Vacation redux
Thursday: The Day of Baseball
Highlights of the day: Singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh-inning stretch at real actual Wrigley Field; spotting boxed "Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards" PC game in awesome retro gaming store
Best meal of the day: Hebridean Leek Pie, green peas, and Twisted Thistle lager at the Duke of Perth, a lovely little Wrigleyville pub whose name I unfortunately can't remember :(
Stranger-in-a-strange-land moment of the day: Roving beer guy at Wrigley Field, chatting with beer-drinking people in row behind us, says "It was 40 degrees in June!" and I suddenly realize he means it was cold.
Friday: The Day of Museums
Highlights of the day: Stingrays at Shedd Aquarium -- they are beautiful! they fly through the water! and have a wide variety of lovely patterns and spots!
Best meal of the day: Grilled Portobello sandwich (with everything on it) and fries at Epic Burger
Stranger-in-a-strange-land moments of the day: (1) Oh, I get it, all these streets are named after dead presidents! I bet if I were American, I would find they're arranged in some meaningful order... (2) It's 7 o'clock on a Friday night and all the stores are closed (and not because we've accidentally stumbled into a Haredi neighbourhood). Wtf?
Saturday: The Day of Buying Things
Today we set out from our hotel at 500 S Dearborn and walked, gradually, all the way up to 900 N Michigan. We shopped.
Highlights of the day: Splashing with SP and hundreds of other kids, parents, and other random people in the Crown Fountain at Millennium Park on a beautiful August day
Lowlight of the day: Distressingly accurate aerial ocular bombardment by Larus occidentalis. Yes, you read that right: As I was crossing the plaza after looking at Cloudgate, a seagull pooped right in my left eye. ZOMG EW.
Best meal of the day: Baked ziti followed by warm chocolate cake with pistachio crema at Frankie's Scaloppine on N Michigan Avenue
Stranger-in-a-strange-land moment of the day: American Girl Place. Creepiest. Store. Ever.
Sunday: The Day of Waterslides
This was the day we went to Six Flags Great America. It was okay.
Highlights of the day: Tornado waterslide; SP finds a ride she likes and can go on alone, and goes on it four times in succession while DH and I sit and rest. (Yeah, we're old.)
Best meal of the day: ... actually pretty much everything we ate that day was crap :P Hideously overpriced crap (except for the Dunkin' Donuts we had for breakfast, which were also kind of awful, but not expensive).
Stranger-in-a-strange-land moment of the day: Chicago is a big city; Six Flags is a big park; yet the regional bus that connects the Chicago Transit Authority with the park runs just once per day in each direction. The driver who dropped us off in the morning said "Be back here half an hour before the park closes, that's when the bus leaves"; we and the rest of the passengers turned up around 8:20, just to be safe; 8:30 came and went; 9:00 came, the park closed ... finally a helpful Six Flags security guard (who kept driving by in his SUV) phoned the bus company and got them to send a bus to pick all of us up. It arrived at 10:04. SP was like, "Mommy, what if we have to stay in this parking lot all night?!" All I could think was ... This would never happen in Toronto. :P
Monday: The Day of Sail
We slept in, recovering from our Ordeal By Bus Company, then went to Navy Pier.
Highlight of the day: 75-minute sail on the Windy (I keep wanting to call it HMS Windy, but of course it isn't) during which adorable university students dressed vaguely as pirates told us (mostly true) stories of piracy on the Great Lakes (Did you know there was piracy on the Great Lakes? Well, now you do) and I got to help raise the mainsail. (Wow, has it ever been a long time since I hauled on a halyard on a schooner. I feel like I used to be better at it when I was 14, but I may be deluding myself.) SP and I also went on the giant ferris wheel at Navy Pier
Best meal of the day: veggie & cheese sandwich at our local Potbelly; also we went back there for shakes in the evening, and the coffee malt was yum.
Tuesday: The Day We Came Back
We squeezed in a flying visit to the Art Institute of Chicago on our way to the airport. We need to go back some other time when we aren't rushed.
Highlight of the day: Real actual American Gothic!
Stranger-in-a-strange-land moment of the day: Have to explain to nice (self-identified) Southern lady on the El going to Midway that Fannie May is a chocolate shop and the mortgage organization ("government bailout organization") is Fannie Mae.
Hotel ratings
View: 1/10 (of side of adjoining building, no visible sky or ground)
Bed comfiness: 9/10
Friendly-and-helpfulness of staff: 9.5/10
Water pressure in shower: 3/10
Fluffiness of towels: 8.5/10
Speed of "high-speed" wifi: 2/10
Continental breakfast: 3/10
Location: 9/10
Availability of restaurants nearby: 8/10
Overall experience: 8.5/10
Lovely vacation. Too short. Spent too much money. We should do this again.
