Chicago, Days 2 and 3

Sunday thankfully was a slightly more laid-back time than Saturday - got to spend some time hanging out with Hunter (my co-worker, and co-author of the macro/poster that we're presenting) and her husband Pablo. First stop was breakfast at this awesome brunch place called Yolk. A bit pricey but dang that was some good food. We tried to get into the Aquarium, but thanks to a stupidly line we ended up going to the Planetarium instead. I don't have many pictures of either, but I did finally get a decent shot of the skyline from over that way...

The planetarium was pretty sweet too. We got a tour of what you can see in the night sky from Chicago this time of year.

After that we went back to the hotel and got our AWESOME poster set up! The conference started later that afternoon, and after various festivities I came back, wrote the Day 1 blog post, and hit the sack.

Monday was conference stuff all day, and then I went out to wander the city again with Hunter and Pablo. We went a little bit north of the hotel to another Chicago-style pizza legend called Gino's East. Apparently it's a tradition to write your name on the walls there, because every single wall I looked at had writing on it. Like this:

Or this (Stat-Tech represent!!!):

Oh, and of course here's the pizza:

Comparing the two pizzas that I tried (this one was pepperoni, mushrooms, and bell peppers, while the pizza from Giordano's had that plus onions. They called it the "Stuffed Chicago Classic"), they were both delicious and VERY filling. I enjoyed the ridiculous cheesiness of Giordano's and found it to be a bit less messy to eat, but Gino's had the better all-around flavor combination... the pizza had a bit more kick to it and the sauce was a bit more prominent. Barring a surprise upset at O'Hare tomorrow, it looks like Gino's wins!

Oh, and after dinner I split off and went up into the John Hancock Observatory on the north side of downtown. It was very much worth the $18 admission.

Well that's all for now... I'll have a recap of Days 4 and 5 up sometime tomorrow. Hint: includes baseball.