Chapter Notes: Tourist (Destination Unknown) · 11:26am Oct 21st, 2021
Big cities come with big opportunities for a wandering pegasus. Busking, tourism, taunting the Willis Tower. . . .
Thanks to AlwaysDressesInStyle for pre-reading!
The sailing ship is real; I’ve been on it. It’s named Windy because of course it is. We asked them if they ever went to any of the tall ships shows around the Great Lakes, and they said they didn’t; they made far more money doing short trips off Navy Pier.
There are a lot of boats that you can ride berthed at Navy Pier, and back when I was there it seemed every one had its own particular attraction to set it apart from the rest (after all, just ‘look at Chicago from the water’ might be an effective sales pitch, but it doesn’t set you apart from all the rest.
The tall ship Windy was the only tall ship and that was its main attraction. One of the others, a modern yacht, had a murder mystery dinner, and I don’t remember what the other ones offered. I’m sure they offer cruises where they do sail, but for most people just dieseling out into the lake with the sails flapping around and providing no real propulsion is good enough.
The pancake cafe is called Wildberry. There’s a few of them in the Greater Chicago area, and while I’ve never eaten at one, their menu sounds delicious.
I dunno if it’s canon that pegasi like pancakes, but we sure know that frazzled Friendship Princesses do.
The stained glass museum is on Navy Pier, and it’s kind of weird ‘cause it’s a shopping mall but with historical stained glass everywhere. Being who I am (and who I was with), all the stained glass was far more interesting than anything any of the stores or restaurants had to offer; instead, we just searched out every single piece, admired it, and read the informational placard about it. If memory serves (that trip was like 10 years ago, maybe more), a lot of them were saved when older buildings were demolished.
I should also say for those who love stained glass and are hastily planning a trip, doing some additional research I found that the bulk of the museum is gone; the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows was removed back in 2014, which had 143 of the pieces. I do not know if they were relocated all in one place or in several places.
The Navy Pier does still offer The Richard H. Driehaus Gallery of Stained Glass at Navy Pier, which has 11 stained glass windows.
The bean is actually called Cloud Gate, and it was sculpted by Sir Anish Kapoor. It’s located in Millennium Park, and it looks like a giant chrome bean.
Soldier Field is not where the White Sox play, although I initially thought it was.* Shows what I know about baseball. Instead, it’s where the Chicago Bears and the Chicago Fire FC, which is a soccer (non-American football) team. Without even bothering to look up statistics, I can say with resonable confidence that the Chicago Fire is better than the Bears.
It’s also the oldest football stadium in the NFL; not only does it predate the Bears and the NFL, it’s so old that Amelia Earhart once gave a speech there.
I skimmed through the Wikipedia article about it and the phrase “demolition was begun as tailgate fires still burned in the trash cans in the parking lots” stuck out. 
As of late September this year, the Bears might be moving to a new stadium, although given their record, why? [At least they’re better than the Lions.]
____________________________________
*The White Sox played at the original Comiskey Park for 81 years, and now they play at U.S. Cellular Guaranteed Rate Field.
Another fun White Sox fact is it took them 87 seasons to win a World Series, the second-longest baseball championship drought of all time. The longest is held by the Chicago Cubs . . . 107 seasons.
Lou Malnati’s Pizza was suggested by theRedBrony, who, when I asked who sells the best Chicago-style pizza, said “You’re asking a highly debated question . . . some Chicagoans are really opinionated on the matter.” In fact, he gave me several options, and I picked one. Fact is when you start talking about pizza styles, people do have opinions, even though Detroit Style is clearly the best.
Source
Fight me in the comments
Remember in the last blog post when I told you that the Chicago South Shore was my favorite commuter line around Chicago? That wasn’t quite true, I actually prefer the North Shore (the Chicago, North Shore, and Milwaukee RR), because their Electroliners were really sleek and pretty, but they’ve been gone since 1963, so unless Sweetsong invents a time machine or visits the Illinois Railroad Museum, she won’t get to ride one.
