8.31.18 Joy statuses

 

 

 

 

 

 

      

8.30.18 - August, bye!

8.16.18 - Picture highlights from our honeymoon

8.15.18 - Nick's joys

8.15.18 - Souvenirs and the trip home

I have a hard time sleeping on travel days, even though we had plenty of time. I really wanted to find some kind of thank you gift (or gifts) for Don & Merlene and for Dad before we left. If I had known how much we’d have left in the budget I probably would have just gotten them things from the Aquarium gift shop, which had several cute options. Oh well.

So Jack and I got up and walked across the river to one of a chain store called Bye Bye Chicago, which is a souvenir shop. But it wasn’t really what I was looking for. It was just a lot of different types of products with the word “Chicago” on them or pictures of the cityscape, and that’s fine but kind of boring and cliché.

We decided instead to head back to the Art Institute because, as I recalled, their gift shop is outside the museum itself, so you can walk right in without worrying about admission.

But first on the way we needed to figure out something for breakfast. I had snacked at the hotel and Jack had finished the rest of the Malnati’s from the night before, but it wasn’t really enough and certainly wouldn’t be enough up until we left for the airport. So we stopped in the Nutella Café, which we had walked past a couple times throughout the week, and I got a Nutella and strawberry crepe and Jack got some kind of ham, cheese, and egg sandwich. They were both delicious albeit pretty overpriced. We ate quickly and headed to the Art Institute.

The gift shop was awesome. I’m so glad we went there instead of just grabbing whatever from Bye Bye Chicago. They had lots of merchandise with famous paintings on them, including some of my favorites. I ended up buying several magnets—one for Dad, the rest to keep at home, and a bunch of postcards (hopefully to eventually frame at home), and a really pretty umbrella for Don & Merlene that included “A Rainy Day in Paris” by Gustave Caillebotte.

When we finished we walked over to Buckingham Fountain because I did want to see it once more before we left. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip. Such a beautiful fountain. We stood in light mist for a while although I was trying to be careful not to let the postcards get wet.

On our walk back we also stopped by the now-open Garrett’s popcorn and got a bag of the Chicago mix (cheese and caramel popcorn together) to bring Beth, by special request. Apparently she loves that stuff. And there was something enjoyable about walking the rest of the way to the hotel with bags from both Garrett’s and the Art Institute. So quintessential Chicago I guess. They both had kind of pretty decorate bags too.

We got back to the hotel, checked out, and grabbed a Lyft back to Midway. We were there incredibly early, but it’s nice to be in no hurry and to have no children to keep entertained. I was impressed with the TSA’s system for returning empty bins back to the front of their conveyer belts: it was all automated. Other than that we (painfully) bought overpriced airport lunch and snacks and then Jack watched Breaking Bad while I started working on this record of our trip until it was time to fly back home.

On the plane ride back we both continued to do those things but at some point grew tired of it and watched the beginning of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them on my laptop. Don picked us up at the airport and brought us back to a very clean apartment and a Costco rotisserie chicken, of course. The girls were already asleep and we visited with Don and Merlene for a while. We told them about our trip in more detail and they told us a lot about how the visit with the girls went. They seemed to truly love it. So overall it was a good cap to an amazing honeymoon.

8.14.18 - Signature Room, Art Institute, Dine-In movie theater

We planned our last full day in Chicago well, I think, mostly because at the end of the day we were going to get dinner at a dine-in movie theater. I really love movie theaters, so looking forward to that all day just made the day more cheerful. Neither of us had eaten at a dine-in theater before, and I was eager to see what that would be like. Plus by now we were both getting very tired and sore from walking so much more than we’re used to, so I’m glad we planned the final evening to involve a lot of time off of our feet.

But to begin with, we did walk to the John Hancock building again. I pointed out we could take a Lyft but Jack opted to walk. It was nice. I like the old, large limestone buildings such as the Catholic church we passed. We also went by the water tower again, and this time we realized you can go inside for free and take a look around. We didn’t stay long, though, because we had expected historical information about the water tower itself but instead the displays were about using photography and other activism to get certain parts of Chicago formally recognized as historical landmarks. Can’t say I care that much about that. We did stop to examine a large map of the area and point out all the places we’d already been, but overall we were in and out in probably five minutes.

We were heading to the Signature Room for lunch, partly because our brief time at the Signature Lounge on the first night was a little too loud and a little too tired, and also because we had wanted to see the view from the other side of the building, which isn’t an option from the Lounge. I thought maybe there would be a wait or at least a crowd for such a popular spot, but I guess arriving only 20 minutes after they open on a Tuesday has it’s perks. We were seated immediately at a two seat table next to the windows looking North, just what we had wanted.

The view was excellent. We could see Lake Shore Drive; a beach with tiny volleyball players, sun bathers, and swimmers, and, further out, sailboats; the Lincoln Park Zoo; Wrigley Field; part of the El train tracks; the blue dots of rooftop pools all around; city balconies with little potted plants; and so much more. I spent so much time examining the amazing view that I kept not noticing when our server would come back. He surprised me many times, haha. We did manage to get some drinks: Jack got some type of beer and I got a “Skyscraper” (Bacardi Superior rum, pineapple juice, cranberry juice, and a pineapple wedge – just my type). I got the Caesar salad with salmon and Jack got seafood pasta. Actually ever since we went to the aquarium and saw freakishly large lobsters and the like, Jack had been mentioning he wanted to eat some seafood. So this lunch was sort of two birds with one stone.

As we ate and (distant) people watched, a few other tables filled all with more people taking photos of the view, but the restaurant never did get super busy while we were there. They were playing instrumental versions—I think mostly violin—of pop songs like Train’s “Soul Sister” or Great Big World’s “Say Something,” and we enjoyed trying to name the lyricless tunes. When we were done we walked halfway up the flight of stairs between the Signature Room (94^th floor) and Signature Lounge (95^th floor) to take in the view from three sides. Pretty great. Also on the way out we admired the unusual fountain the building has in its ground floor lobby: the water pours over a large smooth black stone-looking surface, so smooth you have to double take to even realize there’s water there. Hanging above the water is a large sculpture that reminded me of a nucleus with an exploded atom around it, all sparkly and silver. Not sure if that’s what they were going for or just how my brain interprets a circular sculpture, but either way I liked it.

