Road Trip to Chicago
Over the last full weekend of July (7/25 to 7/29), we took a road trip to Chicago. We left on Thursday afternoon and drove all the way to the home of M's high school friend Sarah and her husband Jeff in the Bucktown neighborhood of Chicago, stopping only for dinner in South Bend. Birdie traveled exceptionally well; she took a long nap, watched some Bluey on the iPad and was generally very cooperative throughout. M did all the driving so I was able to read all of Margaret Atwood's Payback en route.
This will sound somewhat odd given that Birdie has been to 17 states in three time zones, but this was really the first vacation we ever took where the activities were planned with Birdie in mind. When we were in New Mexico, she was small enough to not really be able to express an opinion, so while we did do some kid friendly things like splash pads, she would have been fine with whatever. Similarly, we did a lot of kid stuff in Hilton Head, but given that it was a working vacation, it was on par with the kid stuff we do when we're at home. This trip was different. Everything we chose to do was kid-oriented in some way, as opposed to "happen to do kid stuff." That didn't make it less fun, but it did change the vibe somewhat from our prior travel.
On Friday, we drove down to Shedd Aquarium. We have taken Birdie to the relatively small Cleveland Aquarium many times, and she's been to the gigantic Georgia Aquarium once. Compared to either, the Shedd feels very dates. It was built long ago, apparently before "planning for large crowds" was part of the design. Throw in some dead ends caused by ongoing renovations and most of the building felt very, very crowded, particularly when you added in large groups of summer camp kids. I did not particularly enjoy it, and I'm not sure Birdie did either. She had more fun chasing the birds while we ate tacos in a nearby park, as well as wandering through a small children's garden near Soldier Field.
That night we had Chicago style pizza from the delightfully named My Pi Pizza. We dined in our host's backyard. Their son thrashed me at chess, and their daughter seemed to enjoy having Birdie as a temporary little sister. After dinner we walked to a nearby playground. On a side note, the toy of the trip was a tiny fairy drone that fly around the house, with occasionally dramatic crashed when it clipped a wall too hard. Birdie loved watching it, and so did we.
On Saturday morning, M slept in while Birdie and I joined our hosts in picking up breakfast at Red June, which is the kind of hippy coffee shop that every decently sized town seems to have. Birdie was all in on her plain bagel with cream cheese (a current fad with her) while we dined on the sidewalk. She liked it so much that she and I went there again on Sunday and Monday.
After breakfast, Sarah and her daughter joined us for an excursion on the L. We went downtown to Millennium Park. The kids briefly splashed around in Crown Fountain, we took some photos at The Bean and then hit the extensive playground system. Our morning out was followed by a sumptuous lunch at MingHin right next to the park. MingHin is the kind of Chinese restaurant where the staff doesn't speak English and much of the clientele doesn't either. It's Sarah's Christmas Day Chinese restaurant, and it was great. I'm not sure I've ever seen a place where in addition to the regular menu there was also a dim sum menu. All of this was presented via iPad. I ate a lot, and I loved it.
I did get my workout in that morning. I carried Birdie a substantial portion of the way to the train stop, from the train stop to the park, from the park to the restaurant, from the restaurant back to the train station, and from the train station back to the house. It was a long distance weighted carry. It's a good thing I've been back at Crossfit since March.
That night, we met up with my fraternity brother Wayne. We toured his condo in the Lakeview neighborhood, met his dog Tempo, and then went for dinner and a milkshake at Stella's Diner. That was followed by a nice long chat on a nearby playground as Birdie burned off some energy.
Sunday was our last full day in Chicago. We drove down to Navy Pier for the day. Among other things, we:
- Spent a bunch of time at the Chicago Children's Museum. We even got reciprocity from our Cleveland Children's Museum membership.
- Birdie rode the carousel. We were excited to ride the Ferris Wheel, but alas it was closed, presumably for technical reasons because on a beautiful Sunday in July it's practically a license to print money.
- We get out on the lake on a 45 minute shoreline cruise that highlighted the skyline of Chicago. It was delightful, and I got to sit down for 45 minutes.
- We had an average lunch at Chef Art Smith's Reunion, but it was gloriously air conditioned so I'll forgive them.
- Right before we left, we let Birdie run around the fountain at Polk Brothers Park at the entrance to the pier.
Upon our return we took our hosts out to dinner on the patio of a local bar called Jack and Ginger's, I had an enormous pile of chicken wings while we watched Olympic gymnastics highlights.
On the ride home the next day I got through about half of 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare. I probably would have finished it, but M exercised her rarely used privilege of having me drive after we stopped for lunch at our favorite Toledo restaurant, Poco Loco.
