Valentine's Day usually does not get a ton of fanfare around here, that would have been the case this year but I really wanted to go to the Chicago Auto show this year. As luck would have it it ran for 2 weeks and one of the weekends happened to be on Friday.
So I booked a room, got some train tickets and bought the auto show tickets about a month before.
Friday came and Tracy and I headed down. we got to our room at the Palmer House and changed before we went to dinner at, what else when in Chicago? No, not a pizza place, but a steak house.
We ordered, had appetizer of crab cake and then the steaks came. Tracy's filet mignon was perfect, my Delmonico, dry aged, cowboy cut (bone in rib eye) not so much. It was easily the biggest cut (thickness) I had ever seen. Truly a spectacle at what had to be nearly 3 inches thick. The problem was it was no where near cooked enough. Don't get me wrong, I like a medium rare steak as much as any and that is how I ordered it. But this was really rare, as the middle was - raw, no heat - room temperature or less. I had a few bites and sent it back. About 5-6 minutes later it came back, not much better. So I sent it back again. This time they got it right and it was tasty. The restaurant was completely apologetic and at the end of the meal let me know that the steak was on the house! A $58 steak for nothing...Not bad. The restaurant was packed and were turning tables like crazy in the Valentines day rush, so I have to figure they were bound to have some mistakes through the night. It was a bit of an inconvenience for us, for once Tracy had to wait for me to finish my meal!
The next day we had breakfast in a diner style restaurant around the corner from the hotel. Dropped our bags at the bell desk and took a taxi and headed to McCormick place for the auto show.
We arrived about 10 minutes before they opened and had our coats checked grabbed some cash from the ATM and headed in. They were not kidding when they say this a large auto show. Unlike the Milwaukee show where some brands have maybe one of each model they sell on the floor, this place had 2-6 of each model in varying trim levels and colors. Like one car? Want to see it in the next level of trim? its right over there. Too many people trying to look at or sit in this one, well walk 20 feet to the other one.
Jeep and Toyota had huge off road courses that took show goers on rides in the trucks up steep inclines, over logs, down slopes, mud pits. Almost like a mini Disney ride. Ford had a new Mustang 5.0 set up on a dynometer and were revving the thing up all afternoon. Chevy had no fewer than 5 of the new Corvette Stingrays that you could sit in. Concept cars, new releases everywhere. Then there was the 'halo' car display. Rolls Royce, Austin Martin, Ferrari, McLaren, Bugatti, Lotus, Bently, Lamborghini... you get the idea. I would say at least 5 million in value just for those cars alone.
We saw everything, did what we wanted to do, so hey time for late lunch early dinner. Now we can get some pizza! Deep dish for me, of course.
Took a cab back to the hotel, picked up our bag and went to the trains station to head home. All in all it was a nice way to spend 1/2 the weekend.
See the pictures in the above album.
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