after a somewhat slow start (sleeping in is nice), we got up and headed to Grokly's place of business to say g'day, change cars for comfort purposes and then we were introduced to Sonic and their Route 44 Limeades. These drinks were seriously awesome. Before we came to America, Michelle had briefly mentioned, ;-), to Stu and I that everything was bigger and better in America and these limeades did a lot to prove her point. They came in a big bucket of a cup and were simply delicious.
Gobb: Cherry limeade is even better. Well, I thought so anyway. Also, corn dogs, jalapeno poppers and cheese bites, or whatever they're called. Om. Nom. Nom.
Lisa: Limeades in hand it was time to head to the 18th and Vine American Jazz Museum. Prior to checking out the museum, Stu and Dr. Phil decided to checkout a funky-painted cow.
Gobb: You'll note that Wolf (Dr Phil if you prefer) and I seem to be checking this cow out from different ends. This is purely for research purposes, obviously. Yes, I know what it *looks* like, but it's not. Trust me.
*In the second picture, art is taking a photo of me taking a photo of her. Unfortunately, her copies of all this day's photos disappeared. If anyone finds them lying around, please forward them on.
Lisa: The museum was amazing and filled with exhibits, sound bites and a variety of memorabillia relating to jazz artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie 'Yardbird' Parker, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespi and many, many more.
Gobb: The Jazz Museum building, at 18th and Vine, is also home to the Negro Baseball League museum, which we didn't check out. Ok, it would only have cost us $2 extra, but since neither of knows anything (or cares) about baseball, it would've been somewhat pointless.
Lisa: After checking out the museum, art_bohemia guided us through The Plaza and pointed out a number of fountains and other landmarks. The fountains were of particular note because as well as being a proud feature of Kansas City, many were also flowing with pink water on the day for breast cancer awareness. On the way home we also saw some of the more expensive housing in Kansas City and there were some damned fine exhibits there.
Gobb: Somewhere near/in the Plaza, we came across a group of people in a park who almost certainly were practicing Aussie Rules football. We didn't see much, but there's something about an Aussie Rules handball that's just... unique. Awesome :)
*We tried to take a photo of the footballers, but frankly the result just looks like a bunch of guys hanging out doing not much at all and being blurry while they're at it. You'll have to use your imagination.
Lisa: That night we went out for some fine Missouri style BBQ at a restaurant whose name escapes me right now but if any of you are reading this and can let me know, please do because it was some really good BBQ. I know it was a place that was recommended by Travoltus and that it was great food. Stu, Grok and I all ordered an appetiser and the waitress was looking at us all really quizzically. When the food was brought to the table we figured out why. The servings were massive and we all had a really good feed. We all left the restaurant ready to burst and headed home to jump online for a little while and say hi to the people hanging out in Paradox.
Gobb: You'd think we'd have learnt not to order appetisers in America, but apparently not. Over a week later, and we're still doing it. Sigh. We're going to be rolling home I think.
Lisa: Bedtime came at about 1:30 in the morning but sleep was a long long way from then. Dr. Phil, Stu and myself all got to giggling like a bunch of kids on school camp and were making up different lyrics for songs etc. We eventually decided that it was probably time we went to sleep when the kids started to move around and get ready for school at nearly 6 in the morning.
*Kids, please note. Smoking is bad, mmkay. Sure, it *looks* like we're having fun, but that's not the point.
Gobb: "different lyrics for songs"... HA! Again, this defies description and has been edited for reasons of good taste. If you were there, or you arrived over the next couple of days, then you'll know exactly what was going on. If you weren't and you really want to know, ask us.
Lisa: There was no sleep-in that day because Stu, art and Dr. Phil all left the house at 10:45am to go and pick Spiff up from the airport.
I believe that is where the next post is starting so I will leave it at that for now.
Gobb: Before we get to the next post, and before I forget (again), I'd just like to add our thanks to everyone in Missouri for putting up with us for the week and making us feel so completely welcome.
Grok & art (and family), thanks for making room for us in your home, along with yourselves, three kids and that other freeloader camping on the floor.
DrWolf, thanks for hanging out with us, driving us around and not snoring too badly, or complaining about our... ok, my snoring.
Travoltus, thanks again for letting us make use of your home for our partying (and Lisa apologises AGAIN for spilling her drink on your carpet).
Finally, thanks to all those who spent their time and money travelling from all over the country to come visit us in Missouri, or Chicago, and for everything you've done for us. You guys are all great, and we're really grateful and happy to know you all. I'd love to name you all individually but I know I'd forget someone and that would suck, so I'll stick to "y'all" and hope you know who I mean.
Gobb: Yeah, sorry about that. At some point we decided to treat this like our honeymoon. Ok it's four years late, but we didn't really have much of one at the time, and we thought we might as well enjoy it. At this stage, it doesn't look like we're going to catch up fully until we get back home in four days, but we'll see.
Lisa: Now, where was I.... Ah yes, we had just arrived in Missouri, much to our own, and I suspect others', excitement. It is probably worth mentioning at this point that the luggage we were carrying at the time was holding its own and there didn't appear to be any other casualties on the way to Kansas City. We attempted to stay up late and party with our very good friends but unfortunately Stu was suffering from a bit of a headache and I only lasted an hour longer than he did.
We took it fairly easy on the Wednesday, it was nice to be in good company and just having a general rest from the sight-seeing trail. Art and I hit the shops for a little while to stock up on supplies and I was amazed at just how cheap everything was in the town we were staying in (which is even smaller than Alice Springs yet closer to a major city) compared to Australia.
