Taste of Chicago

So I'd been meaning to make a post about what I was up to for the 4th of July celebrations but I just kept on procrastinating to the point that now I can't even remember half the things I did. I'll try my best nonetheless.

July 2nd, I hit up the Taste of Chicago with my friend Mariana. We actually had an awesome time and enjoyed stuffing our faces with TONS of food. That's what The Taste's all about. Good food, good music and just a great atmosphere. The night however, ended on a sour note with some lady drama but I won't get into that.

Then the next day on the 3rd, I hit up The Taste once again but this time with my sister. Also had tons of fun and tons of food. We also enjoyed some live music including this local band called Mind's Hideaway which whom I was pretty impressed with. I was feeling their music so we stuck around after their performance and chilled with them for a little bit. Cool bunch of guys.

The Taste was definitely a lot more crowded that day because of the fireworks show that was gonna take place by the lake front that night.

Anyway we stuck around for the fireworks and they were just simply amazing. Honestly, just jaw dropping stuff. Amplified even more perhaps by the buzz I was getting from the marijuana smoke all over Grant Park, lol. Seriously you couldn't walk 20 feet without spotting someone lighting up. You'd think the heavy 5-0 presence would discourage such mischievous activities, but oh it did not.

Anyway on our walk back, the streets of downtown were just completely FLOODED with people. Shit was crazy and as my sister and I are making our way to the L station we hear these loud ass popping sounds. Those my friends, did not sound like fireworks. More like gunshots. Yup, bunch of clowns had to fuck up what has traditionally been a safe family outing in the Chi, by staging an all out gang fight in the middle of the streets with no concern towards the fact that there were families everywhere with little kids.

Anyway as soon as all this shit starts going down my sister and I skip the L station and just jump on the #22 bus instead. We got home probably in twice the amount of time it would have taken us to ride the train, but I wasn't going to take any chances. So the next day I read about what happened in the newspapers and on the news. Four people got shot but thankfully no innocent bystanders. Just what the fuck are people thinking man?

Right, so on the actual 4th of July I took it easy and chilled at home. Family wasn't up to much and I wasn't in the mood to go out so I watched TV for most of the day instead. I did go out to my front yard for a while to check out some more fireworks and brought my dog Chase along but he kept getting scared and running towards the door, lol.

And that concluded my 4th of July festivities for 2008. Good food, great music, amazing fireworks and a good old fashion gang shoot out in the streets of Chicago.

I brought my camera to the Taste thinking I'd be snapping pictures left and right but ultimately forgot so I only took a couple shitty ones: