CHICAGO CARLESS

(Photo: “I am Cincinnati; no flashbulbs, please.”–Leah Spurrier, co-founder of the Queen City’s fabulous High Street.)

Let me eat my words up front. Despite my pre-trip trepidation to travel to the land of the abandoned subway, as it turned out, Cincinnati is cool. And don’t you know, ex-New Yorker and current Downtown Chicagoan that I am, I half-expect to turn into a pillar of salt for saying so.

I had been jonesing for a break from blogging before the end of summer, so when Cincinnati Jamie asked if I wanted to ride shotgun on a weekend trip back home to check on his Queen City condo, I jumped at the chance. I didn’t expect more than a few quiet days in a quaint backwater, a plate of chili, and some gratuitous references (on my part) to WKRP.

I admit it. Cincinnati blew me away. (See trip photos on my flickr.)

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(Photo: Eye of the Polomex: Chicago Traveler scribe Matt B. in the crosshairs of Hurricane Gustav.)

It’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature. Just ask Matt B. (aka “Polomex”), scribe of the Chicago Traveler blog and current refuge from the onslaught of the Gulf Coast’s pesky new resident, Hurricane Gustav. I’m as much of a fan of the male from as the next gay guy, but when Matt’s boyfriend insisted they continue on their Amtrak trip to the Southern Decadence weekend in New Orleans, I’m thinking maybe he should have thought twice.

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(Photo: Upcoming–my weekend trip to Cincinnati. Wagon train not included.)

Ohio? Why, oh why, oh why-oh? Because Yours Truly needs a break from his breakneck work and blogging schedule, and new friend Jamie needs to go check on things at the Cincinnati abode he ditched eight weeks ago for a new life in Chicago.

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(Photo: At Pilsen’s Take Me Out, the hot wings are to die for.)

There are many ways a birthday run for Asian hot wings can turn out. Cowering for your life in the loading dock beneath the Merchandise Mart isn’t usually one of them.

So Yours Truly is 38 now. I know because a recent count of the rings beneath my eyes came up with one extra, so Happy Birthday to me.

That leaves me one fewer year to indulge my passion for spicy food before I’ll have to start permanently washing everything down with a Maalox chaser. Could there have been a better day to revel in the legendary little hotties lollipop wings at Take Me Out Let’s Eat Chinese in Pilsen?

Yes, as things would turn out.

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(Photo: Those pesky kids, at home in Chinatown Square. Original Credit: Chris Brunn.)

No one can claim that Chicago’s Chinatown is the equal of older, larger Chinatowns in American cities like New York or San Francisco. But over the weekend, ex-Cincinnatian / new-Chicagoan Jamie helped me see the area in a whole new light.

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(Photo: A giddy Yours Truly, looking over the top of Tribune Tower from a neighboring allium.)

[Note: Welcome to my readers today from Gapers Block and YoChicago!]

This year’s Great Chicago Places & Spaces, the Second City’s annual weekend orgy of behind-the-scenes guided architecture tours, gave me the best moment I’ve had in my entire five years in Chicago. On a sunny afternoon, Oak Park pastry chef Chris and I had a once-in-a-lifetime chance to literally peer under the skirt of Chicago. Well, really over it…from a surprise visit to the little-known observatory hidden in the onion dome atop Mag Mile’s historic Intercontinental Hotel.

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(Photo: Maurie and Flaurie, the long way ’round. Credit: Superdawg.)

My boyfriend, Chris, thinks I’ll go anywhere to eat a good meal, or even a bad one. Dating a chef, I usually don’t have far to trek. A couple of weekends ago, however, was a different story. I knew it was supposed to be a morning of travel, but neither I nor my stomach knew what we were in for.

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