I asked Jack if he wanted to take a Lyft back to the Art Institute (our next stop) but he still opted to walk, and I’m so glad we did. At the base of the John Hancock building we noticed a statue of a red dog, and Jack took my picture next to it to add to our growing Chicago statude/sculpture photo set. Then we realized there were several more such dogs around the plaza, all the same shape and size but colored differently. We took pictures with all of them and continued to do so as we found more and more all the way down Michigan Avenue on our walk. That alone made walking worth it. It reminded me of the late 1990s when I came to Chicago with my family and there were countless cow statues of different design.

Most of the walk was pleasantly overcast, but by the time we crossed the river it was getting sunnier and warmer. We felt a blast of air conditioning from the open door at a Starbucks so we popped in and got frappuccinos (summer specials limited time only – triple mocha and ultra caramel) and then enjoyed that cool treat as we walked past Millennium Park to the Art Institute. We pointed out all the groups of people that looked so similar in build and height and hair and even very similar clothing styles. I guess you end up socializing most with people like you.

We arrived at the Art Institute and, again thanks to City Pass, got to take the shorter queue and nearly walk right in. I say “nearly” because as we were offering our tickets to the attendant we realized they had handed us two tickets for entrance but also two tickets for a free audio tour. We almost didn’t bother but decided to grab the audio equipment in case we changed our minds. I was expecting a Walkman type set up with headphones, but instead the equipment looked like old 1990s remotes. We soon learned that some of the paintings and other art had headphone symbols on their plaques with three digit numbers, and if we put those numbers in the “remote” and put it to our ears (so more like a cordless phone) we could hear recordings explaining what was going on in the artist’s life at the time, who or what the subjects of the paintings were, where the paintings were completed, how they fit in with art movements at the time, and so on. It was fantastic! The info made so much of the art so much more interesting through context.

We originally went to the Art Institute because Jack wanted to wear his “Save Ferris” shirt and get a picture with the painting Cameron stares at in Ferris Bueller: “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” by Georges Seurat. But the audio tour added so much to it that we ended up staying from 1:30pm until they closed at 5pm. If it weren’t for them closing and us having a movie to get to, I could have easily stayed another couple hours. Jack and I both really liked the Impressionism section, hated the Modern section, and found stuff we both liked or didn’t in Contemporary, American post 1900 art, and the Renaissance. We didn’t actually realize the institute closes at 5pm until we asked someone for directions to Chagal’s stained glass windows (also of Ferris Bueller fame) about quarter to 5pm and he helpfully pointed us the right way and said we still had a few minutes. We got our homage photo maybe five minutes before the institute actually closed. Worth it.

When we left we walked by the Route 66 sign (signifying the start of the famous Route) before heading to the movie theater for dinner and a movie! The theater had the pleather reclining seats and tray tables with big cup holders and menus and ketchup bottles next to us. I got a margarita and a surprisingly large pile of nachos. Jack got a beer (maybe?) and chicken and fries and coleslaw. We saw Incredibles 2, which I really enjoyed, not least of all because Bob Odenkirk was one of the main voices, and I really like him. Favorite characters, though, were Jack-Jack and Dash. And seeing Jack-Jack reunite with his mom almost made me tear up a little, which is ridiculous since it was a wholly unsentimental scene. I think I just missed my kiddos, haha.

On the way home we tried to swing by Garrett’s Popcorn to get a bag for Beth, but they had closed maybe 10 minutes prior, alas. So we went back to the hotel and relaxed. More Breaking Bad. Jack ordered another to-go Malnati’s pizza (the third Malnati’s of our trip!) and walked over to pick it up. While he was gone I chatted with Neil for the first time really all week (kind of a long time for us between phone calls) about philosophy and moral secularity. Later Jack and I video chatted with the girls one more time. It was a laid back evening.

8.13.18 - Shedd Aquarium, Adler Planetarium, architecture tour, The Violet Hour

Our original plan for Monday was to see the Shedd Aquarium, get lunch at Al’s Beef, go on the architectural tour, and then go for a late dinner at The Violet Hour. Then we’d go to the Adler Planetarium on Tuesday, our last full day. However Jack said early on he wanted to see the Art Institute, so we had to figure out when that would happen. So we tried to get up and going earlier on Monday (10am instead of 11am) and the plan was to see both the aquarium and planetarium the same day, leaving Tuesday for the Art Institute.

We wanted a cheap and quick breakfast so we stopped by NYC Bagels, which was on the way to the El station anyway. We both got croissants toasted with egg and sausage, and sipped Diet Coke from Jack’s travel mug that he’d prepped at the hotel. We found the right El station (this one underground and strangely warm) and it took less than 10 minutes to get within a couple blocks of Museum Campus. We decided we didn’t even need sunscreen for the 15 minute or so walk to the aquarium because there’s so much skyscraper shade, which is great.

On the walk there we went by the Agora sculptures that the Big Bus Tour guide, Lance, had explained last Friday. We went to check them out and I found them thought-provoking and sad. The rest of the walk we also stopped to see the statue of Columbus and then we did our previous day interview under a pretty stained glass type sculpture near the lake.

I’ve never been to an aquarium before and I was kind of excited about it. We got to go in the City Pass line, almost walking right up to the counter, compared to the longer General Admission line. Love that. A couple behind us moved past us to try to enter the aquarium directly with their City Passes (instead of exchanging the passes for aquarium tickets) and they had to go back to the end of the line. Suckers. When it was our turn the employee explained we could pick a “4D” movie to see for no additional cost. I asked how the movies could be 4D and he said it’s really just 3D movies plus interactive experiences like getting sprayed with water. Ha. We picked a movie about sharks.

As soon as entered the aquarium we checked out a display that showed both the low water and high water version of the Amazon and the different creatures that live in the river depending on the depth. It was amazing. First of all I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were not only fish but also some of the land animals that live in the area at low water, even monkeys. Second the high water part was almost intimidating. We were looking at water that rose a couple feet above our heads and included huge fish as well as stingrays. It was very impressive.

