While my brother, Carson, was visiting me in Chicago, we went to some more things together.
The first thing I will talk about that we went to is Medieval Times. I remember watching The Cable Guy with Jim Carrey in it a long time ago. At one point in that movie, they go to that restaurant and it looked pretty fun. Lo and behold, it’s an actual thing and one of their locations is in the Chicago area.
So while my brother was visiting me, I surprised him with a visit there.
The “King”
After being seated, a bunch of different knights came out, all representing different sections of the audience.
They then did their things, dueling each other, sword-fighting, and even jousting!
While this was going on, we got to eat a “classic medieval” meal, which included turkey legs, veggies, and bread, among other things if I recall correctly. The knights would occasionally call upon their respective audience sections, and the sections would then cheer for their knight. Our knight sucked and was the first to be eliminated, but it was all a lot of fun.
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A few days later, it was New Year’s, and we decided to go to downtown Chicago with some friends. We all dressed up pretty funky (maybe more I than the others) and we met quite a few groups along the way who thought we looked cool and wanted to take pictures with us.
My friend Josh, me, and my brother in the train
A group we bonded with in the train (the 3 on the right side)
Aaron riding on my shoulders
We ended up making our way to the Navy Pier, which would offer an excellent view of the fireworks. The temperature was unbelievably warm for December 31st, and we were sweating while walking around in our t-shirts.
Once we got to the Navy Pier we ended up photobombing as many people as we could, but everyone loved it and wanted even more photos with us.
Some kids who also had light-up swords
As the year shifted from 2010 to 2011, the fireworks started up and we watched it with the rest of the crowd.
Like clockwork, as soon as the fireworks ended, the temperature dipped down into the chilly ranges one would expect for December/January. To further complicate things, we also needed to get back to the train station, as the last train left in about 45 minutes, and with it being about, well 45 minutes of walking to get there, we had to hurry. Aaron and I ran ahead of the others and tried to ensure that we could hold the doors or something open if it came down to it as my brother and our other friend Josh came up behind us. We luckily didn’t have to argue with the train conductors or anything and they purposely waited a few minutes for the hordes of people in a similar situation as us and we all managed to get on the train back to where we lived.
A few days later, my brother flew back home, but that definitely marked a fun period when he visited.