Now home, and inundated in work again ...
Highlights of the day: Singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh-inning stretch at real actual Wrigley Field; spotting boxed "Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards" PC game in awesome retro gaming store
Best meal of the day: Hebridean Leek Pie, green peas, and Twisted Thistle lager at the Duke of Perth, a lovely little Wrigleyville pub whose name I unfortunately can't remember :(
Stranger-in-a-strange-land moment of the day: Roving beer guy at Wrigley Field, chatting with beer-drinking people in row behind us, says "It was 40 degrees in June!" and I suddenly realize he means it was cold.
Friday: The Day of Museums
Highlights of the day: Stingrays at Shedd Aquarium -- they are beautiful! they fly through the water! and have a wide variety of lovely patterns and spots!
Best meal of the day: Grilled Portobello sandwich (with everything on it) and fries at Epic Burger
Stranger-in-a-strange-land moments of the day: (1) Oh, I get it, all these streets are named after dead presidents! I bet if I were American, I would find they're arranged in some meaningful order... (2) It's 7 o'clock on a Friday night and all the stores are closed (and not because we've accidentally stumbled into a Haredi neighbourhood). Wtf?
Saturday: The Day of Buying Things
Today we set out from our hotel at 500 S Dearborn and walked, gradually, all the way up to 900 N Michigan. We shopped.
Highlights of the day: Splashing with SP and hundreds of other kids, parents, and other random people in the Crown Fountain at Millennium Park on a beautiful August day
Lowlight of the day: Distressingly accurate aerial ocular bombardment by Larus occidentalis. Yes, you read that right: As I was crossing the plaza after looking at Cloudgate, a seagull pooped right in my left eye. ZOMG EW.
Best meal of the day: Baked ziti followed by warm chocolate cake with pistachio crema at Frankie's Scaloppine on N Michigan Avenue
Stranger-in-a-strange-land moment of the day: American Girl Place. Creepiest. Store. Ever.
Sunday: The Day of Waterslides
This was the day we went to Six Flags Great America. It was okay.
Highlights of the day: Tornado waterslide; SP finds a ride she likes and can go on alone, and goes on it four times in succession while DH and I sit and rest. (Yeah, we're old.)
Best meal of the day: ... actually pretty much everything we ate that day was crap :P Hideously overpriced crap (except for the Dunkin' Donuts we had for breakfast, which were also kind of awful, but not expensive).
Stranger-in-a-strange-land moment of the day: Chicago is a big city; Six Flags is a big park; yet the regional bus that connects the Chicago Transit Authority with the park runs just once per day in each direction. The driver who dropped us off in the morning said "Be back here half an hour before the park closes, that's when the bus leaves"; we and the rest of the passengers turned up around 8:20, just to be safe; 8:30 came and went; 9:00 came, the park closed ... finally a helpful Six Flags security guard (who kept driving by in his SUV) phoned the bus company and got them to send a bus to pick all of us up. It arrived at 10:04. SP was like, "Mommy, what if we have to stay in this parking lot all night?!" All I could think was ... This would never happen in Toronto. :P
Monday: The Day of Sail
We slept in, recovering from our Ordeal By Bus Company, then went to Navy Pier.
Highlight of the day: 75-minute sail on the Windy (I keep wanting to call it HMS Windy, but of course it isn't) during which adorable university students dressed vaguely as pirates told us (mostly true) stories of piracy on the Great Lakes (Did you know there was piracy on the Great Lakes? Well, now you do) and I got to help raise the mainsail. (Wow, has it ever been a long time since I hauled on a halyard on a schooner. I feel like I used to be better at it when I was 14, but I may be deluding myself.) SP and I also went on the giant ferris wheel at Navy Pier
Best meal of the day: veggie & cheese sandwich at our local Potbelly; also we went back there for shakes in the evening, and the coffee malt was yum.
Tuesday: The Day We Came Back
We squeezed in a flying visit to the Art Institute of Chicago on our way to the airport. We need to go back some other time when we aren't rushed.
Highlight of the day: Real actual American Gothic!
Stranger-in-a-strange-land moment of the day: Have to explain to nice (self-identified) Southern lady on the El going to Midway that Fannie May is a chocolate shop and the mortgage organization ("government bailout organization") is Fannie Mae.
Hotel ratings
View: 1/10 (of side of adjoining building, no visible sky or ground)
Bed comfiness: 9/10
Friendly-and-helpfulness of staff: 9.5/10
Water pressure in shower: 3/10
Fluffiness of towels: 8.5/10
Speed of "high-speed" wifi: 2/10
Continental breakfast: 3/10
Location: 9/10
Availability of restaurants nearby: 8/10
Overall experience: 8.5/10
Lovely vacation. Too short. Spent too much money. We should do this again.
Now home, and inundated in work again ...