Soon it was time to see our “4D” shark movie. Previously I struggled to stay awake for our free movies at MSI and The Field Museum, but this time was different. First of all it was a pretty interesting movie, including sharks that can “walk” on land and sharks with amazing camouflage which lures fish toward them. Second, it was short, not even 20 minutes. But third and most importantly, it’s easy to stay awake when you keep randomly getting sprayed with water, haha.

After the movie we wandered outside to the stingray petting area. You have to rinse off your hands before going in, and then you’re supposed to hold your hand flat and still just above the surface and let the stingrays come to you. You’re supposed to pet along their spine and not the sides, otherwise they get annoyed and flap around a lot. It took a few minutes but eventually Jack got one. He said it was slimy and kind of scratchy at the same time.

We went back inside and explored the rest of the aquarium. There are countless smaller tanks with the pictures and names of the breeds on the side, which makes them easier to spot. We saw some huge crabs and tiny seahorses and kelp forests. We also saw about half a dozen Beluga whales (in a much bigger tank)! But my favorite section by far was the Wild Reef. It’s an exhibit that shows the creatures that live around the Philippines. It was very colorful—most of the tanks were filled with not only really colorful fish but also really colorful coral and sea urchins. It looked straight out of The Little Mermaid. There was also a tank with a bunch of (smallish) sharks and there were a lot of little kids sitting right up next to it watching the sharks swim back and forth. The kids were so excited. And, like with favorite sections of mine at the zoo a few days earlier, the whole exhibit was pretty dark and cool. We enjoyed it very much.

We finally finished with the aquarium and (after applying more sunscreen) decided to walk along the water to the Adler Planetarium and see if we could find some lunch there. The walk along the water was very beautiful with the Chicago skyline stretching out behind us. There weren’t that many people around either, far less than if we had walked along the street. When we got inside we realized that the price of standard adult admission was much less expensive than it would be for the Art Institute (about $13 vs $30) so we decided to pay cash for the planetarium and use our City Passes for the Art Institute the next day.

That was a good decision. The Planetarium was not as cool as I had expected. We got overpriced lunch at a (granted, very beautiful) café upstairs firs—I think Jack had a Cuban panini and I had a chicken caprese. Like much of the food on our trip, it was delicious, just not great quantities for the cost. Then we went downstairs to check out “A walk through time and space.” On the one hand I was a little disappointed because it was barely interactive at all. It was primarily a long hallway with cool lighting and a long plaque of information to read. On the other hand I still enjoyed it because the information was fascinating. It summarized what we’ve been able to learn or at least theorize about since the Big Bang (but not before that) and that the Big Bang is the name of an idea, not an explosion. I also had no idea how rapidly they believe a lot of the first elements happened. Fractions of seconds between the Big Bang and forming subatomic particles, for example.

We also saw a lot of very old telescopes—mostly older than the instruments we saw at MSI, more around the 1600s—and other instruments used to measure the stars and planets. Again I felt impressed with what people managed to figure out the first time around. Although to be fair we also saw three theories arguing that the universe revolved either around Earth or around a Sun that revolved around Earth. So there’s some trial and error, of course. Ha.

We left the Planetarium in time to get back to our hotel and let Jack grab a quick nap before we moved on to the architectural tour. While he was resting I picked all the best pictures from the day so far (a time-consuming but fun process). Our walk to Navy Pier was kind of quiet, but in a relaxed way. We both were noticing a lot of the toddlers and babies and thinking about our babies. I missed them but I knew I’d see them soon enough and I was overall really enjoying our kid-free time.

I had wanted to get to the architectural cruise really early to ensure we got seats on the side of the boat and not in the middle. But we got there so early that they let us get on the cruise departing before ours (6:45p instead of 7:30p) and it was mostly empty anyway. A few days prior (I think Friday when we were taking the River Walk) I noticed the evening cruises were much more empty than the daytime ones and I hoped that would hold true in our case, and it did! Our guide, William, told us this was the best time to take a cruise because the temperature had just cooled about 10 degrees and the sun was beginning to set, so you can start to see the city light up for the night.

He was a great tour guide and it was a very interesting tour. I know nothing about architecture but William was able to explain and point out the key features of about half a dozen disparate architecture styles along the river alone. My favorite was contextualism, which is apparently where the building is designed to reflect the environment around it. In the case of Trump Tower it has three balconies at the heights of other relevant buildings nearby. There was another contextualism-style building that arced slightly to follow the curve of the river and had a kind of blue-green glass styled to look like rippling water. Frankly it was beautiful, but I doubt I would have noticed any of that were it not for an architecture-specific guide. I was also charmed by a bunch of river-side condos with balconies with potted plants. William said they were going for about $2-3M each which actually sounded crazy low to me, given their location. But I guess I don’t know much about real estate, especially nationally.

When we were sailing (?) back toward the Sears Tower (William made a big deal about how local Chicagoans refuse to call it the Willis Tower), Jack and I were trying to take a selfie with the Sears in the background, quite unsuccessfully. A woman sitting a few rows back from us offered to take our picture, which I thought was sweet. Later when the tour was almost complete we also took a picture of her and her man in front of the whole beautiful skyline.

We got back shortly after sunset. The ride back was extra charming because of the lights coming up in the buildings. Jack suggested we take a walk down Navy Pier just to see what it’s like. I’m glad he did. I wasn’t going to because I figured it would just be really touristy, and it was, but it was still worth it because of the view of the city at night and being able to lean against the pier railings and watch the water with the light reflected on it. Just beautiful. And it was late enough that a lot of Navy Pier was already closed so there weren’t many people around at all. We did stop in a pizza place on the way back because we knew our location for dinner was really more of a bar with appetizers, so we wanted to fill up on something cheaper. We ate the pizza slices while walking back up the pier, and then we stopped at the end for several minutes to watch a bunch of little kids playing delightedly in the interactive fountain. We talked again about our own kiddos, who we hadn’t seen in several days.

