Back in December Patrick took a job in Chicago. This past weekend John and I visited him in
the big city.
Saturday,
May 10
Our first adventure was finding P.’s apartment. He had given us driving directions that said
turn left. I think it should have said
exit off Lake Shore Drive then turn left.
But we continued a bit further north than we should have. Instead of getting back on Lake Shore Drive
and going back to the correct street, J. decided to head into the city and go
south. His theory was we would
eventually hit the street we were looking for.
Not a good plan. I had printed a
couple Google maps, but they did not include the area that we were in. We pretty much didn’t know where we were so
it was difficult to know which direction to go or what street to take. I think that is what is known as being
lost. I stopped a young woman walking by
and asked if she could show me whereabouts we were in relation to our map. She saw Oz Park on the map and pointed us in
that direction. We headed out
again. And finally pulled into a
no-parking spot in front of P.’s apartment.
Whew. Probably increased our travel
time only about 15 minutes.
Incidentally, we knew when we were at Oz Park because there was a statue
of the Tin Man on the corner. Perfect
photo-op, but I’ll have to save it for another time.
We phoned P. to come out; then he and J. drove off
to find a parking spot. I waited and
watched the city comings and goings. I
pretty much came to the conclusion that this is not the life for me: narrow streets, cars parked bumper-to-bumper on
either sides of the street, noise, trucks parked in the street to unload,
traffic lights, one-way streets, too many directional signs, and on and on.
P. then took us in his apartment. It is a converted hotel, possibly built in the
1920s/30s/40s. I really don’t know, but
a while ago. His apartment is one room
with a small bathroom. A small kitchen
area on one side of the room with cabinets and counter, sink, stove,
refrigerator, and microwave. P. has the
bare kitchen essentials. I did not
snoop. He says he has never used the
stove, only the microwave. He gets a lot
of his meals at work or while at work.
He purchased a full-size bed, and except for a table and desk chair that
were left behind, that is the extent of his furnishings. I think the windows in the room are on the
north. They face the brick of the
building a couple feet next door. At
present he can’t get them open. The room
is not air-conditioned, but there is a ceiling fan.
We decided we would walk over to Lincoln Park Zoo. But first, lunch at Cosi, home of freshly baked signature flatbread. We chose this restaurant because it was in
our vicinity and it looked like it had salads and sandwiches. I chose Adobo Lime Chicken Salad; P. had Korean
BBQ Pork Bowl; and J. chose a Turkey Sandwich.
The “signature” flatbread came with all of our meals, and it was very
good.
Lincoln
Park Zoo – It’s FREE!
It was o.k. Unfortunately it’s
undergoing a major renovation that made it difficult to get from one side to the
other. Difficult in that when we circled
around one side and wanted to go to the other side, we had to retraipse our
steps. And for someone who isn’t
accustomed to walking, this repeat was not welcomed. I took lots of random pictures, and because
of the sunlight, I really couldn’t see what I was taking. We never did find the seals or the zebras
which were on the zoo map.
After the zoo, we rested for a very short time back
at P.’s “dorm room” and refreshed on water. Once it was close to 3 p.m.
(checkin time at our hotel, Best Western
River North corner of Ohio and LaSalle – just a couple blocks from P.’s
office building) J. gave P. the keys to the car and asked him to chauffer us
there. We then talked about where to
explore next. Tossed out some ideas – I
would have liked a photo of us at the Wrigley Field sign – but decided to head
south across the Chicago River. I
remembered stopping in the James R. Thompson Center 20+ years ago when P. and I
accompanied J. for one of his training sessions. I was curious to reacquaint myself with the
building. We got there and realized it’s
a state of Illinois government building, and no one in the state’s government
works on Saturday so it was closed.
I continued taking random pictures.
P. knew that J. and I would need tickets for the
“el” for evening plans so we went to the Merchandise Mart where we could buy
them. We also thought we might be able
to look around the building a bit and find something cold to drink. Wrong!
It was pretty much shut-down for the weekend. The food court had only a couple stores open
where P. purchased an ice coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts and fetched me a glass of ice-cold
water. Relief!
P.’s original plan was for us to go to Café
Ba-Ba-Reeba for dinner around 6 p.m.
Then we’d go to ComedySportz Theater for the 8 p.m. show. Since we were tiring, he checked his phone
and saw there was a ComedySportz show at 6 p.m. We decided to reverse the show-time and
dinner-time. We purchased day-pass el tickets
for J. and me and set off for our evening’s entertainment.
ComedySportz
is an improv audience-participation comedy show suitable for all ages. It’s much like TV’s “Whose Line is it
Anyway.” We enjoyed the show, although
P. commented it wasn’t quite as “good” as the other times he had been there. We speculated that might have something to do
with it being the earlier performance.
Following the entertainment we caught the el for
dinner back at Ba-Ba-Reeba. P. thought
we would enjoy this place because it specializes in tapas. We could share the small portions, plus J.
and I had never been to a tapas restaurant.