That night we had a few drinks with Travoltus, played some guitar hero and had an awesome pot-roast served up to us by Kratar. That was the night Stu and I were introduced to the movie "Rustler's Rhapsody" which lead to a number of movie quotes being delivered during conversation for the rest of the trip. Where's the hair? It's in there... Ahwoooh.
Gobb: Oh I like that.
Lisa: On Thursday, after a somewhat slow start (sleeping in is nice), we got up and headed to Grokly's place of business to say g'day, change cars for comfort purposes and then we were introduced to Sonic and their Route 44 Limeades. These drinks were seriously awesome. Before we came to America, Michelle had briefly mentioned, ;-), to Stu and I that everything was bigger and better in America and these limeades did a lot to prove her point. They came in a big bucket of a cup and were simply delicious.
Gobb: Cherry limeade is even better. Well, I thought so anyway. Also, corn dogs, jalapeno poppers and cheese bites, or whatever they're called. Om. Nom. Nom.
Lisa: Limeades in hand it was time to head to the 18th and Vine American Jazz Museum. Prior to checking out the museum, Stu and Dr. Phil decided to checkout a funky-painted cow.
*In the second picture, art is taking a photo of me taking a photo of her. Unfortunately, her copies of all this day's photos disappeared. If anyone finds them lying around, please forward them on.
Lisa: The museum was amazing and filled with exhibits, sound bites and a variety of memorabillia relating to jazz artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie 'Yardbird' Parker, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespi and many, many more.
Gobb: The Jazz Museum building, at 18th and Vine, is also home to the Negro Baseball League museum, which we didn't check out. Ok, it would only have cost us $2 extra, but since neither of knows anything (or cares) about baseball, it would've been somewhat pointless.
Gobb: Somewhere near/in the Plaza, we came across a group of people in a park who almost certainly were practicing Aussie Rules football. We didn't see much, but there's something about an Aussie Rules handball that's just... unique. Awesome :)
*We tried to take a photo of the footballers, but frankly the result just looks like a bunch of guys hanging out doing not much at all and being blurry while they're at it. You'll have to use your imagination.
Lisa: That night we went out for some fine Missouri style BBQ at a restaurant whose name escapes me right now but if any of you are reading this and can let me know, please do because it was some really good BBQ. I know it was a place that was recommended by Travoltus and that it was great food. Stu, Grok and I all ordered an appetiser and the waitress was looking at us all really quizzically. When the food was brought to the table we figured out why. The servings were massive and we all had a really good feed. We all left the restaurant ready to burst and headed home to jump online for a little while and say hi to the people hanging out in Paradox.
Gobb: You'd think we'd have learnt not to order appetisers in America, but apparently not. Over a week later, and we're still doing it. Sigh. We're going to be rolling home I think.
Lisa: Bedtime came at about 1:30 in the morning but sleep was a long long way from then. Dr. Phil, Stu and myself all got to giggling like a bunch of kids on school camp and were making up different lyrics for songs etc. We eventually decided that it was probably time we went to sleep when the kids started to move around and get ready for school at nearly 6 in the morning.
*Kids, please note. Smoking is bad, mmkay. Sure, it *looks* like we're having fun, but that's not the point.
Gobb: "different lyrics for songs"... HA! Again, this defies description and has been edited for reasons of good taste. If you were there, or you arrived over the next couple of days, then you'll know exactly what was going on. If you weren't and you really want to know, ask us.
Lisa: There was no sleep-in that day because Stu, art and Dr. Phil all left the house at 10:45am to go and pick Spiff up from the airport.
I believe that is where the next post is starting so I will leave it at that for now.
Gobb: Before we get to the next post, and before I forget (again), I'd just like to add our thanks to everyone in Missouri for putting up with us for the week and making us feel so completely welcome.
Grok & art (and family), thanks for making room for us in your home, along with yourselves, three kids and that other freeloader camping on the floor.
DrWolf, thanks for hanging out with us, driving us around and not snoring too badly, or complaining about our... ok, my snoring.
Travoltus, thanks again for letting us make use of your home for our partying (and Lisa apologises AGAIN for spilling her drink on your carpet).
Finally, thanks to all those who spent their time and money travelling from all over the country to come visit us in Missouri, or Chicago, and for everything you've done for us. You guys are all great, and we're really grateful and happy to know you all. I'd love to name you all individually but I know I'd forget someone and that would suck, so I'll stick to "y'all" and hope you know who I mean.
We can't remember what day it is any more but here's the news anyway...
Lisa: Sooooooo, As Stu mentioned in that brief post it has been quite some time since we last updated the blog. I believe when we last left you all we were just on our way out to Buddy Guy's Legends for a night that promised great blues music and yummy food. Well I'm happy to announce that the evening delivered all that it promised and more. Looking at the menu, we felt like we were in New Orleans all over again with a wide variety of cajun treats and traditional blues fare. The portion sizes were extremely generous and we had very full bellies by the time the music began. Poor Stu ended up feeling quite sleepy and didn't know if he was going to stay awake long enough to enjoy the musical stylings of Jimmy Burns, Anthony 'Fret-Burner' Palmer and the boys. But stay awake he did and we were both glad of that because the music was sensational and totally fitting for the Blues Hall of Fame style restaurant that this place was. After a little over an hour of some seriously great blues music, it was time for the Monday Night Jam which is the norm at Buddy Guy's on a Monday night.
