Rollin' with Zach (2011) s01e02 Episode Script

I'm Zach Anner and getting my own travel show was a dream come true for me.
I may have cerebral palsy, but that never stopped me.
So, now I'm exploring the country and taking you along for the ride.
In this episode, we're doing summer in the city, Chicago style.
This is the most amazing view of anything I've ever seen.
I countdown the top 5 things I've always wanted to do in the Windy City.
I'll be taking a spin on some classic rides in Chicago's favorite waterfront park.
Exploring my family's heritage at a colorful street fest.
Hava! And,satisfying my sweet tooth at an ice cream shop that uses mad science to create some of the best frozen treats in the city.
It's all leading up to my ultimate goal, of waterskiing on Lake Michigan.
We're going waterskiing, baby! But, sometimes, even the most watertight travel plans can sink like a stone.
Rollin' with Zach Season 1 -- Episode 2 "Chicago" I'm really excited about Chicago.
I was only here once before for the Oprah Show (cheers) Do you think you can handle the strenuousness Basically, I'm sitting down all day.
It doesn't take a lot of energy.
It seems Chicago really comes to life in the summer.
There's like an energy here.
For #5 on my Windy City countdown I'm headed to Navy Pier, Navy Pier opened in 1916 as a working pier.
Now, it's a 50 acre park with promenade, eateries and a ton of attractions.
Every person I talked to about Chicago said, you got to go to Navy Pier and you gotta ride the ferriswheel.
I haven't been on a ferriswheel since I was ten years old.
I can't ell you how excited we are to have you here.
Getting a VIP tour from the President of the Pier means we're getting the inside scoop on everything you can do at the park.
Dah, dun, dah! Look at Lake Michigan, it's so awesome.
This is the largest ferriswheel in the country, right? That's correct.
So, this ferriswheel harkens back to the first ferriswheel that was ever built right here, in Chicago.
Close to a million people ride this ferriswheel, every year.
- Wow.
What would you say makes a Chicagoan a Chicagoan? It's a true love for the city and the understanding that the weather is not always going to be perfect, but there will be fabulous perfect days like we're experiencing today.
The Summer is great, apparently! Great shot.
Marilyn was a little nervous, at first, but I convinced her that since she's the President of Navy Pier, she has to stand by all her rides.
Let's go! Going up.
- Uh, oh.
Whoa! Yeah! Look, Ma, no sense of falling in your direction.
There's the ferriswheel.
There's the pool.
There's the ferriswheel.
How you feeling? I'm feeling good.
- Good! I'm hanging in there.
Well, it's nice to know that Chicago is known for it's borderline sickening rides.
Whoop! Okay! I, I feel all right, I mean it's not like a could walk before I got on the ride.
Aah! So, I conquered the swings and I feel really, really good.
I'm ready to see the rest of Chicago, baby.
Ugh!(sighs) For #4 on my Chicago countdown I'm going to do another one of the city's most popular tourist destinations.
You absolutely cannot come to Chicago and not see the view from the tallest building in the western hemisphere The Willis Tower.
And, I know, you're like, hey Zach, what you talking about Willis Tower? Well, it was formerly, the Sears Tower.
But, they changed the name.
Either way, the view's incredible.
So, let's get up there.
I'm going up to the One Hundred and Third floor.
How fast are we going? Uh, 18 miles an hour.
18 what? - Yep.
(elevator voice) "And, now we're here" "a hundred and three stories up" "Welcome to the top.
" Oh, my gosh! I'm going to be waterskiing in that.
Oh! Wow! You can see my house from here.
Mom's making meatloaf.
I gotta go.
Dinner's almost ready.
On a clear day, they say you can see four states from up here.
No wonder this is the most photographed views in the city.
I didn't bring my family with me can I take a picture with your family and pretend like it's mine.
- Sure.
That would be fantastic.
Do we look like we're related? One happy family.
It used to be that you just got to look out the window on Sky Deck, but in 2009, they upped the ante on the fear factor by adding The Ledge.
Glass boxes that extend out over the side of the building.
1,300 feet above the street.
This is it.
Whoa!! Wow! This is the most amazing view of anything I have ever seen.
We need as many people as we can get in this Sky Box.
I heard the record is 40.
Come on, it's perfectly safe.
Okay, I'm coming in.
Oh, look, it's not even cramped yet, we gotta keep going.
Come on, get nice and cozy in here.
Okay, now, everybody Fall !!! Well, we didn't set any new records, but, hey, it was still fun.
Coming up It's all Greek to me, as I check out one of Chicago's favorite summertime activities, Hava! Oprah!! Later I'm braving Lake Michigan to try waterskiing for the first time.