But anyway, back to the South Shore. It started as the Chicago and Indiana Air Line Railway,* and was renamed the Chicago, Lake Shore, and South Bend Railway, hauling both freight and passengers. The CSS & SBRR still hauls freight to this day, while passenger operations are handled by the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District. They run from South Bend, IN to Chicago, IL at the Millennium Station.
Just like the Metra train she rode, the South Shore runs on 1500 volts (DC) from overhead catenary.
Their trains aren’t particularly attractive (they’re no Electroliners), but I like them. Funnily enough, I’ve never been on a South Shore train before, and I really ought to fix that.
Someone said his name without shit talking him? How much is he paying you?
Someone should set up an MMA pit at the next con so that we can actually resolve feuds this way.
5598402
Had to look him up, but he's way better than the guy who taped a banana to the wall and called it art. >_>
Chicago Stuffed Pizza is the best kind of pizza. Nothing like having enough cheese to cause three heart attacks!
I think I've had Lou Malnati's pizza, and it's good. Speaking of Chicago restaurants, there's Portillo's for Chicago-style hot dogs and hot beef sandwiches, but I don't think a pony would appreciate it.
I wonder what's up with the slam on EQD in that first image.
5598443
I noticed that as well. Are they specifically stating that EqD spouts lies, that news in general spouts lies, or both?
And interesting question we'll likely never have an answer for.
I've had a pizza from Lou Malnati's before, one of their so-called "crustless" ones (It has a crust. The crust is made of meat.), was pretty good. Had to go way out of my way to get it though. Was at a convention at Rosemont - if you look at a map of their delivery zones, they form a giant ring around Rosemont. So no delivery, and the parking garage is already expensive without leaving and getting hit with another outrageous parking fee when you return. Also it started snowing pretty good on the way to buy the pizza, and I still had to get back to classes a few hundred miles away by the next day. Yeah, that one was "fun". Did get the pizza though, at least.
Next couple times I was at that convention I didn't have a good chance to go get one either, and on top of that, even before the whole covid thing I hadn't really had a chance to go to that convention for a year or two... Would be nice to go back again once things have eventually gone back to normal again. Might look into whether there's any services now that will bring a pizza from the pizza place to the convention hotel for me, if I do. (Not that I sleep in the convention hotel though of course, that's what the "Motel 6" a couple miles down the road is for. Much cheaper.)
And in Chicago itself there's all sorts of neat stuff to look at, yeah. Lots of interesting places to shop (or browse), Navy Pier, in the winter Chicago has outdoor skating, and of course all sorts of buildings like Sears Tower and whatnot to look at.
Also lots of trains in various places, yes.
This chapter made me nostalgic. My wife was born there, so I've visited several times. My favorite destinations are the Art Institute and the Museum of Science and Industry. I'm going to have to be a boat geek for a second and say that Windy sends shivers of revulsion down my spine. She's got roller furlings on the topsails, for Celestia's sake! And what the heck is going on with the stuff above the rail? It looks like it was stuck on by an apprentice cabinet maker!
5598418
Took me a minute to find a decent post over it. It's still missing things like photographers being charged for taking pictures of the bean and that time Anish sued the NRA over it being in an ad. It takes some serious beans to put a giant sculpture in a public place as a public display than sue people taking pictures/video of it.
5598448
...unless we follow the source link and post the question on the DA page with the art, which I'm certainly not doing as I don't care enough.
The world may never know. :V
Now I'm hungry for Lou's.
Hmm, that asterisk was not elaborated upon.
Ehhh, Giordano's is better than Malnati's.
Detroit Style is good in its own right, but between not being circular and having the sauce in the wrong place I don't personally think it even counts as pizza.
5598402
Sometimes I just report the news without making comments on it
5598418
For better or worse, there wasn’t one at Ciderfest. I know some people, though, maybe we could make it happen at Trotcon.
What’s the meme, ‘press X to doubt?’ Somewhere in the vast annals of the internet (too lazy to look it up) there’s a whole thread about him buying the blackest black for his exclusive use and a pigment artist inventing a nearly as-black black which is easier to apply and making it available to anyone who wants it . . . except Anish Kapoor. And then it goes on from there.
5598439
Agree. If your pizza doesn’t give you chest pains, is is really a pizza?