Gobb: Buddy Guy's Legends is an interesting venue. It's obviously been there a long time, and has probably had it's seedy days, but these days it looks a bit like a venue that's trying to look the part, and not quite managing it. There's nothing wrong with it, but I felt like it would've been better if there were a lot more people there, if the pool tables had been in use, and if the air had been full of smoke. Lisa mentioned the generous portion sizes and she's not kidding. We ordered an appetiser and a main (which Americans, bizarrely, call an entree), but the appetiser alone (mixed battered/deep fried... stuff) would have been enough for both of us. Probably didn't help that the brought out the main literally 5 minutes after the appetiser, but yeah, it was great food and there was plenty of it.
A couple of other things worth noting: Buddy Guy himself spent several hours sitting at the bar, presumably counting his money... or something. Also, nobody in the area appears to have their own cigarettes. Lucky I brought spares for everyone.
Lisa: LOL, good thing you were well stocked, such a shame that they were just 1mg Australian cigarettes lol. Anyway, I also neglected to mention how fascinating it was listening to Jimmy Burns reminisce about the 'old days'. He kept saying, 'shut an old man up with all this talking and tell me when you've heard enough' but I think everybody was just as happy to sit there and listen to the stories as much as the music itself.
The jam session started at about 11:30pm and boy did it start. If you get a chance to hear any music by a man named Quintus McCormick then get onto it. He was electric to watch and amazing to listen to. He pulled together a diverse band of musicians that had been waiting to jam and created a capitivating performance. He left the stage (guitar still plugged in) and walked through the tables shouting "Have we got the blues?". It was an amazing performance and I had thought about buying one of his CD's and asking him to sign it, so when he came to the table personally selling them, I had no problem forking over the cash.
After Quintus was on stage, there was a singer by the name of Holly Thee Maxwell who got up on the stage and promised some 'Lady Blues'. She also seemed to take a bit of a shine to Stu, gave him a evil stare from the stage that made him shift uncomfortably in his seat and said "You, know you're in trouble now, don't you?" Stu said "Yeah, I can see that." After renaming him 'Daddy' and singing him a song all about breakfast she had to disappear off to a birthday party. Well, she went after she sold a few CD's herself and signed one for Stu calling him Daddy yet again and asking him to google her.
All in all it was a great night and we stuck around watching a variety of musicians jam until around 1am, at which point we headed back to the hotel.
Gobb: Heh, Holly Maxwell, aka "The Black Blonde Bombshell" was a hoot. I honestly don't recall what the song was about, and spent most of the time being concerned she was about to fly off the stage and pounce on me. Lisa says it was all about breakfast, so I'll take her word for it. As with the other artists, though, Holly was a great performer, and we parted with the cash for her CD more than willingly.
Quintus McCormick blew me away. This dude rocked up on stage in a tshirt and sweat pants (I'm about 85% sure he was "going commando" too), carried his guitar up under his armpit and really didn't look like he was going to be worth it. It turns out that you really shouldn't judge a book by its cover, or a musician by his clothes! Quintus and his band were awesome, and again we parted with the bucks for his CD.
Eventually, we wandered back to the hotel, where there was a surprise waiting for us. To cut a long story short, we'd been hoping to catch up with another Paradox player (jupider) and his wife in Chicago, but somehow we managed to miss each other. That is, until we got back to the hotel, where we discovered a ton of text messages, emails and various other messages from jupider to say they'd been hunting/waiting for us all evening, together with a package containing a couple of home-made Paradox t-shirts from them.
One t-shirt just has the game name and website address, while the other has a quote from the lovely Sallyfox which... well, I can't repeat it exactly here (or post the photo - sorry my son's reading this!) but it's something along the lines of "Paradox... gosh yes!" Use your imagination.
Anyway, by this stage it was after 1am, so I sent jupider a text message and hoped to catch them the next morning, which (eventually) we did. Thanks to jupider, and to your lovely wife, for making the effort to come to town and meet us. It's great to see a friendly face in a strange town, and that was a great start to the day.
Lisa: After having breakfast with some new friends it was time to check out of the hotel but not time to head for the train station. So we left our bags with Affinia staff and were told that we really should check out the museum of contemporary art because it was free that day. Well you can't pass up a reccommendation for free stuff now can you? (Gobb: Free candy is free candy!) Well in this case we probably should have. I can't tolerate pretentiousness of any kind and I'm sure you can imagine this museum was filled with it. I was very glad when we left and you should be glad we have no pictures to post, being a museum, we weren't allowed to take any. I told Stu I'd had my garbage quota for the day (not those words but you get the idea) so he said he'd have to shut up for the rest of the afternoon. Anyway, we headed to an Irish pub for a very pleasant lunch and then it was time to reclaim our luggage, hop into a cab, bid farewell to Chicago and jump on the Amtrak set for KC.
Gobb: Oh man, the Museum of Contemporary Masturbation! I could go on for hours about the "art" in there, and ok, sure, some of it was alright, but there were a couple of standout "Wanks of Art" I should mention. First - two blank white canvasses with black borders. Apparently this is the artist's way of drawing our attention to the fact that "art" is usually "encapsulated" and, by leaving the rest of the canvas blank, telling us to pay attention to the world outside the border. Uh, sure. Second - a blank piece of canvas, randomly chopped into an 8-sided shape, which (according to the artist) gave the museum curator "the freedom to hang the work any way he liked, without being bound by the conventions of blah blah blah shut up shut up shut up and die!"
