In spite of the lure of a relaxing day on the lake, we awoke Saturday morning determined to cover more ground and make it to Chicago by nightfall. Our itinerary is pretty tight--we have one or two spare days mixed in but we wanted to save them for the national parks we plan to hit out West.
We got on the road around 10:30 again and headed through the rest of OH and into IL. With the benefit of the time change, we got to Chicago around 5pm and headed for Missy's happy place: the beach. She was very excited to discover Chicago's urban beaches (on the shore of Lake Michigan) and we spent about an hour relaxing--which for me was laying down and texting with Mei-Wah and for Missy was searching for beach glass. Both successful operations.
Abe and Micaela, our hosts for the night, were hosting a small BBQ for the canvass team which was perfect b/c we were starving. So we picked up some Pipeworks beer (at Abe's suggestion) and headed over to their beautiful new house in the Logan Square neighborhood. Here we are with Micaela in front of the house.
And, here are some shots of their backyard garden, featuring Abe and butterflies.
After relaxing on the backyard for the evening, we headed to brunch the next morning at Lula's in Logan Square with my old high school friend Jamie Geller Ayres--RHS '94 foreva...
After brunch Missy and I wandered downtown to soak in as much of Chicago as we could for half a day. We'd each been there a few times--my last time was exactly a year ago for the Grateful Dead's Fare The Well shows--but definitely hadn't hit all the spots. We took the Blue Line from Logan Square down to Monroe and headed to Millennium Park.
Our first stop was the "faces" fountain, a cool spot where human faces are projected onto two large tile fountains that spew water from the "mouths" of the faces at seemingly random intervals. This is a form of paradise for little kids (and bigger ones) who run around in the water in utter delight.
After the fountains we checked out Chicago's famous "bean," which provides cool, angled reflections.
There's also a cool free amphitheater in the park.
Afterwards we strolled by the water for a bit, and made our way back to Abe & Micaela's to pack up and head on the road. Before heading out, we hit L'Patron for tacos at Abe's suggestion--great call.
A great 24 hr stop in Chicago. Thanks to Abe & Micaela for being such great hosts, and to Jamie for making the effort to meet us for brunch. [I hope she remembers she promised to put her yenta skills to work to find Missy a beaux.]
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