St. Patrick's Day at Chief O'Neill's.

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Yesterday we decided to change things up since Ginger’s is under new management and we headed to Chief O’Neill’s which was a much different vibe.  I got there a little before 11am and the next thing I knew it was me and about nine kids watching The Power Rangers on TV.  The setup of Chief’s was two huge rooms and a giant outside tent where all the parents were eating as their kids watched tv in the bar.  Clearly I was early.

Chief O’Neill’s slogan is ‘The bar you’ve been practicing for.’  At this point I think it should be ‘The bar you’ve been saving for.’  After 1p they started charging a $10 cover charge (hence why I showed up early), draft beer was $5 for domestic and $6 for imports, in other words a Miller Light was way too expensive not that I was drinking Miller Light.  They did have a buffet setup for $14 but it was a one pass buffet, not the all-you-can eat variety.  With this in mind you pretty much stacked your plate as high as it could go.  In the picture above you can see my plate with pasta, pulled pork, fried cod, fries and a couple of rolls.  The plate in the photograph below is Kilburg’s,  he had at least 3 rolls in his pockets. All that being said, the food was great and the atmosphere, though older, was much more professional. Seasoned veterans one might say.

A good time was had by all.

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Fish Fry Season.

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Last night we headed out West to St. Ferdinand Church for their Lenten Fish Fry which just so happened to be Elvis Night.  I’ve been searching for a church Fish Fry since the last one I went to in Columbus was all out of fish back in 2006.  The fish at St. Ferdinand wasn’t the best (I’d say it was frozen/middle school lunch-esq) but the atmosphere was top notch.  First off the place was packed and you couldn’t find parking for a couple blocks.  There were at least two different banquet type rooms that we could see both had their own bar.  The bar by the way probably served the cheapest beer in all of Chicago:  $1.50 Miller Light (no tip jar).  Also, they were hocking girl scout cookies and carmel apples as soon as you walked in the door.  Elvis worked the crowd and took requests all the while handing out scarfs to old ladies.

Needless to say St. Ferdinand has their act together when it comes to a Fish Fry.

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Washington Hockey Trip

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This past weekend I ventured into the heart of Snowmageddon for the Capitals – Penguins game on Sunday morning. This trip was planned this past spring with no intenion of there being anything near 2 feet of snow on the ground. Early in the week we started to get word that the weather was going to be bad and then like clockwork my Saturday morning flight was canceled on Wednesday afternoon.  I looked into a couple different options, Train from Chicago to DC which sold out and earlier flights were already booked or canceled.  I ended up booking a train from Penn Station in New York to Washington on Saturday morning (6:45am).  Then I got a flight to New York for Friday night.  I got in around 10pm and proceeded with the following schedule:

10pm – Blondies
Midnight – McAleer’s Pub (ie the Krull bar)
1am – The Dead Poet
3am – The Dublin House
4am – The Green Kitchen
5am – Back to Jim’s Apartment to Shower
6am – Penn Station
7am – The Northeast Regional heading to Washington
11:30am – Union Station

To say the above was challenging is the understatement of the decade but this was just the beginning of a Epic Journey. Once we got into Washington Jim and I made our way to the Metro system and took the train out to Depont Circle where we came upon this seen:

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The Escalator of Doom was not running and was covered in snow.  To say this was a large escalator is an understatement.  This has to be at least one of the largest and steepest escalators in the Western hemisphere.  It’s 188 feet of pure burning pain but who’s counting. Needless to say it took every once of will power and agility to summit. Once we got to the top we were greeted with our first taste of Snowmageddon.  From this point we began our march to the hotel down the middle of the snow covered streets.

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As fate would have we actually had a relatively easy journey into the city. Meanwhile after a failed attempt to get their truck out Josh and Tom began their journey from Alexandria, VA to Washington on foot.  On the Road:

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All told I’m think they walked over 6 miles and there were only minor incidents of cannibalism.  I think when Jim and I made it in to Washington the ball was clearly in their court.  Would I have walked 6 miles in two feet of snow on the open road to see the Caps – Pens game?  There  is no way to ever know but they did.

The game was about as intense as a regular season game could be.  The Pens gave up a 4-1 lead to fall in overtime when a questionable high sticking was called.  At least they walked away with a point.  Below are my pictures from the the rest of our expedition in the Nation’s capital:

*Side Notes:
*My Snowmageddon pictures are here.
** Caps – Pens pictures are here.