Ben, if you're reading this, please ignore the bad words Daddy said.
Lisa: We were all set for the train trip with half a bottle of bourbon and some left-over deep dish pizza... remember the deep dish pizza, I certainly do. We had a bit of a nap on the train and then woke up and had some drinks then had some pizza, then had some drinks, then had some drinks, then had some more pizza, then had some drinks and... well you get the idea. By the time we arrived in KC (7 hours after leaving Chicago) we were very happy to be there and very happy in general. We were met at the station by Grokly, art_bohemia and Dr. Phil, hugged lots, I probably squealed a little, hugged some more and then collected our luggage and set off for Belton. It was an interesting combination of excitment to meet people we've been wanting to hang out with for over 3 years and instant relaxation... although that may have been the bourbon.
Gobb: Hahaha yeah, I'm sure they get the idea, but just in case... I should point out that I nearly got refused service. Why? Well, Elljae being, shall we say, less capable of manouvering around a moving train (due to her innate clumsiness lol) had me go to the bar and get all the drinks. As a result, the barman thought I'd been drinking it all by myself. Apparently, the fact that I wasn't "talking properly" was a dead giveaway. Once we sorted out that a) I'd been sharing the drinks and b) I wasn't "talking properly" because I was from AUSTRALIA, we were all friends again but it was a close thing.
Dr. Phil LOL... it's DrWolf... Or Philosoraptor.. Or, for some, "big cuddly teddy bear". Either way, seeing these guys was amazing. We've been talking pretty constantly online since... well, it seems like forever, but it's really about three and a half years, first with the Social Trade Channel (STC) on the game Kingdom of Loathing, then as developers of Paradox. Meeting them at last pretty much defies description, but Lisa did indeed squeal, and there were hugs and all kinds of good stuff all round.
You know, I think it's time to end this post, and start writing a new one all about the week in Kansas City. Agreed?
Lisa: Yeah I agree, we might go get some dinner etc and pick up the next entry later and talk all about the amazing time we had with good friends etc. Don't forget, still to come is Las Vegas, San Francisco and of course The City of Angels.
Gobb: Buddy Guy's Legends is an interesting venue. It's obviously been there a long time, and has probably had it's seedy days, but these days it looks a bit like a venue that's trying to look the part, and not quite managing it. There's nothing wrong with it, but I felt like it would've been better if there were a lot more people there, if the pool tables had been in use, and if the air had been full of smoke. Lisa mentioned the generous portion sizes and she's not kidding. We ordered an appetiser and a main (which Americans, bizarrely, call an entree), but the appetiser alone (mixed battered/deep fried... stuff) would have been enough for both of us. Probably didn't help that the brought out the main literally 5 minutes after the appetiser, but yeah, it was great food and there was plenty of it.
A couple of other things worth noting: Buddy Guy himself spent several hours sitting at the bar, presumably counting his money... or something. Also, nobody in the area appears to have their own cigarettes. Lucky I brought spares for everyone.
Lisa: LOL, good thing you were well stocked, such a shame that they were just 1mg Australian cigarettes lol. Anyway, I also neglected to mention how fascinating it was listening to Jimmy Burns reminisce about the 'old days'. He kept saying, 'shut an old man up with all this talking and tell me when you've heard enough' but I think everybody was just as happy to sit there and listen to the stories as much as the music itself.
The jam session started at about 11:30pm and boy did it start. If you get a chance to hear any music by a man named Quintus McCormick then get onto it. He was electric to watch and amazing to listen to. He pulled together a diverse band of musicians that had been waiting to jam and created a capitivating performance. He left the stage (guitar still plugged in) and walked through the tables shouting "Have we got the blues?". It was an amazing performance and I had thought about buying one of his CD's and asking him to sign it, so when he came to the table personally selling them, I had no problem forking over the cash.
After Quintus was on stage, there was a singer by the name of Holly Thee Maxwell who got up on the stage and promised some 'Lady Blues'. She also seemed to take a bit of a shine to Stu, gave him a evil stare from the stage that made him shift uncomfortably in his seat and said "You, know you're in trouble now, don't you?" Stu said "Yeah, I can see that." After renaming him 'Daddy' and singing him a song all about breakfast she had to disappear off to a birthday party. Well, she went after she sold a few CD's herself and signed one for Stu calling him Daddy yet again and asking him to google her.
All in all it was a great night and we stuck around watching a variety of musicians jam until around 1am, at which point we headed back to the hotel.
Gobb: Heh, Holly Maxwell, aka "The Black Blonde Bombshell" was a hoot. I honestly don't recall what the song was about, and spent most of the time being concerned she was about to fly off the stage and pounce on me. Lisa says it was all about breakfast, so I'll take her word for it. As with the other artists, though, Holly was a great performer, and we parted with the cash for her CD more than willingly.
Quintus McCormick blew me away. This dude rocked up on stage in a tshirt and sweat pants (I'm about 85% sure he was "going commando" too), carried his guitar up under his armpit and really didn't look like he was going to be worth it. It turns out that you really shouldn't judge a book by its cover, or a musician by his clothes! Quintus and his band were awesome, and again we parted with the bucks for his CD.
