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.