If you look back and I'm not attached to the boat, that's a thumbs down for me.
It's summertime in Chicago and I'm counting doen the top five things I've always wanted to do here.
Chicago culture comes out in full force at it's summer neighborhood festivals.
And, because Chicago has the largest Greektown in the country I'm headed to the Taste of Greece Festival, the #3 spot on my list of things to do here.
This festival means a lot to me because my grandma's Greek and I'm hoping to experience some of her heritage today.
Hava! Hey, Zach.
Thank you for this wonderful festival.
We're glad to have you here.
When did you start it.
- 23 years ago.
23 years! Wow! What is it about Chicago that makes it a perfect place for this festival? We're a friendly city.
You step off the airplane and it's a friendly place and Greeks have a lot to do with that.
Let me kiss you now.
- Okay.
All right! I'm kissing a lot of men today.
I haven't been to a lot of neighborhood festivals, but I having a really great time and I haven't even had any Ouzo yet.
That's just a testament to how fun the Greeks are.
Hi.
- Welcome to Athena.
Thank you.
It's a beautiful day for a Greek festival in Chicago.
That, it is.
So, I grew up with Greek food because my grandmother's Greek but is there any Greek food that is Chicago specific? It's called, the saganagi.
Sagawagi?? - Saganagi yeah flaming Greek goat cheese.
Flaming Greek goat cheese.
Saganagi has always been a popular Greek appetizer, but in 1968, a restaurant right here in Chicago's Greektown was the first to dowse it in brandy and set it on fire.
We just fill it with a little oil I get that to a nice brown.
Oh, wow.
- You see that.
Now, these are ready to go.
If you want to get your lighter ready, Okay.
This is how I think the Olympics started.
- Yes.
How many eyebrows have been lost as a result of this? I think, too many.
Ready.
Hava! Oprah! Oh, wow.
- And, that,sir, is flaming Greek cheese.
This is my first saganagi cheese, ever.
Umm.
Oh, God! The flame really adds a lot.
That is really good.
Oh, a, is there anything else I should checkout while I'm at Greek Fest? You've got to checkout the traditional Greek dancers on the south stage.
Man, I bet they're on fire in a different kind of way.
The Greeks have been doing the same dances for more than 2,500 years.
I'm told that every dance tells a different story.
I'm watching the Greek dancers.
They're dancing around in a circle and a guy comes over in his lovely puffball shoes and he invites me into the circle.
And, all of a sudden, I'm Greek dancing.
Sort of.
My immediate thought is, this is kind of embarrassing.
There's a lot of people watching.
But, everyone in the circle is just so inviting and so excited that energy just kind of takes you over.
Thank you, thank you.
You are one Greek man.
- Thank you.
That was fun.
I don't know if I have ever felt so welcomed, anywhere.
Hava! Coming up I get my sugar fix at a sweet place where they're using weird science to make ice cream.
Ummm! And, later, I'm a pro, I got this and then, immediately, boo-rah-rumph! I'm in Chicago, Illinois, exploring some of the great stuff you can do here in the summer.
Everyone knows Chicago is famous for pizza and hot dogs, but did you also know it's also on the cutting edge of ice cream.
So, for #2 on my countdown I'm headed to the Wicker Park neighborhood to get my sugar fix at a high tech ice cream joint that's a must stop when you visit the city.
I Cream has been keeping locals and tourists cool since 2008.
The secret to their success is their customers can create any flavor and color combination they can imagine and watch as their custom concoction is frozen into ice cream with a blast of pure liquid nitrogen.
Do you know what flavor you're going to make? Vanilla with root beer, raspberries mixed in, gummy bear on top and make it blue.
Oh, wow! The possibilities are endless in this ice cream laboratory.
So, I'm going to get some help from I Cream co-founder, Cora Shaw.
What are all the syringes? These look dangerous.
These serve all of our flavors that we use to flavor the our ice cream.
Do you know how many permutations of flavors you have? Just in terms of flavors we can do right around a 1,000.
We have 33 flavors.
If you mutiply that by itself, you'd have things like curry and cayenne.
You have, curry? - You can make curry ice cream.
One of my favorites is curry coconut ice cream.
Oooh! Is their something that sounded appealing? I love things that are coffee based.
Okay, let's do that.
Before we make this ice cream, I have to ask you, uh, the moral question.
Are we playing God, here? (Cora chuckles) We're going to add our I Cream base, which is just a blend of milk and heavy whipping cream.
I'm going for coffee flavor, but the mad scientist in me wants to push the boundaries with color.