Eventually, we wandered back to the hotel, where there was a surprise waiting for us. To cut a long story short, we'd been hoping to catch up with another Paradox player (jupider) and his wife in Chicago, but somehow we managed to miss each other. That is, until we got back to the hotel, where we discovered a ton of text messages, emails and various other messages from jupider to say they'd been hunting/waiting for us all evening, together with a package containing a couple of home-made Paradox t-shirts from them.
One t-shirt just has the game name and website address, while the other has a quote from the lovely Sallyfox which... well, I can't repeat it exactly here (or post the photo - sorry my son's reading this!) but it's something along the lines of "Paradox... gosh yes!" Use your imagination.
Anyway, by this stage it was after 1am, so I sent jupider a text message and hoped to catch them the next morning, which (eventually) we did. Thanks to jupider, and to your lovely wife, for making the effort to come to town and meet us. It's great to see a friendly face in a strange town, and that was a great start to the day.
Lisa: After having breakfast with some new friends it was time to check out of the hotel but not time to head for the train station. So we left our bags with Affinia staff and were told that we really should check out the museum of contemporary art because it was free that day. Well you can't pass up a reccommendation for free stuff now can you? (Gobb: Free candy is free candy!) Well in this case we probably should have. I can't tolerate pretentiousness of any kind and I'm sure you can imagine this museum was filled with it. I was very glad when we left and you should be glad we have no pictures to post, being a museum, we weren't allowed to take any. I told Stu I'd had my garbage quota for the day (not those words but you get the idea) so he said he'd have to shut up for the rest of the afternoon. Anyway, we headed to an Irish pub for a very pleasant lunch and then it was time to reclaim our luggage, hop into a cab, bid farewell to Chicago and jump on the Amtrak set for KC.
Gobb: Oh man, the Museum of Contemporary Masturbation! I could go on for hours about the "art" in there, and ok, sure, some of it was alright, but there were a couple of standout "Wanks of Art" I should mention. First - two blank white canvasses with black borders. Apparently this is the artist's way of drawing our attention to the fact that "art" is usually "encapsulated" and, by leaving the rest of the canvas blank, telling us to pay attention to the world outside the border. Uh, sure. Second - a blank piece of canvas, randomly chopped into an 8-sided shape, which (according to the artist) gave the museum curator "the freedom to hang the work any way he liked, without being bound by the conventions of blah blah blah shut up shut up shut up and die!"
Ben, if you're reading this, please ignore the bad words Daddy said.
Lisa: We were all set for the train trip with half a bottle of bourbon and some left-over deep dish pizza... remember the deep dish pizza, I certainly do. We had a bit of a nap on the train and then woke up and had some drinks then had some pizza, then had some drinks, then had some drinks, then had some more pizza, then had some drinks and... well you get the idea. By the time we arrived in KC (7 hours after leaving Chicago) we were very happy to be there and very happy in general. We were met at the station by Grokly, art_bohemia and Dr. Phil, hugged lots, I probably squealed a little, hugged some more and then collected our luggage and set off for Belton. It was an interesting combination of excitment to meet people we've been wanting to hang out with for over 3 years and instant relaxation... although that may have been the bourbon.
Gobb: Hahaha yeah, I'm sure they get the idea, but just in case... I should point out that I nearly got refused service. Why? Well, Elljae being, shall we say, less capable of manouvering around a moving train (due to her innate clumsiness lol) had me go to the bar and get all the drinks. As a result, the barman thought I'd been drinking it all by myself. Apparently, the fact that I wasn't "talking properly" was a dead giveaway. Once we sorted out that a) I'd been sharing the drinks and b) I wasn't "talking properly" because I was from AUSTRALIA, we were all friends again but it was a close thing.
Dr. Phil LOL... it's DrWolf... Or Philosoraptor.. Or, for some, "big cuddly teddy bear". Either way, seeing these guys was amazing. We've been talking pretty constantly online since... well, it seems like forever, but it's really about three and a half years, first with the Social Trade Channel (STC) on the game Kingdom of Loathing, then as developers of Paradox. Meeting them at last pretty much defies description, but Lisa did indeed squeal, and there were hugs and all kinds of good stuff all round.
You know, I think it's time to end this post, and start writing a new one all about the week in Kansas City. Agreed?
Lisa: Yeah I agree, we might go get some dinner etc and pick up the next entry later and talk all about the amazing time we had with good friends etc. Don't forget, still to come is Las Vegas, San Francisco and of course The City of Angels.
Catch-up Time!
OK, it's been 11 days since we last properly updated this and there's a lot to catch up on. Elljae and I are currently sitting in the bar at the Hollywood Heights Hotel in Los Angeles, and since we have no other plans, we're going to spend the evening getting caught up as much as possible. We're also enjoying a drink or two, so it could be an interesting exercise.
Stay tuned. First post should be in about an hour... or two.
Stay tuned. First post should be in about an hour... or two.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Technical Difficulties
For those following along and waiting intently for the next update, we've had a few problems over the last few days that have meant we haven't been able to write anything since we left Chicago. We've had a couple of issues with internet access, but mostly we've had trouble finding the time to sit down and write something. It's so completely amazing to finally catch up with people we've been wanting to meet for such a long time now, and there's been so much going on that we just haven't had the chance.
We are in fact still alive and well, and in a small town just south of Kansas City, Missouri. All is great, and we'll try and post a proper update... soon. There are pictures and everything.
We are in fact still alive and well, and in a small town just south of Kansas City, Missouri. All is great, and we'll try and post a proper update... soon. There are pictures and everything.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Day 7 & 8 - The Windy City
Ok, it must be about my turn to help out with the blog load. Please forgive me if I go over a couple of things that Stu may have already mentioned in brief, there shouldn't be too much of that though.