The timing there was good, though, because we walked back to the hotel and got to video chat with them before heading out for a fancy but very late “dinner” at The Violet Hour, a tucked away bar suggested to us by Barry, who used to live in Chicago. The El ride there was easy enough but it took us awhile to find the place because it has no windows, no outside signs, nothing, just the address number (1520) painted outside along with a mural of people waiting to get into what looks like an old school speakeasy-type door. When we finally found it we walked in to a short hallway blocked by a very high floor-to-ceiling curtain and a sign that asked us to wait to be seated. An usher of some type told us to wait where we were, frankly a bit rudely. Shortly after he gestured us into the next area, which was still a waiting area of some type with another curtain blocking any view of the actual bar. He asked for our IDs and explained they don’t allow people to talk on their cell phones though texting is fine. I asked if taking photos was okay and he said yes, “I said just talking isn’t allowed.” I thought he was kind of a jerk, really, but he was the only one. Once we got inside everyone was very friendly and easy-going.

All of the two-top tables were taken so initially we were seated at the bar, which was fine, really. There was another couple ahead of us at the bar also waiting for a table and I hoped we would get one eventually but we weren’t in any particular hurry. I ordered a drink called Hotel Nacionel that involved pineapple and rum and other delicious things. I think Jack got a drink called “Gimme All Your Lovin’” heh. We actually weren’t at the bar very long before the hostess asked if we still wanted to move to a table. I guess the couple ahead of us decided to just stay at the bar so we got bumped up. The hostess took us to a table along the back wall. The tables were quite small and the chairs were very high-backed, so even though there were plenty of other people around it felt semi-private. There were zero TVs, of course. They were also playing some pretty enjoyable jazz music at just the right volume that you couldn’t really hear other people’s conversations but you didn’t have to yell to hear each other.

We ordered sliders, bacon-wrapped dates, and fries, along with another drink each. It was more than enough. We talked about past relationships and I don’t remember what else, I just remember enjoying it a lot. As far as I could see, for most of the time we were there every other table was also occupied by a couple. That was kind of nice. When it was done we took the El back to a few blocks from our hotel and walked along quiet late-night streets and back over the river. Like with every night we were there, the temperature was perfect. Didn’t need a coat or anything.

8.12.18 - Zoo, Dak, Evanston, and Second City

The night before we had walked by a donut shop with a line out the door called Firecakes. Jack suggested we try it out for breakfast. We got there relatively early, I guess, for a Sunday (perhaps 9am) but there was already a line out the door again. Fortunately it moved quickly and meanwhile Jack looked up the menu online so we could decide in advance. They had a lot of different eclectic flavors. Jack was hoping to get a maple bacon donut but apparently they only serve those at their other location. My favorite part of the shop was the décor. It was very tiny, with no inside seating. There were a bunch of old school hand mixers on the wall, a high ceiling, and a mirror facing the register. There were a whole lot of unique flavors including chocolate peanut butter, pistachio, and even birthday cake (which involved two large donuts stacked and iced together). Jack and I got three donuts between us plus some milk. We sat outside in the nice weather and ate quickly.

Then we headed to the El. At first we were thrown off because the stairs to the station allowed entrance only to those who already had passes. There was no place to buy passes for the day. Eventually we figured out that we had to go into Merchandise Mart (a high-end mall-type multi story shopping area that wasn’t even open yet) and get our tickets there, but fortunately the ticket booths were right next to another entrance to the station. We did a quick video interview about how the day prior had gone while we waited for the train. Once we boarded it was only a couple stops until our exit, but it’s amazing how much walking even a few El stops are worth.

We exited and walked through a quiet residential area with a whole lot of shade from enormous old trees. I really enjoy the way people do landscaping around the trees with short iron fencing around the landscaping. We held hands a lot as we headed toward the zoo. We did pause to put on sunscreen, still managing to not get sunburnt despite being outside so often.

We entered the zoo from the south western side and one of the first animals we saw was a red-orange Alpaca that completely reminded me of Kuzco from Emporer’s New Groove, haha. We saw a few other African animals before making our way to the monkey house and, after that, the gorilla house. I find both very interesting because primates seem so similar to us. Jack and I talked about what it would be like if someday a more advanced lifeform—or our next leap in evolution—showed up and caged us and talked about the primitive way we use “phones” to communicate (“Look they can use tools!”) instead of talking telepathically like this theoretical more evolved species. I also enjoyed reading about the average day for gorills and for chimpanzees. I didn’t know chimps ate meat, and I didn’t know gorillas moved around so much. The zoo had one cage of gorillas that were apparently a typical pack of a male, a few females, and some younger ones. But the zoo also had another cage that was a “bachelor’s group” of gorillas: 3-4 younger males who had not yet settled their own families. At one point one of them ran across the cage and it is truly intimidating seeing how quickly such a giant animal can move.

After the gorillas, though, we were met with less success. None of the wild cats seemed to be out and I just kind of felt sorry for the penguins and polar bears in such hot weather. We did make it to the seals, who seemed quite happy with the environment and were swimming rapidly all around and coming up to say hi. We saw them from above ground but also walked around to see them swimming under water. The area was dark and cool and there were little kids squealing with delight as the seals kept swimming by. That was pretty sweet.

After the seals we went to the reptile house, which I always enjoy. It’s cool and dark and, most importantly, reminds me of the first Harry Potter book, which makes me feel very nostalgic. I think about when Harry himself didn’t know anything about the wizarding world, and the reptile house was one of the events leading to him discovering it. So magical. We saw snakes and lizards and bats, and it was really nice. After that we were kind of tired and decided to head back to the El. Our timing was perfect because as we left the zoo we saw dozens and dozens of loud, uniformed, college football players who apparently were having a scavenger hunt at the zoo that day. More power to them, but I wasn’t sorry to be gone once they took over everywhere.

The walk back to the El seemed short and sweet, and then we struggled to stay awake for several more stops north to an area that included Korean BBQ at Dak. My friend Barry, who used to live in Chicago, recommended this restaurant so we decided to check it out. Sarah Bloch met us there too! She had gotten in town late the night before for a weeklong conference, but she had time to see us since it was Sunday. We ate a lot of large BBQ chicken wings as well as “stone bowls” filled with rice and veggies and eggs. And just for the heck of it, Jack got a regular Coke because he wanted to drink it out of the classic glass bottle. Traitor.

