Rebecca Claire Photography

Gillian took us around town Wednesday. We started with a tasty breakfast of scrabbled eggs and biscuits, then off to see the sites! We rode the train downtown and checked out the CMA. It was quite the blast from the past with the artists’ write ups and all of the silly things people say about art. We enjoyed watching a student group follow around their teacher and talk about art. Then we hit up the Hancock Building and checked the view from the Signature Gallery restaurant. It was a great view. The women’s bathroom has the best view in the place! We also had ridiculously expensive drinks and quesadillas. My chocolate martini was delicious as was Gilly’s Mai Tai. The chicken quesadillas were quite tasty too.

We got tickets from Andrea to see her show “Turn of the Century.” Jerry was going to meet us downtown, but not until after dinner, so we headed to Miller’s Pub for dinner. My hot wings were tasty as were Gilly’s fries. 😉 Dinner was really fast! We stopped to see the Picasso statue on our way to the theater. The show was cute. It’s basically an Irving Berlin review with several modern songs performed as if they were written in 1900. Thanks for the tickets, Andrea! 🙂

Yesterday, we met up with Lauren and later Beth. It was our first really touristy day. It was also our first day without a local to guide us. I think we did very well with the train and the buses. Lauren met us at Gilly’s, and we walked to find lunch. It only took about an hour to agree on anything. We’d see a restaurant and someone would say, “how about this?” and someone else would say “well, maybe.” Then we’d move on. We finally chose the Peacock Cafe, which none of use would have chosen had we really known what it was before we went in. But we did go in, and they seemed very excited to see us, so we sat and ordered. We split a beef dish and a chicken dish and they came out on a big sourdough pancake with more sourdough pancakes to eat with (tearing pieces and using our hands off a communal plate). It also came with veggies, lentils, and salad greens. We were all very happy with our lunch choice because it was delish! Lauren ordered some coffee, so we all got some, and that was fantastic too. Nathan and I don’t drink a lot of coffee, so we only had one small cup each. We think they thought we didn’t like it, but it was fantastic. I told them we just don’t drink a lot of coffee. That was not our touristy activity.

After lunch, we walked to the nearest train station (Nathan remembered that there was a Thorndale stop all by himself! I didn’t.) and rode downtown to Navy Pier. We wandered into a magic shop that didn’t appear to be selling anything and had a clerk with no sense of humor. We considered riding the McDonald’s sponsored Ferris Wheel, but instead went with PuttPutt (it was half the price for much more entertainment). Now, many people don’t know this, but Nathan is famously bad at puttputt. His family will call him when they’re playing to mock him from afar. Little do they know, I am secretly way worse! It took forever to finish 18 holes (since I was taking an average of 4-6 strokes per hole), but we had a great time! Definitely worth $5 each. On the way to the bus (to get back to the train, to get back to the car to go to Skokie to pick up Beth), I showed Lauren and Nathan the joys of popping impatients seed pods. Lauren and I tried to take some back to show Beth, but Lauren couldn’t stop popping hers. On the bus, one of my burst while my hand was open and Lauren and I both screamed and giggled. I don’t think the other bus riders were as amused. My last one burst as we exited, so we’ll have to find more with Beth in tow.

We were only 30 minutes late getting to the hotel to pick up Beth, but then made the mistake of getting on the highway. Oops! Luckily we didn’t have any duties at the rehearsal dinner, so it was okay that we were running late. As we drove up to the place, Grey called and told Beth to park at the garage up the street, but not at the expensive one because there was a cheaper one next to it. Lauren started to pull into one, but Beth didn’t think it was the right one and it was $11, so we backed out onto Broadway and went one garage up. That one had a valet and cost $14 and felt very sketchy (it also had a clothes dryer in the garage. No idea why). We got them to let us out and drove around the block again. We decided the $11 one must be the right one, so in we went. It was tight and low ceilinged and seemed like the kind of place you didn’t want to leave your car, but we were in and had to pay $11 to get out, so we left the car. The dinner was good, Lauren had her first ever ice cream cake. We were fashionably late, so everyone knew we were cool. 😉 Afterwards, we went to Sura, a Thai place so Beth could use the restroom and we could all get a drink. The place was cool and ultra-modern. There was a loud DJ right next to our table pumping House, or Techno, or Tech House, I’m not certain what the difference is (I know, I’m lame). We were ready to go after about 30 minutes, but had to wait another hour for our server to stop texting and bring us our check. I’m not certain what part of your entire table staring at you doesn’t trigger your “do you need something” response, but she was oblivious. Too much loud music, perhaps. They were closing the place down even! But we got back to Gilly’s in one piece (only a bit later than we had said. Sorry, Gilly!)

Today is the wedding. We’re just waiting for Beth and Lauren to get done in Skokie and head this way. It should be a fun time! Don’t worry, I’ll take lots of pictures!

Did I mention I’m doing most of my blogging on my phone. I’m a mean 1-finger typist! I love that I can upload photos direct from the phone too. I’m really impressed with the quality for a phone! We’ll get some real photos soon. Honest!