Day 7 saw us waking up at around 10:30am, still in New Orleans. We were tired but happy and it was time to move on. We had bought a replacment for the busted old suitcase so I had to 'move house' into the new one. It wasn't too bad and I can't tell you all how fantastic it is to have a properly working suitcase again. I wrote a note on the old suitcase asking housekeeping to dispose of it in any way they saw fit. That done, we packed up and headed for the train station. We had a great time in the Big Easy and if/when we ever make it back over here I'm sure we'll head back there to check out some of the stuff we missed this time around.
Our transit from New Orleans to Chicago was aboard an Amtrack superliner. There really isn't all that much to say about it either. It's a train. We had a superliner roomette which basically means you have marginally more room than people travelling in coach and you get a couple of meals included. Alright, it was a little more than that as there was a bunk bed and the two seats folded out into a bed as well so we could both lie down for the night and get some sleep. We enjoyed staring out the window at the changing scenery and were able to get up and walk about the train. It even stopped every few hours to pick people up and we were able to get off, stretch our legs and have a smoke. It was definitely an easier trip than the flight from MEL - LAX was. Except for the part where I got up to go to the toilet in the middle of the night and didn't realise Stu had gotten up and gone to the dining car. I thought I was doing a marvellous job not waking him up and was lying there in my bed looking out the window at things passing by etc until I realised he wasn't actually in bed at all. Turns out he had gotten up at about 5:30am. I got up at about 5:45am and went to the toilet and locked the cabin door. As it turns out, no real harm was done, the train served breakfast at 6am and by the time I realised where he was, Stu had really only just finished his breakfast. Sorry honey.
We arrived in sweet home Chicago just after 9am, collected our luggage and caught a cab to the Affinia Hotel. Luckily for us, they had a room available at that time of day so we were able to check in right away. Check in we did and then came upstairs for a shower and some fresh clothes. Having showered we hung around the room for a little while updating the blog and generally getting ourselves sorted out until it was time to go and meet a couple of friends. People at Paradox! The Musical. Will know these two likely lads as SewerRatz and Jesus. They were kind enough to come and pick us up from our hotel room and take us out on a private, personalised and rather unique tour of Chicago. First stop was Buckingham Fountain, next to Millenium Park.
We had a wander around there for a little while and then it was time to jump back in the car (so Ratz didn't get a ticket, even though it was his mission for the day) and head off to find something to eat. We stopped off and had some nosh at a place that made kick arse sandwhiches. I'm sorry guys, I honestly can't remember what it was called. Was it Pick You Up? or something like that. Anyway it was good.
UPDATE: Ratz says it was the "Pick Me Up Cafe". Thanks Ratz.
After lunch Jesus took us for a walk down the street so that we could grab a couple of photos at Wrigley Field, home of the Cubs, while Ratz went to check on the parking ticket situation. I later found out that this was because of the fact that Ratz is a Sox fan and wanted no part of this Cubs home ground business.
Once we'd taken a few photos at the stadium we wandered down and were shown some of the more unique and intriguing stores that Chicago has to offer such as The Alley, a really cool games shop that had an amazing collection of Atari 2600 games (wish I still had my old console) and a really cool cigar shop. After we'd wandered around for a while we all piled into the car. Ratz took us out to show us the house where he grew up. Well he really took us out there to show us China Town, which was "Just around the corner. Literally." but somehow got "turned around" and we ended up taking in a few extra sites as well.
After we'd found China Town, Ratz thought it would be an awesome idea to introduce us to a shop called Horrorbles. Unfortunately, he got "turned around" again and we ended up driving back through China Town. We managed to make it to Horrorbles and rather than try to describe this fantastic place to you, I'll drop in the link and you can check it out for yourself. http://www.horrorbles.com/ While at Horrorbles, Rats needed to make a pitstop. He was directed to a door with "redrum" written in red letters on it. He walked straight in and then walked straight out again with a rather red face. Turns out there was someone in the bathroom already, said someone was apparently only washing their hands but didn't have the door locked or call out when Ratz opened the door.
Gobb says: Horrorbles sells an awesome replica Freddy Krueger glove. Someone buy it for me for christmas k thnx bai.
We left Horrorbles and it was time to go to Val's Halla. Now this store is amazing and beyond belief. Val is an amazingly friendly woman who is full of fantastic stories and she has a store full of the most amazing collection of vinyl for sale. Val doesn't just sell vinyl. She also sells cassettes and CD's and can find pretty much any hard to get music, there's evena box four big boxes of 8 tracks! Her shop's bathroom is also a shrine to Elvis Presley. Literally! If you have been looking for that hard to get track or album, give her site a look or send her an email. http://www.valshalla.com
By the time we left Val's Halla it was time to go and find something to eat again and Ratz knew just the place. Before going to get something to eat we stopped in at an electronics warehouse that sold just about everything you could think of for very reasonable prices. Stu had been looking for ans external hard drive for a while and managed to pick one up while we were having a browse.