When we were done the three of us pushed even further North to Evantson. We walked a few blocks past old brick buildings of back-to-back shops (none of which I remembered at all) to my old apartment. It was vaguely as I remembered it and I remembered the street too. It was interesting but not exactly nostalgic, given my history there. Then we walked another mile or so to Dewey, my former elementary school. That too was surreal. I was only in Evanston for a year at age 10 so the memories are all a bit hazy. We walked around to the back to see the playground and I dimly remembered lining up to go inside and out, the wooden bleachers (if you can call it that—only 2-3 steps on them) in the corner of the playground, and running the mile in the nearby field. Again, can’t say it was nostalgic per se but it was interesting to think I used to be a child there.

After that Jack found us an El station closer to where we had ended up, and we all took it all the way back to the Loop. On the way there we talked about TV shows we found the most compelling, and they almost all seemed to be scifi or occasionally fantasy. (For example I chose, the first couple seasons of LOST and all of Battlestar Galactica.) We also talked about whether Stranger Things should count as fantasy or scifi and how to even distinguish the two. Finally it was mine and Jack’s stop (Sarah was only one further) so we said goodbye and headed back to the hotel.

We had enough time for Jack to take a brief nap and for us to quickly chat with the girls before hurrying back to El to get to our comedy show: The Second City. We were running behind and I was a little worried they wouldn’t let us in if we were late, but it was no problem. I’d reserved the best seats in the house (seats raised up a step with a rail and counter in front of them followed by a walkway, so no one was sitting directly in front of us), and so even though we were late we still had a great view. I went ahead and ordered an AMF and Jack got a beer with a souvenir glass (cool) and we settled in for the show. It was basically a collection of brief skits and a lot of it was improve. We definitely laughed a whole lot. After the two planned acts the cast had an encore of pure improve, and it not only made us laugh but made them crack up at each other too, which was awesome to watch.

When the entire show was over, we walked right next door for our reservations at 1959 Kitchen & Grill. I got a drink called the Painkiller which I loved—it involved rum and pineapple like so many of my other drinks for the trip, but that one may have been the tastiest and easiest to nurse. It turned out we went during karaoke night. At first I didn’t like that because the place was so incredibly loud, but once they really got it going it was great because everyone who went up there was way into it. I think my favorite performance was likely this lone guy singing “Sweet Transvestite” and walking around the entire restaurant singing directly to different people, most of whom got a big kick out of that. We still didn’t stay terribly late because we were wiped, but it was fun while it lasted. We took the El back home (I managed to stay awake so we wouldn’t miss our station. Jack dozed off for a bit.) Then we got back to the hotel and crashed.

8.11.18 - Museum of Science & Industry

I don’t think we stopped anywhere for breakfast because we knew we’d get lunch first thing before going to the Museum. I may have had some of our Jewel Osco raisin bread with pineapple cream cheese to hold me over. I can’t remember. Or perhaps we finished the Malnati’s leftover from the night before. Or both. I still brought my purse but Jack brought one of the free drawstring bags we got from the Big Bus tour, and he carried my water bottle which made quite a difference.

We walked to Millennium Park but couldn’t find the El station I thought was supposed to be there. Instead it was a couple blocks away. It took us a minute to figure out how to buy tickets and then which line we needed to take, but we got it and then waited on the platform as different trains went by. It was really enjoyable riding the El down toward MSI. The entire route was elevated and we got to watch the city go by. I particularly like some of the residential areas with little gardens on their balconies. Looks cozy.

After a while I could see a few blocks from the train tracks what looked like a large parade or festival, and it seemed to go on for blocks. We weren’t sure what it was, but when we finally got to our station it dropped us right in the middle of it. Furthermore I thought our station was going to be a 7 minute walk from the Museum. Turns out it was a 39 minute walk. I had looked at Google Maps incorrectly and mistook the Metra route for the El route. I was pretty irritated about that, but was soon distracted from my irritation by the fact that Jack and I found ourselves walking through this massive and exclusively black festival. There were a lot of men dressed in purple robes that were from some kind of church. There were a lot of people with bullhorns or microphones, including one talking about how the white man thinks he is god. There were food carts and live music. It was impressive and surreal. No one seemed to take notice of us even though we were blindingly pale compared to everyone else there. I actually felt slightly bad for being there because I know what it’s like to want to have your own space to talk about a given issue in a solidarity way rather than a debate way. But it didn’t seem to be a big deal.

We walked a few blocks (I think, it’s really a huge park so it’s hard to measure) and found the end of the parade/festival, and moved on to walk through the University of Chicago. We talked about race relations and also how we were glad to not be in school anymore. Even though I hadn’t wanted to have to walk that far it was a nice walk through peaceful neighborhoods that reminded both of us a little bit of Berkeley. We also walked under a Metra station (a different train line) and realized that was the line I had mistakenly thought we were taking when we were really taking the El. Oh well.

Shortly after that we found Snail Thai cuisine, a hole-in-the-wall type place that got good ratings on Yelp and was near the museum. It was very pleasant. We sat by a window that had a stained glass panel in it. The restaurant was quiet and peaceful and the food was good and there was a lot of it. I got some kind of pineapple shrimp curry and Jack got pad see ew but with chicken. Oh and crab Rangoon, of course. It was more than our fill.

We walked it off by heading back to the Museum of Science & Industry (MSI), which is massive. It was a little confusing to get in—you had to go down two floors underground, get tickets, and then go back up to the main entrance. It was also confusing because sometimes they have separate lines for City Pass holders but today they did not. It was one of the few lines of the entire trip that we had to wait in, but we weren’t in a hurry. When it was our turn the lady explained our City Pass included one free 3D movie and a free ride on one of the flight simulators. We both excitedly exclaimed “ohhhh!” when she said that and it made her laugh.

Entering the museum is pretty impressive. There is a huge dome with lights that change colors, and it opens into four or five different sections of the museum. From the center of the domed area you can see trains, airplanes, a tornado of some type, and entrances to exhibits about genetics and energy and coal mining and all sorts of things. We went to the train section first and painted across the ceiling were the names of dozens of famous scientists. I recognized maybe half of them. It was pretty cool.

