Chicago, February 2024

Back in February I went to Chicago with some friends to go see Nier: Orchestra Concert 12024 [the end of data]. Since I’d never been to Chicago before we went a couple days early and stayed the whole weekend to make a little trip out of it!

When we first got there, Sean and I checked into the hotel and met up with Shawn who was already there ahead of us and we went to Giordano’s to get lunch for our initial deep-dish experience. Afterwards we walked to the navy pier! Everything was so foggy and it made for some really nice shots

On the second day we went to the Art Institute with Alex and Ian! Incredibly cool museum, we walked around until close and only saw half of it, definitely need to go back again to see the rest~ Later we met up with Brennan who we were staying with

The next morning he made bagels which were delicious

Then we went to the Museum of Science and Industry which was fun, reminded me a lot of the Boston Science Museum (which I haven’t been to in sooooooooo long). Afterwards we got dinner at Lao Peng You and it was my first time having dan dan noodles and I’m obsessed tbh

After was the Nier concert! It was cool, though I do kinda wish it didn’t have all the plot stuff and instead was purely the orchestra for the full duration? It felt a bit like they needed to justify it, like they couldn’t just let the music stand on its own. Dunno!!!!!! Good time regardless!!

For our last full day (and my birthday :) ) we went to Galloping Ghost with Alex! First we stopped in this hot dog place since I was like, well I need to have the chicago dog while i’m here! These weren’t true Chicago dogs, but I dunno it’s close enough for me lol

Galloping Ghost ruled, so many cool games that I hadn’t seen before, but also had the “big arcade” problem of a lot of cabs being in pretty bad condition (like CRTs that were just solid green). After we went to Pequod’s for REAL Chicago pizza, and it ruuuuuled, highly recommend.

Then we got back and Connor had bought birthday cupcakes :’))))

Fun weekend! I really want to go back in the warmer weather!