This post brought to you by the Mall of America

Yep, Im in the mall. THE MALL............OF MURCA!

This place is the most disgusting/awesome bastion of consumerism I've ever experienced. I swear I just walked like a full blown mile from our parking spot to the apple store. This mall is a glorious behemoth that makes you want to puke and explode with happiness at the same time.

SO we haven't posted in a while. I guess it's been like a week so we'll have to rewind to the beginning of last weekend when I had my first encounter with that truly American ritual, the friday night lights. Nick's grandpa, a former high school athletic director, football coach, basketball coach and all round ideal role model took us to see a high school football game featuring his former team the York Dukes. Coming from Canada, the notion of supporting public school athletics both financially and emotionally is a bit of a foreign concept to me. So the whole thousand plus people at a high school football game was a real eye opener. It was awesome. And apparently it was a poor turnout as the away games are nowhere near as crazy as York's home games. York mustered a pretty convincing win with the only blemish being a few suspect snaps. Nick and I have decided we're going to try and make this a weekly thing, trying to catch the local high school football team wherever we are on a friday night. It's a great way to get a feel for a community and is a ton of fun to watch.

Chicago itself was amazing. Like truly incredible. It smelt good, the people were nice, there was always a cool wind coming off the lake and the selection of truly bad-for-you/delicious-for-you street treats was unbelievable. We walked around millenium and grant park, checked out a blues band at the beautiful outdoor amphitheatre (nicest I've ever seen) and caught a couple of shows at the Chicago jazz fest (great but not a candle to the flame of montreal's). We got some serious italian beef at Mr. beef, a Jay Leno fav. Mounds of thin beef piled on a bun dipped in gravy. Who needs dinner? We went up to wrigleyville, the bar scene outside historic wrigley field, got some beers watched some football, met a couple of new friends (and old, what up emily ross), and did some serious bro watching. Chicago seems like a place I could really live. The cleanliness the midwestern friendliness (everybody says hello) and the ammenities. I just don't know if I could get into the sports craziness that rules the city. I just don't know. Don't know.

Sunday we checked out a white sox red sox game. My man J-Bay (CANADA) got an RBI in the 6-1 win. Kind of funny to go to a Sox/Sox game. When the people start chanting, and the fan numbers are equal all you hear is go RHETE SOX GO! or was it GO WIRED SOX GO! ANd then some guy shouted SOX more like SUX and noone really knew what was going on.

Hey Nick remember that time we went to the city with quite possibly the most beautiful architecture in North America? And remember when we went on the architecture boat tour with the most idyllic cityscape views I've ever seen? Ya and remember when we left the camera in the car both days? Oops. So uh no pics of chicago. Only mental images.

We made our way to milwaukee on Monday, where the miller brewery, our only reason for going, was closed for labour day. LAME. Labour day is huge in Mil-city, parades, and people in masks, and everything closed. The city actually has a great waterfront with a beautiful (from the outside) art museum that looks like a ship.

We then hopped over to madison wisconsin to visit nick's cousin jimmy at the university of wisconsin. A 60000 person school known to have the best party scene in America. Unfortunately we were there early in the week after a long weekend so the partying was not in full swing. But we went out low-key both nights. Who can argue with some delicious 1 dollar wisconsin taps? Spotted cow is an incredible beer.

Yesterday we headed to the twin cities via the historic Great river road along the mississippi, which at most places looks more like a lake than a river. We passed through a bunch of sub 2000 people towns and got ourselves a lunch at a nice little bar and grill in Alma wisconsin. Going through small towns with a big city kid who has never seen the country is hilarious.

Man, this is America. This is it Chris. This is like where real people like really actually live. I wonder what they think about? Do they like it here? OHMAGAWD it's an old chevy pickup driving onto a farm! NOWAY! SMALL TOWN AMERICA IS REAL!

The novelty of small town america is certainly not lost on nick.

K, I gotsta go buy some stuff in this bigole mall, check out the city and eat some WALLEYE (state fish o Minnesota).

Don't keep it too real,

Chris

P.S. a big thank you to our hosts on this leg of the trip. BeBe, Papa, addy and seven (this cat smelled that I was allergic and rubbed up against me the whole time I was there, great animal though) showed us some true midwestern hospitality in elmhurst. And Jimmy and his roommates who showed us a fun time in Madison.