We went upstairs and checked out the timeline of aircraft innovation before going on the flight simulator, which took us up into space and through a tornado. (There was no line and we got to ride the simulator just the two of us, which was nice.) We walked through the Doomsday Clock section, which was primarily a historical record of the scientists who thought of and created the atom bomb and their subsequent pleas with the government not to use it. I didn’t know Einstein had been involved in suggesting it, nor did I know that most of the scientists working on it did so largely because they feared another country would develop it first, but once Germany and Italy surrendered they didn’t want to mess with it anymore. Weirdly the Doomsday Clock section was supposed to also be about climate change but I wasn’t clear on how that was related and frankly not that interested in finding out. Overall it was a very interesting exhibit though.

Next we went to the “You!” exhibit, which was about the different body systems and had cut outs of actual cadavers donated to the museum decades ago. That always weirds me out a bit. There was also a section on prenatal development. It was in a darkened room with just the embryos and fetuses backlit along a curved wall that showed their growth. I originally thought they were just models and realized later that they were actual embryos and fetuses donated also a long time ago. Even before I knew that, though, I found myself getting depressed and angry going through the exhibit, because the humanity of these tiny humans is so blatantly obvious when you’re staring right at them, yet I’m drawn into a neverending willfully ignorant debate on the topic by people who would believe otherwise. I tried not to get to wrapped up about it but it was still upsetting.

We moved on from there to the science storms section, or at least the top half of it. There were places to cause ripples in water and observe refraction. There were display cases of very old instruments for measuring electricity and curvature of the earth and other natural factors that it’s amazing people back then figured out. There was an interactive display to figure out what fuel sources and ignition would work to power a car versus a rocket. Lots of good stuff, but soon we had to move on because our free movie (underwater adventure) was going to start soon and we wanted to get ice cream before that.

We stopped by Finnigan’s ice cream parlor which is in a section of the museum designed to look like an old timey town. We wolfed a turtle sundae (delicious) with just enough time to get to the movie theater. We walked pretty quickly to several other sections to find the theater, which was kind of tucked out of the way. It was a dome theater and we got pretty good seats about halfway up. We learned about a fish who would smash shells against a particular piece of coral to get them to break open so he could eat whatever was inside. In other words it was a fish using a tool. That was pretty cool. I got a bit sleepy in the middle and missed a lot of it (even though it was only about 20 minutes) but Jack seemed to enjoy it.

When we exited the theater we were in the middle of the space section, so we checked out the actual remains of one of the Apollo missions as well as info on how they originally landed on the moon and then made it back to their ship and lots of info on how they developed rockets to ultimately allow humans in space. It was all interesting and combined with the telescopes and other old instruments was inspiring and sort of humbling, just thinking about how many intelligent, curious, and motivated people have gone before us.

Leaving the space section we came across the U-boat exhibit, which may have been the most interesting one to me. It has all this info about how U-boats were wreaking havoc on Allied cargo ships and the different methods the Allies developed to try to stop them. At one point I was thinking that WWII seems like such an intense and fantastical time that we hear about so much even today it’s hard to believe it’s a historical event and not a legend or folklore. The world sounds so different than then now.

Finally, after all that, we made it back to the train section so we could see the model trains going around a miniature Chicago. It was well done, and even had lighting change to mimic night time. Reminded me of Grandpa; I bet he would’ve liked it a lot.

We went back to Science Storms and checked out the homemade tornado, some interactive exhibits for creating tidal waves and avalanches, and a massively huge pendulum that took forever to knock over one of the pegs circling it—but when it finally happened everyone cheered, haha. By the time we finished all that we were getting pretty tired. We very quickly skimmed through the Circus, Eye Spy, and Fairy Tale castle sections and then decided to head out.

We didn’t want to walk 39 minutes back to the El so we took the Metra downtown instead. We sat on the upper level of one of the cars and watched the city out the tinted windows. Reminded me a little of Source Code. We deboarded at the last station on the line, but somehow we took a wrong turn and ended up in a parking garage or loading dock area or something that was underneath the main roads and sidewalks. We couldn’t see how to get to street level. We found a stairway that seemed to go into a shopping center, so we took it up, but the whole place was closed and eerily quiet. When we got to ground level we could see people walking by outside but there was not a soul in the building and the revolving door was locked. So we opened the door to its side—and an alarm went off! We hadn’t seen any warnings for an alarmed door. We just high tailed it out of there and crossed the street back to Millennium Park, but what a strange little adventure. I think the door from the underground loading dock to the shopping center was supposed to be locked and someone forgot, I don’t know.

Anyway we meandered back over to The Bean and got some more Chicago-style hot dogs (no ketchup!!) for dinner. We leaned against a rail and people-watched. There was a woman there who kept reprimanding people to not sit on the railing (which had about a one story drop on its opposite side). She sounded very official and everyone acquiesced to her, but Jack and I thought it was strange because she didn’t look like any kind of city official. She was dressed like everyone else. She looked like a random citizen or tourist.

In any case we finished our hot dogs and walked back to the hotel. Even though it was only 8pm or so we were both pretty tired, so we ordered junk food from the hotel restaurant (Bill’s) including a chocolate shake and cheesy fries and a burger, and then we ate that and our grocery snacks (mostly pistachios, also some cheap wine) and watched Breaking Bad. I also edited and uploaded pictures. Vacations are great for trying new things but also great for just being lazy and resting whenever we feel like it, and I quite enjoyed it. And of course we talked with the girls, our little loves.

8.10.18 - Big Bus Tour and Sears Tower

We slept in, which worked out just fine because it turns out The Purple Pig, where I’d marked us to have breakfast, didn’t even open until 11:30am. We walked over there and arrived at about 11:40am. We were sat immediately and not 15 minutes after we’d been there every single table was full and there was a wait. So I guess our timing was perfect.

