My friend Max really set me up for a good time in the Windy City. Not only did he compile a list of pizza and donut places for me to visit, he also used his hotel rewards points to get me a swanky room right in the heart of downtown.
I felt like Ferris Bueller rolling up to the city seeing the buildings getting bigger and bigger until they surrounded me.
I followed the bike path right along Lake Michigan where I even saw a kid wearing a "Save Ferris" t-shirt. Cities are all very similar. The architecture varies a bit but they use all the same materials.
You can find the same sorts of attractions: museums, zoos, sports stadiums, shops, restaurants, public parks. Visiting a city for the first time, all these never-before-seen features seem familiar in a way –
like deja vu or the slightest memory of a dream but, it's real life. My mental map of Chicago has been slowly developing as I've been traveling from restaurant to park to bar to jazz club.
There are times when I feel like I've been here and then I remember, this is Chicago, I've never walked these streets before. And what's even more surreal is I rode here on my bike.
