Welcome to Chicago.
The 2009 Chicago Meet
Let me just open this commentary by saying that the Chicago meet was a huge success! Good company, good venues, good food, great sites, and the Navy Pier pretty much summarizes the great time all of us enjoyed.
Friday: Our first meet was at the South Water Kitchen restaurant for lunch at 11:45AM. Izzie and S-boy from the UK; JPB, joefromchicago, Wandel, Jaye, and a young couple made up the Chicagoans; and your's truly from California made up the luncheon group. We had a leisurly lunch, and decided to visit Millinium Park for a walking tour before our 3PM architectural cruise. Wandel walked with us to the park, and joefromchicago returned to work. This was my second architectural cruise, but with most things we do more than once, we usually learn new things and see more the second time around.
South Water Kitchen restaurant.
Lunch.
The bean.
Izzie and S-boy.
Reflection pool.
Some of the sites on Michigan Avenue.
For dinner, joefromchicago and I met on the L platform at the Chicago mart station to head northward to the Chinese restaurant. After dinner, we went to see a musical-comedy called “sodomite!~” It's somewhat of a cousin to Second City where many of the comedy greats of Saturday Night Live got their beginning. The show was sacriligious, uncouth, resque, but funny!
Saturday: Our plan for today was to meet at the Art Institute at 1PM. Since I missed going to Chinatown on my last visit, I took the L to Chinatown, and spent a couple of hours walking around several of the streets in the area. About five decades ago when I lived in Chicago, our Asian group (most were students at the University of Illiinois) used to have dances at the Chinese Community Center, but I didn't recognize anything from the “old” days.
Chicago's Chinatown.
I took the Red line back to the Loop, then walked around Michigan Avenue, had lunch, then walked towards to Art Institute for our meeting at 1PM. I went in as a guest of joefromchicago, and I believe Izzie and S-boy went in as guests of JPB. After our first visit to the impressionists section, we went on our own to spend the next several hours. The Art Institute (AI) is always a must see for me when I'm in Chicago.
Some of my favorites at the AI.
Remington's Coming Through the Rye.
After our split from the AI, we all went “home” to change and refresh with plans to meet at Giordano's World Famous Pizza place on Rush Street at 7PM. I showed up a little earlier to make reservations for our party of six, and was told it'll be a 45-minute to a one hour wait. After an hour, we were told it would be another 30-minute to 45-minutes before we can get our table. The only “good” part of this whole affair is that we were able to order our food before we got our table, so when we sat down after a two hour wait, our waitress told us that our food was ready. We were all hungry, and complained to the matre'd three-four times. They finally put two tables together for us " which they should have done 30-minutes before. S-boy kept asking us when we were going to eat! We tried with our complaints, but that's Giordano's; the waiting line is always long here " even during this recession! (What recession?)
From there, JPB drove us north to Bill's Blues, probably the only venue where they welcome children. The artist that evening was Sammy Fender, a very friendly and real nice guy, with two guitar players and the drummer. Sammy's blues is hot and loud, and our group kept saying in the car going home that their ears were still ringing. Whatever problem you may have had before Sammy started playing, it was all forgotten by the time we left. I removed myself from the second table to the rear of the club which isn't saying too much because Bill's Blues is “small.” I think I lost five octaves from my hearing that night, but the music was grand.
S-boy was the star of the night.
Sunday: I walked this morning from my hotel, the Holiday Inn Mart, to the Loop, and stopped at a Corner Bakery for breakfast. Today's plan was to meet at the Navy Pier at 1PM to spend the day. It was another perfect weather day with sunshine and a little breeze in the air. Today's group consisted of S-boy, JPB, Jaye and me, and our first and only ride was on the Ferris wheel; Izzie needed to rest. We walked eastward towards Lake Michigan after the ride, and stopped at a Haagen Das ice cream shop for some $5-$7 ice cream where we rested our footsies for a short while. We proceeded our trek eastward then stopped near the beer garden where they were playing Latin music with quite a few couples dancing (sanba/tango?). On our way back, S-boy and Jaye played peewee golf while JPB and I chatted a little.
S-boy even shot a hole in one!
This is the view from the Holiday Inn Mart's bar.
There are pirates all over in the Loop.
And sculptures by the masters.
We took a cab back to their hotel, because Jaye had to get ready to catch a train home. JPB and I stopped at the hotel bar for a drink, and Izzie and S-boy joined us a bit later. From there, we walked to the Hancock Building where joefromchicago joined us and we took the elevator to the 65th floor to have a beverage and to enjoy the great view.
The Outer Drive from the Hancock Building.
Navy Pier.
For dinner that night, we went to Portillo's, a hot dog joint with the atmosphere from the 20's and 30's of Chicago. I loved it, and I believe so did Izzie and S-boy. After we ordered and sat at a table, joefromchicago and JPB brought the food to our table. Joefromchicago put the hotdog in front of me, so I started to eat it, and JPB said I had her Polish! She traded even with my bite into her Polish, so I had two kinds of hot dog that night. I eat anything that's put in front of me.
We ordered our food.
We enjoyed the surroundings.
Another great day in Chicago.
Monday: I walked towards the Loop, and headed towards the city library, because it's one of the best public library I have even seen, and it's huge! I also looked up Joe Sacco's “Palestine” that was recommended by McTag on the Israel thread. I read through a few pages, and was impressed by Mr Sacco's ability to cartoonize the situation in Israel that provides an otherwise difficult medium to use to share his insights into the realities of what it is like in that country. I walked around the Loop and stopped at the Palmer House to look inside this classic hotel that's been here forever. I returned to my hotel just as JPB called on her cellphone to let me know they were waiting in front. We had lunch at Poag Mahone's, known as the pub with the most art works. Joefromchicago and I had the hamburger with fries with ice tea, while S-boy and Izzie had the 6-mini-burgers, and I'm not sure what JPB had. We said our goodbyes after lunch, since Izzie and S-boy were flying home later that day. Joefromchicago and I met for the last time to have dinner at Uncle Julio's, a Mexican restaurant on the north side, and this was the last of the Chicago meet for this year.
One of the L stations.
The Chicago Public Library.
Chicago bid on the 2016 Olympics.
Palmer House.
Poag Mahone's.
The delightful Miss Izzie.
Heart-winning S-boy.
Joefromchicago was always there to keep us company.
Tuesday: I took the 29 bus to the Navy Pier to walk around the sections we missed on Sunday. Since I arrived there quite early, hardly anybody else was there, and the place looked quite empty compared to our visit on Sunday. I took the 36 bus to Michigan Avenue, and stopped by the Biznet internet cafe to confirm my flight for that day, then walked towards Water Tower Place-Hancock Building. I also looked inside BEST BUY at the Hancock Building to look at the small laptops, and learned that the Toshiba's battery will last over 9 hours. Pretty good! Might be on my buy list when the market hits 10,000. I had my lunch at Water Tower Place, walked towards Rush Street for my last hurrah, before returning to the hotel to catch the shuttle to O'Hare airport.
The reason I'm showing this picture of the staircase at Union Station is because I walked these steps over thousands of times when I worked for Florsheim Shoe Company about ten lifetimes ago.
Was home by 10:45PM.