The food was excellent. It might have been the best food we had the entire trip. I got eggplant caponata (grilled bread with goat cheese and a chopped eggplant spread) and Jack got the daily special (not on menu) that involved arugula and some kind of bass that he said at least four times was so flaky, haha. But the style was more tapas so we shared each other’s food and went ahead and ordered a third plate: English muffin with foie gras butter, fried egg, and truffle sausage. It was all excellent. I also got a cocktail called Cool Rumings (“Appleton Estate Signature Blend, Braulio, Cruzan Blackstrap, Lime) and Jack got Oathkeeper (“St. George Terroir Gin, Lillet Rose, Pamplemousse, Montanaro Extra Dry Vermouth”). They both came with single giant ice cubes and we talked about how smart that is because they keep the drinks cool but take longer to melt.

We sat outside on the open air patio and it was pretty nice out. Eventually an older couple sat at the table next to ours and they were kind enough to take our picture together. Our drinks were strong enough that we decided to get only one each, and we were way too full for dessert, so we headed out shortly after. It’s worked out really well that we’ve been doing so much walking because it helps settle the amazing amount of food and drink we’ve been having.

We walked down Michigan Avenue toward the river but first we dropped into a Walgreens (at the bottom of the Wrigley Building – fanciest Walgreens ever) and picked up some caramel m&m’s, a diet cherry coke for me and a Starbucks double shot for him. But most importantly we picked up a portable battery charger, which allowed me to keep using my phone (especially to take pictures) throughout the entire rest of the trip despite it’s terrible battery life. Then we crossed the river and boarded one of the double decker buses for our big bus tour. It’s the first stop of the tour so there were plenty of open seats. They weren’t leaving for a bit so we had time to put on sunscreen and take a few pictures.

It was a “hop on, hop off” tour meaning we could get on any Big Bus at any of their stops all day. So we “hopped off” at stop #3: the Sears Tower. (It’s actually called the Willis Tower now but we’ve bene told native Chicagoans refuse to call it anything other than the Sears Tower, which was its name for so long.) We walked in to find two lines: General Admission and City Pass/Fast Pass. God bless City Pass. We skipped the first section of General Admission, stopped to get our virtual picture taken, and then followed the family in front of us to the next section. City Pass meant we had these cool Sears Tower-shaped stamps on our hands. The family in front of us did not. A Sears Tower employee told them they needed to go to general admission and the dad responded “But we have the Fast Pass.” The employee said “That is just for skipping the ticketing line, not the entire line.” After the family moved on we showed the employee our stamps and she let us take the other hallway—a completely empty hallway other than Jack and me—toward the elevators. Jack looked at me, grinning, and said “I feel so VIP!” Haha. We walked down the hallway past a huge winding line of people. I didn’t even want to look them in the eye because I almost felt guilty for how much easier it was for us than them. Their line was estimated to be a two hour wait, and we waited less than 10 minutes to get on one of the gigantic elevators to the Skydeck. It was a fantastic feeling.

The elevator fit perhaps 15-20 people not sure. They told everyone to face forward, though I’m still not sure why. The ride up was pretty cool. There was a TV screen that showed different famous landmarks as the elevator passed their heights. It was interesting to think about how high we were going and how quickly we were getting there. Jack said he had to pop his ears eight times.

When the doors opened for a moment we thought we were about to stand in another huge line, but it turned out that was the queue waiting to take the elevators back down. There was no huge line to go stare out the windows at the distant ground. Jack and I took a few pictures, including trying to imitate the part in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off when the three of them lean over the rail and rest their heads on the glass. There aren’t the same kind of rails there anymore so it wasn’t exactly the same pose, but it was a nice homage.

There are four skydecks—two sets of two—and there was a fairly long line to get on to the first two. I actually wasn’t sure I even cared enough to wait in line since the view wouldn’t be that different than the one we just saw for no line. Jack wanted to do it though and we weren’t in any hurry. Then we realized the line for the second two skydecks was considerably shorter, so we waited there. It was probably less than 10 minutes before it was our turn to step onto the see through flooring. I was surprised by how nervous I felt, actually. I know it’s perfectly safe, but when I looked down it was dizzying (and I don’t have a problem with heights) and I had to try not to look down again in order to be able to stand out there and I instinctively wanted to stay near the doorway. Amazing how instinct takes over. In any case we got some great pics (they have staff there to take pics of everyone with their own cameras) and then we headed back. The exit had us wind through not one but two gift shops, but it wasn’t too bad. They even had some Ferris Bueller themed shirts! Overpriced, of course, but a nice idea. Later, after the entire trip, Jack looked back on the Sears Tower as possibly his favorite single event that we did.

We went back to wait for another Big Bus. We had originally worried there would be no rooftop seats or there would be a line of people waiting to get them since there had been a line waiting to board the bus we hopped off to go to Sears Tower. However in this case we were the first people in a short line when the bus arrived and we got seats together on the roof with no trouble.

Our new tour guide, Lance, was pretty funny. He used his mic not only to give tour information but to talk to passersby and other cars, for example telling a car to get out of the bus’s way in an intersection, haha. At one point our bus was passing one of the competitor’s buses, and Lance told us all he’d say some joke and we should all laugh loudly. At the right moment he announced he was giving us all cash at the end of the tour and everyone cheered. I don’t remember how the competitor tour guide responded but I’m pretty sure it was something along the lines of smiling and shaking her head.

The tour itself was also pretty interesting, with all sorts of background information on the city. I was particularly moved by the guide’s description of the Agora sculpture on Museum Campus, which was transported there by donations including a large sum from Robin Williams, and which was created by a Polish artist and then moved to Chicago, which apparently has one of the largest Polish populations of cities around the world. The guide said the statues were supposed to represent how the artist viewed adults when she lived in Poland during WWII: armless and headless, uncaring and uncomforting and frightening. It was a sobering description that made the sculpture much more interesting than I’m sure it otherwise would have been.

Anyway the bus took us past the strange Parthenon/spaceship duality of the nearby stadium, past the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, and Adlper Planetarium (complete with a statue of Copernicus), back through Grant Park, down Navy Pier, through Streeterville (apparently named after basically a crook), by the water tower and pumping station, the John Hancock building, the Magnificent Mile, and ultimately back around to the riverfront where we had picked it up that morning.

