Writing 101 days 14 and 15 and Chicago

We are having a great time! Enjoying the sights of Chicago whilst Michael is at his conference. Did I mention that Simon and I went to the Shedd aquarium whilst Emma and Lara did the architectural boat tour, they loved it. The aquarium was so interesting and informative but I feel uneasy about having dolphins and particularly Beluga whales, such clever sensitive animals in a small space. Ribs at Carson’s followed, delicious as ever. Back to our hotel where Michael and I danced to the band in the Palm Court for a while, we enjoyed ourselves, whilst the Tango dancers took themselves very seriously and the Swing dancers swapped partners for each dance! Great dancing and great people watching!
Saturday started with a long walk to the beach and beyond, to the zoo. Is Chicago the only city with a free zoo? What a wonderful thing! So busy by 10am! We watched the gorillas for along time, fascinating but again a little uneasy about them being in such a confined space, but maybe they are safer there than in their natural habit. The jaguar was gorgeous, as was the lioness licking a bone clean, with her barbed tongue, which we read about!
We set off for Eataly, a fabulous shop/restaurant/providore, buying our picnic for the music festival at Ravinia. Onto the train, found our spot, got settled cracked open the prosecco and then the storm warning came. We got organised with bin bags for raincoats, but we had NO IDEA! From one moment to the next, the wether changed completely. Howling winds, huge raindrops, trees leaning, lightening flashing and thunder roaring. It was a reminder of the force of nature! We huddled under a tarpaulin but got soaked from the bottom up as the rain turned the ground to med and flooding! I have rarely been so wet! Sensible Simon sheltered I a building and was dry, unlike the rest of us! Eventually the rain subsided a little, we retreated, defeated! Back to our hotel with our soggy picnic!
Getting on the plane now, continued tomorrow!

Chicago – more fun!

We started our day in the gym again, Simon having first taken himself to Starbucks in the hotel foyer to get a hot chocolate to wait until it was time to wake us up! He had woken Vicky far too early, in her opinion, the previous morning with his iPad flashing and fingers bashing the screen all too loudly! After the gym, Beach Burritos were called for to sustain us through the day – delicious freshly made burritos, tacos, nachos or quesadillas in, of course, American-sized portions! We walked to Navy Pier, looked out on the frozen lake and went straight inside to the Winter Wonderland where Simon was keen to go into the snowcone and cover us with snow! That was the highlight of his weekend! Winter wonderland was amazing, an entire hangar-like space filled with amusement rides, huge bouncy castles, an ice rink, dodgems cars, food stalls and a bar, together with a massive Christmas tree and scenes depicting the traditions and Father Christmas in many different countries.
Missing the trolley bus by a moment we walked back from Navy Pier, via the shops!
“Not another pair of boots Mum!” is a constant refrain from Simon now! (Sorry Michael!)
The Lego shop was amazing with the main window filled with the Chicago skyline made of lego – extraordinary! We headed off to view the skyline from the cocktail bar of the John Hancock building but it was after 7 o’clock and Simon wasn’t allowed up there! Even if he wasn’t drinking he still had to be 21 after 7 o’clock so we had to abandon that idea! So , cocktail-less, we leapt into a taxi to Vicky’s favourite Chicago pizza restaurant, Rinaldo’s – disaster, it was closed for renovations! The end of the world, according to Vicky! Onto the second best, Uno, a different style of pizza, deep pan. I have to admit I am a pizza purist and prefer the Italian think crusty pizza, sparse with topping so a deep pan pizza wasn’t ever going to be my favourite but you have to try everything once (at least!). It was tasty and interesting but so very rich and I had ordered, on Vicky’s suggestion, the smallest possible pizza, about the size of a side plate but still could only manage about half of it! Back to the hotel for a night cap and to try to squeeze all our shopping into our suitcases which was quite a challenge!
An early start to a long day – it took from 8.30 am until 5pm to get back to our cosy apartment – which is a long journey, considering the flight is only an hour! Still, so worth it for all the fun!
And today, Simon is back to Arrowsmith, with Mr Coppins/Matt back from his adventure with a beard! And the walking group braved the -21 temperature to walk in the beautiful Jackson Park again. We saw a couple of people out on the cross country skis – that is how much snow there was over the weekend, whilst we were in Chicago!

Chicago – such fun!

We left a cold and snowy Peterborough heading fro Chicago on Friday afternoon and finally arrived in our Downtown hotel late in the evening – no matter, in usual Vicky style there were snacks, drinks and lots of chatting until far too late! So, a later than usual start on Saturday and a visit to the gym to work off the excess red wine from the night before, not for Simon, but we made him come along anyway! Out into a cold foggy Chicago day, with flurries of snow as we set off to Vicky’s favourite rib place, Carson’s, for lunch – we had a great lunch of ribs and not even Simon could put us off with his description of them as “human ribs” – a joke from his TAFE Hospitality course! Then onto the Chicago equivalent of the Battersea Dogs (and cats) home – Vicky found several cats and even one dog she would have loved to adopt and take home! I couldn’t get over the number of cats and dogs who were there – so sad that they have been abandoned. There were plenty of enthusiastic volunteers with lots of visitors, as well as a few signs saying some of the animals had been adopted or were awaiting adoption which was cheering. This was followed by a trip to the Cheesecake factory where the queue was so long we had to get takeaway! I thought it was delicious but Vicky didn’t think it compared to the Carnegie Deli in New York and thank goodness the piece wasn’t as big! We stepped out into Michigan Avenue which was beautiful with the trees lining the avenue covered in sparkling white lights – it was so very Christmassy! We finished our day by going to see “Elf – the Musical” based on the film of the same name, I thought it was most apt for Christmas. It was very funny and the actor who played Buddy the Elf was brilliant! Back to the hotel for a relatively early night! And the rest to follow tomorrow as Simon has gone to bed and I am keeping him awake!