So after 3 days in Chicago...
Posted by
CovingtonCat
Dec 15 '12, 19:38
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Day 1:
Lunch at Dell Rhea's Chicken Basket (a DDD joint) on an old stretch of Route 66. They have a buffet for lunch. They were pretty busy but we got a table right away. The food was good. Thursdays the buffet has 2 kinds of wings - buffalo and a special bbq. I like the bbq. Picked up a mug with their logo and the Route 66 logo (now I have 2 mugs from Route 66).
Next was the Brookfield Zoo. Groiny had suggested this the last time I was in town but I didn't have the time. Thursdays it's free (but $10 for parking). The weather was pretty good for December - 50 degrees and sunny. There were few people there - and fewer animals it seemed. Some were inside, the elephants were elsewhere while their enclosure was being redone. We only checked out part of the zoo - the primate enclosure (the gorillas looked very sad - they really need more space and something other than concrete to sit on), the Mexican wolves (watched one bury a bird it had caught), the bears (again, sad polar bears, but sleeping grizzlies), the bison need more room to run in, the wombat lying on its back was cute, and there were lots of geese everywhere, as well as squirrels (good thing Dug, er, JenBro wasn't with us. There were a few other animal we saw (the rhinos looked to be bored to death in the small interior enclosures). The zoo was decked out for Christmas and when we left it was just dark enough for the LED lights to stand out. I can see why groiny takes his kids here. There's lots of open space for them to run and play, and several attractions just for kids.
Checked into the hotel then went for dinner at the Pita House in Schaumburg. This is a place we found by luck the last trip. Great middle easter food - the best falafel anywhere I've had.
Day 2:
Waited for JenBro to arrive. Got a bit worried when she hadn't arrived 5 hours after posting "on the road again". Apparently that was just her singing in the shower.
We had lunch at Tufano's (Italian, another DDD joint, although I wouldn't classify any place that has valet parking as either a diner, drive-in or a dive). Dolly Parton has eaten there, as well as Jack Nicholson, and a mess of local sports people. The food was good, the place was popular, and JenBro had her first drink with a meal in Chicago.
Next we headed for the Loop. First stop there was the Chicago Architectural Foundation book store. They have a cool model of the city I want to show Jen. She had also expressed a desire to see the Bean so that was our next stop. When she saw it from the street she said she didn't want to climb the stairs to get to it (either too much lunch or she shouldn't have had that glass of wine, or both) but I made her go. "You wanted to see it, you're going to see it up close." Once we got there she was, "Ooh, let me take a picture." It really is a cool thing to see, especially the Michigan Ave side where you can get the panoramic reflections of the buildings.
Then we walked up Washington St. to the Christkindlmarket. This is a German thing where people set up booths to sell ornaments, Christmas candies, and other gift items, plus food and gluwein (mulled wine). Jen had called liioulu earlier to see if she wanted to join us. Jen told her what she was wearing and asked if there was a good place to meet. Jen told me "Sugar House". We found the Sweet Castle but no Sugar House (I walked around and through the crowd looking for it). Not knowing who we were looking for, Jen started calling out "liioulu's name" every minute or so for about 20 minutes. Eventually, we heard "Jen" in reply. After introductions all around we went into the Sweet Castle (which was what liioulu had actually told Jen). I found some German cookies that my grandmother used to send over when I was a kid. Also, a tin similar to what she would send them in, but smaller. We wandered around the plaza, checking out the booths, then I went into one indoor stall that was selling German ornaments and got a few, including one that was similar to one we had when I was a kid but I hadn't seen anywhere since.
The plan was to head over to the Magnificent Mile for shopping and dinner but Jen was a bit overloaded with downtown, I think, so we headed back to the parking garage and to our alternate dinner spot. On the way to the garage, liioulu took us into Macy's to see the Tiffany dome and then to the old library to see a Tiffany reading room, both were all done in mosaic. Very beautiful.
We headed up to Lincoln Square to the Chicago Brauhaus for dinner. This will be on an upcoming DDD. The hostess was quite brusque, "Do you have a reservation? No? Well, you can sit over here in the back or over there in the back." We took the less crowded spot and had a great view of nearly the entire restaurant. The menu had lots of great German items. Jen had a sausage sampler, liioulu had duck, my friend had an open-faced reuben, I had rouladen with knodel. We all loved what we ordered. Jen was especially pleased with the bread the weissbier on tap. I agreed about the bread, the beer was OK to me, there was something different about it I couldn't identify. Shortly before we were ready to leave the chef came out and stopped by to see how things were. We, of course, told him it was great. After, we wandered up and down the street and went into several shops. This would be a great place to live if you didn't mind the winters and having no place to park. We dropped liioulu off at a train station and headed back to the hotel.
Day 3:
Groiny came and picked Jen and me up and took us for breakfast at Le Peep. Great eggs benedict and conversation. Fair warning: Jen now knows more about some of than you might want her to know. I don't know if you can blame groiny. Jen did ask a lot of questions. Oh, and there was a bloody mary with the eggs.
After groiny took us back to the hotel we picked up my friend and headed out. Originally we were going to an indoor flea market but the night before had passed an exit to the River Casino, which I believe is fairly new. We all know how much Jen loves her slots so we went there. (I admit I also like to play slots.) After dropping $40 in a short time I can safely say this is not a good place to win at slots. It's a small casino with very few penny slots and most machines we say had very high minimums. 30 was the lowest. You couldn't even play a 2 cent machine without playing 60 or 80 cents at a time. None of us came out winners. But we each got a free t-shirt for signing up for a players card!
Because breakfast was so big and we were later getting back to the hotel we decided to skip lunch. We'll have to do Hot Doug's another time.
We had tickets for We Three Lizas at the Steppenwolf Garage. Jen bought the first round of drinks. I forget what hers was called - something with "Liza" in the name but she practically guzzled it down. I had something called a Snowpopcalypse - vodka, kahlua & peppermint schnapps. I don't drink much so that was a pretty strong drink for me. After we got our table (this was a cabaret-style show with a lot of the action taking place off the stage in the middle of the floor) Jen got another drink, then 1 more for good measure. It must have been the champagne topper that made it taste so good. She handled it well, though. No getting up and trying to take part in the show. I enjoyed the show a lot. Lots of laughter, great original songs, good choreography and a couple of great drags, including one by the writer and lyricist who played Liza "today". The woman who played Liza "past" was terrific.
Last stop of the day was The Red Apple, a perennial favorite of mine. No trip to or through Chicago is complete without a stop here. Jen loves Polish food as much as I and my friend (there are a couple of Polish restaurants near Petoskey that we went to last year with Jen - both very good). Jen was amazed at the spread. She walked up and down the buffet, laying out her method of attack. We knew she liked the food by all the "mmmmm"s.
Then back to the hotel.
Jen will be heading back to Michigan in the morning. Even though she was only here a short time I'm sure she enjoyed herself and after a few more visits will get over the Dug-isms (ooh, so many tall buildings; ooh, an Apple store; ooh, the lights). (Jen know I kid but pixie comparing her to Dug was spot-on.)
Tomorrow, my friend and I will try for the flea market, maybe Hot Doug's or some other iconic Chicago hot dog place - or maybe Italian Beef which we haven't had yet). My friend wants to check out Union Station. I want to see Chinatown. We may also stop at Lincoln Park for the zoo and conservatory, depending on the weather. We may also make it to Boystown, just because.
Jen is going to have to plan a longer stay next time because there so much to see here. Plus, there are more STers to meet. I enjoyed meeting both liioulu and groiny. Hopefully, I'll meet others, as well, on a future trip.
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