I’ve never had Lou Malnati’s, and just recently missed the opportunity (through Chicago twice). You’re probably right that they wouldn’t really appreciate Portillo’s, although I’ve always thought that if it isn’t made out of somebody they might know, they’d be willing to give it a shot . . . when in Rome and all that. Plus, you can sub a carrot for the frank and have nearly the same experience, maybe a better experience as far as a pony is concerned.
5598443
I don’t know, but having had my magnum opus rejected by them, I’m sure they deserve it
Regardless, I’m happy that saner heads at Google prevailed, and the site’s back up.
5600858
I'm still grouchy with Ciderfest. They stole our weekend... But they're still going unlike us so I can't do much more than grumble about it.
5598448
Maybe it’s an artist who got rejected on questionable grounds. Not that I’d know anything about that, no sir. Not like they ever rejected one of my fics that was obviously deserving of an EqD feature and I’m not still salty about that at all. Why, I never even made a snarky comment in another fic of mine about that. . . .
Oh wait, I totally did:
Finally got to this!
Thank you, as usual, for writing. :)
"but for most people just dieseling out into the lake with the sails flapping around and providing no real propulsion is good enough"
Really? Huh. What's the point of going out specifically on a tall ship if it's just going to be under diesel power the whole time?
Though I guess I'm just not "most people" here, then.
"their Electroliners were really sleep and pretty"
"their Electroliners were really sleek and pretty"?
"The CSS & SBRR"
Ah, I was going to ask if that should have been "CLS", but checking Wikipedia, apparently the current name is indeed "Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad".
...Oh, right, and if it wasn't, "RR" would also be wrong. Didn't even notice that; oops.
Anyway, though, looks like it's fine!
...Where is the bonus Electroliner in the comments, though?
5598418
"Had to look him up, but he's way better than the guy who taped a banana to the wall and called it art. >_>"
So, the most recent time (I think it was) I was at the Met, in NYC, I was in a part of a museum I hadn't been to much before, because it was mostly the modern art section, for a special exhibition of Renaissance instruments and such. And, walking down the corridor, I was rather confused by what appeared to be a lamp indicating a stairwell, without any such stairs to be found. Then I noticed the plaque. Turns out, no, that lamp that appeared to be indicating stairs was Art. Oh, it was an ordinary commercial light fixture, yes, originally from an ordinary supplier of commercial light fixtures and unmodified, but it had been hung on a wall, at an angle, and given an off-color bulb. Therefore, Art. Obviously.
5598732
Ah, yes, I was wondering that too, earlier; thanks for the reminder.
5598466
Now with 20% more meat
I live in an area where delivery generally isn’t an option (the local-ish [12 miles?] Jet’s Pizza will meet you in a sketchy parking lot) . . . luckily, we’ve got local pizza that’s good and sometimes does deliver.
You can only hope that there’s a pegasus delivering it
I’ve done some of the touristy stuff but not nearly all of the touristy stuff. Chicago’s not all that far from me, either, close enough to be a day trip, and I certainly could.
Those are the best, especially for a mare on the move.
5600862
Here's the rule, taken directly from the EQD submission page:
Always read the submit rules. (This one's hard to miss: it's also rules 5d, 5e, 5k, and 23.)
But seriously, I'm surprised you'd get an outright rejection if it fit the regulations. A couple of times I've made small revisions based on suggestions they return to me, but they're pretty lenient if you can write well (which you can and do) and story has the pony in the words.
5598472
I don’t know if I’ve ever been to the Art Institute, but I’ve been to the Museum of Science and Industry a time or two. Actually was there just after posting this chapter, but just passing through--didn’t get to stop and see any of the sights.
Without looking into its history (which I could probably find), I would imagine it was purpose-built for the tourist trade around Chicago. It certainly was more appealing to my friends and I than the sleek yachts they had, although it also was nothing like the actual tall ships we hung out on the year before.
I was gonna include a pic, but turns out the only one I could find is ant-sized :P Oh well, it was the Welcome in Traverse City.
