Chicago is known as “Second City” because for close to a century it was the second most populous city in the USA. It always seemed odd that they would be proud of being second because American culture is fixated on being first. Americans want to strive to be first or a champion. I am sure if you ask Chicago Bears fans they will gladly tell you about the Super Bowl their team won but fail to mention the one they lost. I’m not sure why there’s this fascination with being #2 in population but welcome to the 21st century, Chicago has been passed by Los Angeles making them third. If you want to include the greater Los Angeles area (i.e. Los Angeles county), LA dwarfs both Chicago and New York.
That being said Chicago does house an improv venue called “Second City” which is famous for the talent they have produced (Stephen Colbert, Dan Ackroyd, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, well you get the picture ). So tonight we decided to go there.
But before night time comedy we had a whole day of activities planned. Patrice is great at giving us things to do on our trips and this was no exception. This morning we left the hotel and went for a walk along the Chicago River. The Riverwalk is a major city attraction and we had a good time checking things out.
We saw this interesting building.
We saw this sobering memorial honoring locals who died as a result of the Vietnamese conflict.
After the walk we needed to fill our tummies. Loyal followers of the blog are aware that we love food tours. Without trying very hard, I can remember food tours in Memphis, New Orleans, Denver, and London.
Today we went on a Chicago Chinese food tour sponsored by Bobby’s Bike, Hike, and Food tours. Valerie was our guide and she did a wonderful job. Sorry no pictures of food but trust me when I say the tour and food were fun and tasty.
My favorite part of the food tour was seeing two gorgeous macaws in Chinatown prior to the tour even starting. Check them out (see below).
Macaws are a type of parrot. Two of the things that make them very different from humans are, like all parrots they have their first and fourth toes pointing backward. In addition they are also unlike most humans in that they mate forever
After the food tour it was off to Second City. I am sure you realize making people laugh is a very hard thing to do. I like to think that I am relatively funny but to get up on a stage and make a group of people laugh seems like it would be terrifying. We saw 6 young comics and although they didn’t knock our socks off they did give us some laughs. It was a fun night at a very welcoming venue.
Tomorrow we head for home. I hope you had as much fun on this trip as we did. We don’t have any additional trips planned but when we do you will get an email telling you to check us out.
Ciao
Robert Reiss Travel Blog and Other Ramblings 