Unfortunately because of Mother’s Day weekend, the wait-time at
Ba-Ba-Reeba was about 2 hours! So we
wandered a little bit in the area. P.
inquired at Taco Joint (he’s been to another one near his company), but it had
a long wait-time, too. Across the street
was Pasta Palazzo so we headed there.
Happily we were seated after only a short wait. Pasta
Palazzo is very small and the dining area was separated from the open
kitchen by a counter with stools. (I
later discovered good online reviews including: “A gourmet pasta diner.”) J. and I ordered “specials” – risotto with
sausage and mushrooms for J. and cavatelli with shrimp, mushroom, spinach in a
“spicy” vodka tomato sauce for me; P. had gnocchi. I tasted both of their meals – both were
“firsts” for me. Well, the cavatelli was
a first, too, but it was just a different form of pasta so not really new – it
was definitely spicy. [Hey, guess
what. I just googled Pasta Palazzo and
discovered it had been featured on a Rachael Ray Show a couple years ago. That’s about as close as I’ll ever get to a
celebrity.]
By happenstance our supper restaurant was just a few
blocks from P.’s apartment. Following
our dinner, he pointed us in the opposite direction towards the el stop and explained
several times to follow the signs that pointed to the train to The Loop and
that our stop would be Merchandise Mart.
He also told us “When you get off the train head north to Ohio Street
then east to your hotel.” And this was
the important part: “If you come to the river, you’re going the wrong way!” Then “Call me if you need help. And call me when you’re back at your
hotel.” Talk about role-reversal. How many times had I said something similar
to P. back in the day?
We followed P.’s directions to the el, but when we
got on the platform it didn’t feel right to J.
We discussed: He said The Loop is
that way (opposite of where the train we were waiting for would be going); I
said but what is that tall building? Isn’t it in the city? (As if one tall building defines “the city.”) I also reminded J. that we had heeded P.’s
instructions to follow “to The Loop” signs.
Fortunately a young couple overheard our conversation and intervened to
tell us we were in the right spot to catch the train for Merchandise Mart. We arrived at our correct stop, but I
couldn’t figure out which way was north – after all, it’s dark now and nothing
is familiar. I simply followed J.’s lead. His theory was that the train had been
heading south so if we walk in the opposite direction we must be headed towards
Ohio Street as P. had instructed. We
never saw the river so that was apparently an accurate deduction. Got back to the hotel completely pooped by
all the day’s walking. I texted P. that
his little lambs were safely back.
Sunday,
May 11
P. was to meet us at our hotel before 10:00 for
Sunday’s adventure. I was up early and
decided to walk a block north to Walgreens and see if I could find a postcard
and a refrigerator magnet to commemorate our great adventure in the big
city. I took my camera just in case I
encountered something memorable. I did
find the souvenirs I was looking for and a photo-op at a two-story McDonalds
near P.’s office building.
P. had originally suggested that we have breakfast
at The Donut Vault. It was in the
vicinity and a friend had recommended it.
But, according to their Internet information, it didn’t open on Sundays
until 9:30 and we were concerned about getting to our destination on time. Instead J. and I had a breakfast of granola
bars that I had brought with us.
P. arrived and we again set off walking. P. had reservations for us on Wendella’s Chicago River Architecture Tour
which departed from a dock at Trump Tower.
Our guide was certainly knowledgeable and spouted off a myriad of names,
dates, and facts. It was a lot of
architectural data with quite a bit of Chicago history and folklore
included. We enjoyed the tour.
After the tour we meandered back towards P.’s office
and considered restaurants for lunch. We
finally settled on the Taco Joint
which is in P.’s office building. P.
gave us a tour of his company and desk.
Nothing spectacular. We then had
lunch. Lucky for us P. gets a 10%
building discount which they honored. J.
and I both had Pollo al Carbon Tortas which is a “traditional” Mexican grilled
chicken. P. chose the Yucatan Torta
which was a pulled pork sandwich with plantains and other ingredients.
It was now time to head back to our car at the
hotel’s parking garage. P. did not want
to dawdle because his bus was due to arrive.
Because of that I skipped taking pictures at a building we walked past:
Sports Authority on LaSalle Street has a Chicago sports Wall of Fame on the
outside of their building. It includes
handprints of a variety of athletes, for instance Michael Jordan and Walter
Payton. I managed to catch a glimpse of
Ryne Sandberg’s handprints as we hurried by.
I handed P. the remaining granola bars, then J. and
I were on our way. We left the big city
without a hitch around 1:30. I was
certainly happy to be back into the familiar vista of I-57. We arrived back to C-U around 4:00 very tired
but pleased with our special weekend.
It was such a nice two days with P. He had sight-seeing activities planned, ideas
for restaurants, and kept us on course as we delved into the intricacies of
traveling in the city. The weather was
just right: sunshine, temps in the 70s, and a light breeze. Coincidentally our weekend just happened to
be Mother’s Day, and it was special to spend it with my sweet child.