Well, sir, let's make sure you're happy with the color we got here.
Is that going to work for you? - I like that.
And, a splash of I Cream's burnt sugar flavoring some crunchy cookies and toffee and it's ready to go.
So, now we're going to use liquid nitrogen which is negative 320 degrees below zero.
There's our liquid nitrogen.
- Oh, WOW! When you see all the liquid nitrogen you're wondering am I going to freeze my face off or is Arnold Schwarzenegger going to come out of their naked and tell me he's from the future? And, now we have your finished product.
OH! Wow! Umm, oh, wow.
That's pretty good.
You know, I'm not sure about the moral implications of cream cell research, but I really enjoyed my coffee ice cream that was raspberry colored.
And, it's a really cool process.
It goes from cream, to ice cream in about 45 seconds.
And, that's a miracle of life, right there.
For number 1 on my list I'm going waterskiing on Lake Michigan.
I'm kind of a thrill-seeker.
I always thought I could waterski, but I never thought I'd get the chance.
Now, with the help of Adaptive Adventures, a group that makes action sports possible for people like me.
I'm actually getting to try waterskiing.
I'm pumped.
Can you tell me a little bit about what to expect in the waterskiing process? Because this is a completely new thing for me.
So, you got the ski, right here.
This is the cage that you're going to sit in.
And, then we got on either side what are called outriggers, which basically, kind of like training wheels.
for the ski.
So, this is basically the set up, we're going to get you in the water.
We got a couple of hand signals Thumbs up for faster.
Thumbs down for slower.
And, head home or head back to the dock.
If you look back and I'm not attached to the boat, you can assume that's a thumbs down from me.
Okay? I'm going to be stabilizing you from back here.
When you're ready, the rope is taught to the boat, You're going to call, "Hit It" - Okay.
And, then the boat's going to start moving.
What's he going to say, if there's no boat? What do you mean? - I just got a very bad news call.
They went out of the harbor about a two miles north of here and within about 100 yards were literally swamped by large waves.
So, the issue is that this area is calm enough to ski, we just can't get a boat over to here.
- Correct.
What else can we do? We don't need the boat launch like we do for the pull boat we had.
But, we can, I think we can get the jet ski we have down here.
So, we're going to try waterskiing behind a jet ski, instead of a boat.
I guess that's why you're called, "Adaptive Adventures", right? That's right, exactly.
Got it? -Yep.
Here we go.
- A little more, here we go.
All right, now we're stuck in sand.
Wow.
We're waterskiing, again.
Victory! Ready to go waterskiing? - Yeah, I'm ready.
All right, let's go.
We're going waterskiing, baby.
Making it happen.
We get out into the water and I'm about to be pulled by the jet ski.
And, then Uh, oh! Zach puts his spin on a spin around New York.
We have lift-off.
In an unforgettable trip to San Francisco.
I broke the boat, I broke the boat.
Rollin' with Zach, all new, next Monday, 8, 7 Central only on OWN.
We get out into the water and I'm about to be pulled by the jet ski and then, Uh, oh! Disaster strikes The rope attached to the jet ski gets sucked up into the jet ski motor.
Ugh, boy.
At this point, I don't even care if I'm going to waterski.
They can just drag me around the lake and I will be satisfied.
After they pulled me out of the water, Joel is determined to try again in a calm, smaller lake.
So, we head to Twin Lakes in nearby Wisconsin.
You know, things don't always go right and you just have to make the best of it.
And, luckily, everybody involved with Adaptive Adventures, kept a positive attitude.
I'll be on the jet ski, next to you.
I'll give you the signal that means you can go ahead and grab the rope.
All set? All set.
Let's rock and roll! I grabbed the rope, one handed immediately, boo-rah-rumph! Carrie, saved my life.
And like, WOW, that was awesome, too! Hang on - Okay.
Use both hands next time.
- Yeah, I got it.
I'm not going to let everyone else down and I'm not going to let myself down.
Hit It! The journey to be able to waterskiing was as long and arduous, but it was totally worth it.
All right.
Oh, wow.
That was awesome.
My immediate thoughts were just complete gratitude Yes, that was amazing.
to them and everyone.
For me, it was it was spectacular.
That was for thrill-seekers, right.
(all chuckle) If at first you don't succeed try, and try and try again.
And, if you have some great friends you can make anything happen.
So, thank you so much, guys.
All right.
You're very welcome.
My trip to Chicago was truly incredible on all fronts.
I'm really blown away with the energy here and the natural beauty.
I can see why anyone would want to live here.
Especially, in the summers, it's beautiful.