It was a lovely long weekend away. Many thanks to Sarah & Jeff for hosting us, and for their kids for giving up their rooms so we could stay in them. It was my first trip to Chicago since I went for a concert back in May 2019, and I hope to be back soon, especially since there are many other people I know there who could not be squeezed into this trip.
This will sound somewhat odd given that Birdie has been to 17 states in three time zones, but this was really the first vacation we ever took where the activities were planned with Birdie in mind. When we were in New Mexico, she was small enough to not really be able to express an opinion, so while we did do some kid friendly things like splash pads, she would have been fine with whatever. Similarly, we did a lot of kid stuff in Hilton Head, but given that it was a working vacation, it was on par with the kid stuff we do when we're at home. This trip was different. Everything we chose to do was kid-oriented in some way, as opposed to "happen to do kid stuff." That didn't make it less fun, but it did change the vibe somewhat from our prior travel.
On Friday, we drove down to Shedd Aquarium. We have taken Birdie to the relatively small Cleveland Aquarium many times, and she's been to the gigantic Georgia Aquarium once. Compared to either, the Shedd feels very dates. It was built long ago, apparently before "planning for large crowds" was part of the design. Throw in some dead ends caused by ongoing renovations and most of the building felt very, very crowded, particularly when you added in large groups of summer camp kids. I did not particularly enjoy it, and I'm not sure Birdie did either. She had more fun chasing the birds while we ate tacos in a nearby park, as well as wandering through a small children's garden near Soldier Field.
That night we had Chicago style pizza from the delightfully named My Pi Pizza. We dined in our host's backyard. Their son thrashed me at chess, and their daughter seemed to enjoy having Birdie as a temporary little sister. After dinner we walked to a nearby playground. On a side note, the toy of the trip was a tiny fairy drone that fly around the house, with occasionally dramatic crashed when it clipped a wall too hard. Birdie loved watching it, and so did we.
On Saturday morning, M slept in while Birdie and I joined our hosts in picking up breakfast at Red June, which is the kind of hippy coffee shop that every decently sized town seems to have. Birdie was all in on her plain bagel with cream cheese (a current fad with her) while we dined on the sidewalk. She liked it so much that she and I went there again on Sunday and Monday.
After breakfast, Sarah and her daughter joined us for an excursion on the L. We went downtown to Millennium Park. The kids briefly splashed around in Crown Fountain, we took some photos at The Bean and then hit the extensive playground system. Our morning out was followed by a sumptuous lunch at MingHin right next to the park. MingHin is the kind of Chinese restaurant where the staff doesn't speak English and much of the clientele doesn't either. It's Sarah's Christmas Day Chinese restaurant, and it was great. I'm not sure I've ever seen a place where in addition to the regular menu there was also a dim sum menu. All of this was presented via iPad. I ate a lot, and I loved it.
I did get my workout in that morning. I carried Birdie a substantial portion of the way to the train stop, from the train stop to the park, from the park to the restaurant, from the restaurant back to the train station, and from the train station back to the house. It was a long distance weighted carry. It's a good thing I've been back at Crossfit since March.
That night, we met up with my fraternity brother Wayne. We toured his condo in the Lakeview neighborhood, met his dog Tempo, and then went for dinner and a milkshake at Stella's Diner. That was followed by a nice long chat on a nearby playground as Birdie burned off some energy.
Sunday was our last full day in Chicago. We drove down to Navy Pier for the day. Among other things, we:
- Spent a bunch of time at the Chicago Children's Museum. We even got reciprocity from our Cleveland Children's Museum membership.
- Birdie rode the carousel. We were excited to ride the Ferris Wheel, but alas it was closed, presumably for technical reasons because on a beautiful Sunday in July it's practically a license to print money.
- We get out on the lake on a 45 minute shoreline cruise that highlighted the skyline of Chicago. It was delightful, and I got to sit down for 45 minutes.
- We had an average lunch at Chef Art Smith's Reunion, but it was gloriously air conditioned so I'll forgive them.
- Right before we left, we let Birdie run around the fountain at Polk Brothers Park at the entrance to the pier.
Upon our return we took our hosts out to dinner on the patio of a local bar called Jack and Ginger's, I had an enormous pile of chicken wings while we watched Olympic gymnastics highlights.
On the ride home the next day I got through about half of 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare. I probably would have finished it, but M exercised her rarely used privilege of having me drive after we stopped for lunch at our favorite Toledo restaurant, Poco Loco.
It was a lovely long weekend away. Many thanks to Sarah & Jeff for hosting us, and for their kids for giving up their rooms so we could stay in them. It was my first trip to Chicago since I went for a concert back in May 2019, and I hope to be back soon, especially since there are many other people I know there who could not be squeezed into this trip.