Now its confession time. Stu and I were both far too busy enjoying the awesome chilli and BBQ that we had stopped for, that both of us have completely forgotten the name of the place that we stopped to eat at. As soon as I see Ratz or Jesus online, I will ask them and edit this post. It really was good food though. It wasn't just chilli and BBQ, they also do gyros and so we got some meat to share. After breaking bread with Jesus and becoming incredibly full, we headed off to Ratz's best mate, Mike's place because Mike's wife, Stacey, works for a camera shop and said she could get a lense that we had been looking for, for our digital camera. Unfortunately, there was a breakdown in communication over the phone and Stacey had bought the wrong lense home with her. Not to be deterred, Mike and Stacey piled back in their car and took us back down to the shop for the correct lense. Stu and I were both happy and grateful for this. Our camera now has a sparkly new lense that can autofocus, amongst other things. Thanks Stacey and Mike :-) REALLY!
UPDATE: The place we ate dinner was "Gemato's Grill". Gobb couldn't understand the guy at the counter, but that's ok because we're all pretty sure he couldn't understand Gobb either. Great food anyway.
By this time it was 8:00pm and a few of us were getting a bit tired. So Jesus and Ratz were kind enough not to just leave us in the car park out in the middle of somewhere that was foriegn to us and dropped us back off at the hotel. It was good timing too because they got caught in a big storm on the way home and then there were a couple of tornados sighted about 20 miles south of where they live. Very glad they made it home safe and sound.
All in all it was an amazingly fun day. We got a very unique view of Chicago, saw some awesome sights and met some excellent people. One more aspect of the day that I haven't mentioned yet is that both Jesus and SewerRatz are a pair of the funniest guys that Stu and I have ever met. We spent a fair bit of time in the car travelling from place to place and, while doing so, we were frequently in stitches of laughter because of the banter from the front seats. Our sincere thanks to the two guys for taking a day out of their lives to show a pair of tired Aussies around their town. We are really really grateful and hope we get to cross paths again sometime soon.
Once we'd returned back to the hotel room we were pretty much exhausted. We settled down on the bed with our laptops to check emails and all of that sort of thing and after a couple of minutes there was a knock on the door. Stu came back in from answering the door with a lovely bottle of Merlot and a card. Gemma had been thoughtful enough to find out where we were staying and send us a bottle of Red. Thanks Eddie, it really is far too cute and very much appreciated. I hope you're all having a good time together.
So after a nice glass of wine it was time to head to bed. We slept very soundly and didn't really wake up until 10:30am. We haven't really gotten out and about all that much of Chicago today, mostly because it is windy as anything and only about 62/16 degrees. We had woken up too late to get anything from the hotel's breakfast menu and were feeling pretty hungry. We ended up downstairs at Gino's East ordering a couple of small deep dish pizzas. Can I just take a moment to say YUM! Neither Stu or I have ever had a deep dish before and I sure hope they wont be our last. (Actually, I already know we'll be eating deep dish again because we still have half of this mornings' left over and plan to have them for breakfast tomorrow.)
Anyway, it's nearly 6pm and we're going to be heading out to Buddy Guy's Legends Bar for dinner and a jam session tonight and then we're heading off to Missouri tomorrow.
Will write again soon in the meantime here's some random Chicago shots.
Day 7 saw us waking up at around 10:30am, still in New Orleans. We were tired but happy and it was time to move on. We had bought a replacment for the busted old suitcase so I had to 'move house' into the new one. It wasn't too bad and I can't tell you all how fantastic it is to have a properly working suitcase again. I wrote a note on the old suitcase asking housekeeping to dispose of it in any way they saw fit. That done, we packed up and headed for the train station. We had a great time in the Big Easy and if/when we ever make it back over here I'm sure we'll head back there to check out some of the stuff we missed this time around.
Our transit from New Orleans to Chicago was aboard an Amtrack superliner. There really isn't all that much to say about it either. It's a train. We had a superliner roomette which basically means you have marginally more room than people travelling in coach and you get a couple of meals included. Alright, it was a little more than that as there was a bunk bed and the two seats folded out into a bed as well so we could both lie down for the night and get some sleep. We enjoyed staring out the window at the changing scenery and were able to get up and walk about the train. It even stopped every few hours to pick people up and we were able to get off, stretch our legs and have a smoke. It was definitely an easier trip than the flight from MEL - LAX was. Except for the part where I got up to go to the toilet in the middle of the night and didn't realise Stu had gotten up and gone to the dining car. I thought I was doing a marvellous job not waking him up and was lying there in my bed looking out the window at things passing by etc until I realised he wasn't actually in bed at all. Turns out he had gotten up at about 5:30am. I got up at about 5:45am and went to the toilet and locked the cabin door. As it turns out, no real harm was done, the train served breakfast at 6am and by the time I realised where he was, Stu had really only just finished his breakfast. Sorry honey.
We arrived in sweet home Chicago just after 9am, collected our luggage and caught a cab to the Affinia Hotel. Luckily for us, they had a room available at that time of day so we were able to check in right away. Check in we did and then came upstairs for a shower and some fresh clothes. Having showered we hung around the room for a little while updating the blog and generally getting ourselves sorted out until it was time to go and meet a couple of friends. People at Paradox! The Musical. Will know these two likely lads as SewerRatz and Jesus. They were kind enough to come and pick us up from our hotel room and take us out on a private, personalised and rather unique tour of Chicago. First stop was Buckingham Fountain, next to Millenium Park.
We had a wander around there for a little while and then it was time to jump back in the car (so Ratz didn't get a ticket, even though it was his mission for the day) and head off to find something to eat. We stopped off and had some nosh at a place that made kick arse sandwhiches. I'm sorry guys, I honestly can't remember what it was called. Was it Pick You Up? or something like that. Anyway it was good.
