Pizza!

Okay, another thing I love is pizza. I can eat pizza all the time any time. And yeah its gotta be stuffed pizza, what Chicago is known for (way better than New York's flat pizzas). Gulliver's is where it is at. This restaurant is pretty cool, once you step inside they have a variety of light fixtures all over and other statues and a vintage feel I guess. It has an outdoor patio too, just as decorated. Anyways, Chicago is just reeking of pizza, and even though Giordano's is a big chain, I personally think their pizza is crap.

House of Sushi

House of Sushi is the best restaurant to eat at if you want sushi. It's located on Belmont and Ashland, right across from the bank where I used to work at. Whether you are a sushi lover or not you should check this place out. It offers a sushi buffet (minimum of 2 people) for $14.95 I think. It's the only place my girlfriend trusts because she got food poisoning from another Sushi restaurant before (although she avoids raw foods in general now). I eat the raw stuff, they all taste good to me. My favorite is the Godzilla (yeah the names are funky but they tell you all the ingredients don't worry). After you place your first 3 types of sushi (round 1), they bring you an appetizer of tempura carrots and beans and a hot soup-drink thing, all delicious and good but I try not to eat it because I think its a plot to get you full so you don't eat too much sushi. I'm just kidding but I really do try and save as much room as possible. The only thing about this restaurant is that they charge $5 if you don't finish everything off your plate, which I understand, they don't want to waste food-big Asian thing, plus sushi isn't cheap). Just once I was so stuffed (and thats usually how you leave that restaurant being so full and it's not that good feeling full either, more of I'm going to explode full), that I wrapped up the 2 sushis that we could not finish in a napkin and stuffed it quickly in my girlfriend's purse. Oh and another thing, yeah it may be $15 for a buffet, minimum of 2 persons, so you think you can pull a quick one if you come with 3 people and just order two buffets and a little thing supposedly for the 3rd person. But they tell you straight out, "you 2 can't share with him/her". And if thats not enough they walk back and forth to subtly check on you. Then that poor 3rd person can't even enjoy those delicious sushis because he's more concerned with not getting caught and just stuffing them in his mouth. Bad sushi experience, and yes I am talking from experience. But all this oddities aside, everyone should try this place out it'll get you craving sushi. I'm actually craving sushi myself now. But I love this place, glad it's in Chicago, bringing in the diversity- all the time.

Olympics, Chicago 2016

Bringing the Olympics to Chicago would be like a dream come true, or at least thats what I hear. Personally I could care less where the Olympics settle every four years. However, bringing the Olympics to Chicago would provide great benefits to our city. Even though every city is different in some aspects or others, I think its reasonable to assume that Chicago will receive similar benefits to Greece when it hosted the Olympics in 2004.

So the Olympics came back to its origins in 2004 when it took place in Athens. The results were overwhelmingly positive. First the number of viewers and attendees was a record high I believe. Second, this special event put Greece back on the tourist map. Yes the cost for preparing for the Olympics was great, but the long-term benefits prove substantial, aka worth it. Each year the percent of increase in tourism increases, and the revenue from this is great, which is great for the overall economic growth. With this revenue they can attend to improved transportation and other issues to advance their country (i.e. new roads, new airport, thousands of new jobs will be created, etc.).

Thus their are many advantages for bringing the Olympics to Chicago, which most know since other cities are bidding for the Olympics too), and aside from the revenue gain and the benefits mentioned above, I think the Olympics would be a good opportunity to unite the city, more or less, and it will give us a chance to show the world our essence. It's really an exciting occasion that Chicago would be honored to host.

A Trip to the Gardens

When I was little, my family and I would take a trip to the Botanical Gardens for a day in the summer. I remember vividly the dragonflies and lily pads in the water near the Japanese Banzai trees. Till this day, I believe it is a beautiful place to visit and enjoy the scenery. Until recently, I thought it would be hard to visit the gardens without a vehicle considering it is a considerable ways up north from Chicago. But then I found out from my biking friends that there is a bike trail running all the way up to the gardens. Haha! I can combine my frequent bike rides around Chicago to now accommodate for this trail! I was pretty excited because the trail is about 14 miles long... I believe it starts from Foster and some other street, but there is an entrance at Devon and Harlem or Austin, I can't remember which one, but if you go west on Devon, you are bound to see it (I thinks it's by Nagel, going on I-90). Well anyways, the only "trail" I've gone on is the Lake Shore drive one and I'm sorta tired of it. I needed something new and also I wanted to go back to the Botanical Gardens and see how it is during these days. The first time taking the path, I went with four other friends. Basically, the path goes through a forest preserve and cuts through some big roads like Touhy and Golf. There are some steep bridges which sucks going up but awesome going down. Also, there were A LOT of cicadas.
It's a nice trail to go on if your have about half the day to go on the trail and also visit the gardens. Also, you are saving gas and enjoying such a beautiful view.