5598478
All I’ve got is small beans
I think that the courts usually rule that if it’s on public display, photos or videos of it aren’t copyright infringement.
5598726
Get some!
5598732
You’re correct; I forgot to. That’s okay, the next blog post does expand upon it (and that--and the next chapter--are both live now).
5598742
Never had either, so I don’t have a dog in this fight.
5599197
What do you mean the sauce is in the wrong place? It’s supposed to be under the cheese, that’s where sauce goes.
Plus it’s not round because auto parts trays aren’t round. All the rest of y’all making pizzas in special pans, while we just use parts trays that ‘fell off a truck.’
5600863
You have my condolences. It’s honestly not the greatest weekend to have a con IMHO, but it is what it is.
This year was kinda dead on Friday, as well. Did meet a few cool people and bought some swag, and at the hotel I was staying they valet parked my minivan, which was cool. Never been valet parked before.
5600866
You’re welcome! (and there’s a new chapter up today
)
It’s cooler than going out on the other boats that don’t have sails. I enjoyed it more than I would have a normal motorboat, anyway. But it’s not as good as actual sailing.
Correction made; thank you!
Yeah, I had to look that one up so I’m pretty sure it’s right.
There’s some railroads where I can remember their full names and others where I can’t.
Lol I forgot to post it.
Uh, I mean, here it is:
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c5/Electroliner.jpg/770px-Electroliner.jpg
Source
5600885
It was one of those ‘you need to fix this,’ and some of ‘this’ were just wrong (like the open quote thing, correcting my ‘stars in the sky’ to ‘stares in the sky,’ and so on.
Kinda turned me off submitting to EqD for a long time, and I rarely bother. Maybe I’ll get frisky someday and send them a few stories just for funzies, see what they do. Maybe Buttons, they’d love all the train slang in that one.
5601178
That's bizarre. I would have asked for a second opinion in that case. I've been fortunate enough to get Dubs and Pascoite as reviewers in the past.
5601192
Yeah, it was way back in the day. My first EqD feature was actually helped along by Pascoite (after I complained at Bronycon), and the few others I’ve submitted since then haven’t had any problems.
Mostly, though, I had a bad enough experience the first time that I rarely even think of them as an option. Maybe it’s better for everyone that way.
5601271
It's not better for everypony, I don't think. You write well and should showcase it so more people can enjoy your works.
Just sayin'. I need to submit many more stories, myself, but the ME/CFS thing just makes everything a billion times harder.
5601277
...and I know that feel of rejection experiences being formative. For the longest time I did not post my stories to LGBT groups here (there's one I still won't post to) because of a bad experience I had very early on here on Fimfiction. There's a serious problem on this website with the groups feature and gatekeeping.
5601167
It's possible I'm simply seeing badly done Detroit Style, but I've had it a few times recently with the sauce on top.
5601277
That’s true, I suppose. Although since it’s EqD, I’d honestly be tempted to send them my trolly stuff.
I blame a combo of business and laziness and I also don’t really do much self-promotion.
I’ll be honest, I’ve had mostly positive experiences here. A few users who are problematic now and then, but groups have been okay for me. That having been said, I’m not very active in groups, so. . . .
There’s a number of serious problems, including with the site in general, but then that’s well beyond the scope of this blog.
5601289
Interesting, I’ve never seen it done that way, although according to Wikipedia the sauce is traditionally atop the pizza.
5601569
Except for some initial incidents related to Back to Normal (one of which was the LGBT thing), that was mostly my experience as well up until about three or four years ago. I'd much rather deal with Twitter bullies telling me to kill myself for being trans than with some of what I put up with from authors on here. Even with the sort of thing I experience on Twitter, I've never had to block anypony there.
5601173
:)
And I plan to get to it today!
...Just. You know. A different, several-days-later today. :D
Ehh. Well, to each their own, and I suppose I might also find it cooler than a normal motorboat if I actually tried it; I don't actually know one way or the other.
You're welcome. :)
Ah, thanks. :)
When did the name change from the Chicago, Lake Shore, and South Bend Railway, if you know?
Oh. Well, glad I asked, then. :D
Ooh. Sleek and pretty indeed; thanks! :)