We disembarked and walked back over the river and to the hotel to take a break before dinner. It was kind of a crowded walk, being Friday already. When we got back to the hotel I was already feeling pretty tired, not sure why. Maybe just a lot of sun and not enough sleep the night before. Jack tried to call the place we were going for dinner (Au Cheval) to see what the wait looked like, but no one picked up. We decided to splurge and take a Lyft there instead of walking. We got to Au Cheval a bit after 5 pm, so even though it was Friday it was early enough I was hoping the wait wouldn’t be too terrible. However when we got there the restaurant was packed. So I expected a long wait just as there had been the day before for Wildberry and later Malnati’s. If Au Cheval had the same process as the others, they would take our cell phone and text us when it was our turn, so we’d be free to wander for a while and come back to eat. Unfortunately, when we got to the restaurant it was not only packed but the hostess apologetically told us a table for two was a five hour wait. Of course we weren’t going to stay for that.

I didn’t want to burn more of our budget on a Lyft back, so we decided to walk. We doubted there was anywhere in the area that would have walk in seats on a Friday night, so Jack suggested we order Malnati’s pizza for pick up and by the time we walked there it should be almost ready. So we did. In fact we even had a coupon for free bruschetta from our Big Bus Tour (the tour guide came with several local coupons). We took the River Walk back, and it was pretty lovely. We walked past some live music and some kind of ice cream social thing. Even though it was nice I was feeling increasingly exhausted. It was pretty crowded to on a beautiful Friday evening by the river.

By the time we were near Malnati’s we still had a few minutes before the pizza was supposed to be ready, so we stopped into Starbucks to get some caffeine (iced mochas). The Starbucks was so peaceful; there were only a couple customers there and there was zero music playing. Given how tired I was it felt just right. We asked the baristas if it would be okay for us to go pick up our pizza and bring it back and eat it there, and they said that was fine. So we did. It was actually perfect. The Starbucks was right on the corner of a busy intersection and we got to watch lots of people all dressed up going to different clubs and bars. It was fun to watch them but I was also glad it wasn’t me. All I really wanted to do was finish eating, saunter back to the hotel, and watch Netflix and relax.

When we did walk back it was a little bit after sunset and Trump tower looked so pretty glittery blue in the dusk light. It’s a very pretty area of a very pretty city.

Once we got back to the hotel it wasn’t even 9pm yet, so not even 7pm in California. We were able to video chat with the girls for quite a while and sing “Down by the bay” to Clara’s delight. It’s wonderful to be able to see them each day despite being so far away.

8.8.18 - Arriving in Chicago

We got up around 6:15 am and left our apartment at about 7 am. Don took us to the airport. We got to use the self-check in and self-bag tag processes for the first time, which Jack was excited about. It's definitely more efficient. We took the excalator (not the elevator) up to the trains and hopped over to security. The line wasn't too long. We actually ended up behind a woman with a really little baby--she had to have been only a couple weeks old--plus two young boys. We asked her if she needed any help and she thanked us but said she had it. Even so I both sympathized with her and felt all the happier that Jack and I were traveling without kids, haha.

As we were going through security Jack's backpack got pulled aside so I went up to claim it. The TSA agent pulled out our bag of beef jerky and said "Oh. Are you traveling out of state?" Me: "Yeah." TSA: "With this kind of food you actually need to fill out a form to take it out of state." Me: "Are you serious?" TSA: [laughing] "No! Just messing with you!" I laughed but he could've easily convinced me it was true. You never know what incredibly stupid rule California will come up with.

Anyway we got to our gate and enjoyed some of the turkey rolls we'd brought and some Reese's. At first I just scrolled FB on my phone but eventually I got out my laptop and continued working on my presentation for the PL conference in September. I continued to work on it during our brief flight to Las Vegas, while we waited in Las Vegas airport, and again on the much longer flight to Chicago. Being able to work on something I'm interested in without interruption is so deeply satisfying. The presentation has a long way to go but I definitely made progress. And while in flight I was able to listen to a lot of my Spotify music that I've downloaded locally. That's a great app. Meanwhile Jack watched Ant Man on his laptop and I could see him laughing to himself throughout the movie, haha.

We landed at Midway and took a Lyft into the city. At this point I was pretty sleepy from sitting still for so long in so many places, but I still was awake enough to see the skyline appear in the distance and later see everyone biking and running down Lake Shore Drive. We saw the Field Museum, the aquarium, the planetarium, etc. (I learned later that cluster of cultural icons is called the "Museum Campus.")

We checked in to the hotel and relaxed for a bit, then walked about 10 minutes to Portillo's hot dogs, which several local people had recommended. I got a chocolate malt milkshake and a jumbo hot dog with everything. Jack got some kind of IPA in a goblet, basically, and a polish dog also with everything. We couldn't actually tell the difference between our hot dogs but they were both delicious. We sat upstairs by the windows where we could see the city and cars driving by. Easy first dinner.

Then we walked around a bit and stopped by Jewel-Osco, a grocery store I vaguely remember from when my family briefly lived in the Chicago area. We picked up snacks to keep at the hotel, plus a bottle of cheap wine, then moseyed on back. After dropping off the food we explored the hotel a bit and found the rooftop terrace--it took awhile because we thought it would be on the top floor of the hotel (about 15 stories or so) but it's actually on level 6, just outside the pool area. The weather was beautiful - summer nights are pretty nice here, warm enough you don't need a jacket but cool enough you're comfortable. We leaned against the terrace railing and stared at the night-time city skyline (a view I have always loved, though traditionally of San Francisco, not Chicago) and talked about what it was like when we were kids and where we think we'll live eventually, what we like about birthdays, other random things. It was one of the best parts of the day.

We went back to our room and video chatted with our adorable daughters and Mimi and GPa just before the girls were going to bed. Clara very proudly told us 3-4 times "pooped in the potty! Ice cream!!" which was great. Jane was so happy to see us she kept shoving her fingers in her mouth, haha. Man I love those kids.

Then we just relaxed in the hotel and ate snacks and watched Netflix on the big screen (an awesome option, it's the future). Finally finished the Scooby Doo episode of Supernatural, haha. Then passed out.