Yesterday was our game at Wrigley, and we decided to hold off on a game with the White Sox for another leg of the trip. Thus far on our trip we’ve been on the road for 11 days, but have only spent more than one night in one spot once with our two night stay in Orlando; it’s been one and done everywhere else. We elected to spend another night in Chicago to take in some of the city.
Keke loves vintage motels and found a great spot in Chicago; The Ohio House Motel. Evidently, this used to be a run down spot, but the owners and the general manager have worked to refurbish it, and they have done a wonderful job. It is affordable (just over $100/night for four person occupancy, less if a one bed room), it’s clean, it’s up-to-date, it’s well located, and it has the rarest of the rare in Chicago lodging – free parking.
Before we got going with our day, I went to go pick up my mom at O’Hare airport. She came in to join us on the trip for the foreseeable future. It has been great with the three of us, but we certainly miss our family; it’s good to have her with us.
When we got back to the room, we took advantage of the breakfast provided by the Ohio House Motel. They don’t do continental breakfasts, but rather they provide each occupant with a breakfast menu item and coffee (we substituted for bottled water) from Cafe Tola, the taco/burrito place next door. This was absolutely heavenly; Tola is fantastic!
We were told there was a trolley that would take us the majority of the way to Navy Pier, but we never saw it, so we walked the mile or so to get there. We all explored the area, and Keke, Soren, and my mom ended up going on the massive Ferris Wheel.
After going in circles for a bit they joined back up with me and we hopped on a boat for a Chicago river cruise with Shoreline Sightseeing. Keke found a Groupon before we bought our tickets so we got them for $29 a person for the adults, and we bought Soren’s ticket separate ($20 I think) since he was cheaper as a kiddo.
We’ve done these tours before, and they are always interesting. Our tour guide was fun and entertaining, and we always love being on the water. One particular point that was really intriguing (and very unbelievably) was that at one point Chicago had a population of 400 people, and only a decade later it had a population of 1,000,000.
We wanted to get some good, authentic Chicago-style pizza on our trip. Giardano’s is a well known establishment, but we have those in Minneapolis, so we opted for Lou Malnati’s; it was a good move. I would say Lou Malnati’s is probably the best pizza I have had (for sure the best Chicago-style). The sauce and the crust were just perfect.
If you can’t wait for your next trip to the Windy City to try it, they actually will ship their pizzas anywhere in the U.S.
It was just a short walk from Lou Malnati’s to the Ohio House Motel. We were all ready for bed, but very happy from another wonderful day on The Great Baseball Ride.