UPDATE: Ratz says it was the "Pick Me Up Cafe". Thanks Ratz.
After lunch Jesus took us for a walk down the street so that we could grab a couple of photos at Wrigley Field, home of the Cubs, while Ratz went to check on the parking ticket situation. I later found out that this was because of the fact that Ratz is a Sox fan and wanted no part of this Cubs home ground business.
Once we'd taken a few photos at the stadium we wandered down and were shown some of the more unique and intriguing stores that Chicago has to offer such as The Alley, a really cool games shop that had an amazing collection of Atari 2600 games (wish I still had my old console) and a really cool cigar shop. After we'd wandered around for a while we all piled into the car. Ratz took us out to show us the house where he grew up. Well he really took us out there to show us China Town, which was "Just around the corner. Literally." but somehow got "turned around" and we ended up taking in a few extra sites as well.
After we'd found China Town, Ratz thought it would be an awesome idea to introduce us to a shop called Horrorbles. Unfortunately, he got "turned around" again and we ended up driving back through China Town. We managed to make it to Horrorbles and rather than try to describe this fantastic place to you, I'll drop in the link and you can check it out for yourself. http://www.horrorbles.com/ While at Horrorbles, Rats needed to make a pitstop. He was directed to a door with "redrum" written in red letters on it. He walked straight in and then walked straight out again with a rather red face. Turns out there was someone in the bathroom already, said someone was apparently only washing their hands but didn't have the door locked or call out when Ratz opened the door.
Gobb says: Horrorbles sells an awesome replica Freddy Krueger glove. Someone buy it for me for christmas k thnx bai.
We left Horrorbles and it was time to go to Val's Halla. Now this store is amazing and beyond belief. Val is an amazingly friendly woman who is full of fantastic stories and she has a store full of the most amazing collection of vinyl for sale. Val doesn't just sell vinyl. She also sells cassettes and CD's and can find pretty much any hard to get music, there's even
By the time we left Val's Halla it was time to go and find something to eat again and Ratz knew just the place. Before going to get something to eat we stopped in at an electronics warehouse that sold just about everything you could think of for very reasonable prices. Stu had been looking for ans external hard drive for a while and managed to pick one up while we were having a browse.
Now its confession time. Stu and I were both far too busy enjoying the awesome chilli and BBQ that we had stopped for, that both of us have completely forgotten the name of the place that we stopped to eat at. As soon as I see Ratz or Jesus online, I will ask them and edit this post. It really was good food though. It wasn't just chilli and BBQ, they also do gyros and so we got some meat to share. After breaking bread with Jesus and becoming incredibly full, we headed off to Ratz's best mate, Mike's place because Mike's wife, Stacey, works for a camera shop and said she could get a lense that we had been looking for, for our digital camera. Unfortunately, there was a breakdown in communication over the phone and Stacey had bought the wrong lense home with her. Not to be deterred, Mike and Stacey piled back in their car and took us back down to the shop for the correct lense. Stu and I were both happy and grateful for this. Our camera now has a sparkly new lense that can autofocus, amongst other things. Thanks Stacey and Mike :-) REALLY!
UPDATE: The place we ate dinner was "Gemato's Grill". Gobb couldn't understand the guy at the counter, but that's ok because we're all pretty sure he couldn't understand Gobb either. Great food anyway.
By this time it was 8:00pm and a few of us were getting a bit tired. So Jesus and Ratz were kind enough not to just leave us in the car park out in the middle of somewhere that was foriegn to us and dropped us back off at the hotel. It was good timing too because they got caught in a big storm on the way home and then there were a couple of tornados sighted about 20 miles south of where they live. Very glad they made it home safe and sound.
All in all it was an amazingly fun day. We got a very unique view of Chicago, saw some awesome sights and met some excellent people. One more aspect of the day that I haven't mentioned yet is that both Jesus and SewerRatz are a pair of the funniest guys that Stu and I have ever met. We spent a fair bit of time in the car travelling from place to place and, while doing so, we were frequently in stitches of laughter because of the banter from the front seats. Our sincere thanks to the two guys for taking a day out of their lives to show a pair of tired Aussies around their town. We are really really grateful and hope we get to cross paths again sometime soon.
Once we'd returned back to the hotel room we were pretty much exhausted. We settled down on the bed with our laptops to check emails and all of that sort of thing and after a couple of minutes there was a knock on the door. Stu came back in from answering the door with a lovely bottle of Merlot and a card. Gemma had been thoughtful enough to find out where we were staying and send us a bottle of Red. Thanks Eddie, it really is far too cute and very much appreciated. I hope you're all having a good time together.
So after a nice glass of wine it was time to head to bed. We slept very soundly and didn't really wake up until 10:30am. We haven't really gotten out and about all that much of Chicago today, mostly because it is windy as anything and only about 62/16 degrees. We had woken up too late to get anything from the hotel's breakfast menu and were feeling pretty hungry. We ended up downstairs at Gino's East ordering a couple of small deep dish pizzas. Can I just take a moment to say YUM! Neither Stu or I have ever had a deep dish before and I sure hope they wont be our last. (Actually, I already know we'll be eating deep dish again because we still have half of this mornings' left over and plan to have them for breakfast tomorrow.)
Anyway, it's nearly 6pm and we're going to be heading out to Buddy Guy's Legends Bar for dinner and a jam session tonight and then we're heading off to Missouri tomorrow.
Will write again soon in the meantime here's some random Chicago shots.
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