The week that was, in Chicago

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....Continued

After arriving home from the hockey on Tuesday night, we found Sam fresh from a band rehersal and wanting to further educate us by having us watch the original Blue Brothers movie in Chicago. So we did. And got to bed bright and early on Wednesday morning. This of course necessitated a sleep in, and a morning catching up on couch potato-ism. Pasta for breakfast was the correct start to the day, and we both actually ate shrimp - although we decided that Mark should have most of them cos he actually likes them.

While Juliet burned photos to CD and wrote in her diary, Jenny caught up on emails and Mark shot a large number of enemy soldiers on his computer, and we all agreed it was a thoroughly productive day. A snack on some delicious cheesy pizza later and it was time to go down the road to Mark's friend Britney's house - she and her husband have just bought a fantastic condo and we we invited to come and admire - which we duly did, thoroughly. The place was spacious and welcoming, with a high angled skylight, wooden floors, and delightful French doors opening onto thin air (guarded by a wrought iron balustrade.) We both decided we could be quite happy living somewhere similar....

After some wine and chit chat we made our was to Sam and Marks' local, the corner pub, and had burgers/salad, with Cosmopolitans as an optional extra, for dinner. Britney kindly shouted a round of very smooth lemondrop shots for desert. Continuing the decadence back at Mark's apartment, we had a round of Bailey's and then agreed it was far too late to be watching movies and retired to blissful dreamless slumber.

Thursday...
Jenny made a delicious omlette for breakfast, and we continued our American movie education, before making our way to the supermarket to stock up on such essentials as avocado, corn chips, bacardi, strawberries and champagne. The supermarket insisted on Ju spending at least half the value of her traveller's cheque before giving her change, the first time we had come across such a notion, although luckily it was easily fixed by buying more champagne.

That night was designated for Mexican - Sam's workmate has a local Mexican bar which he was dying for us all to try, so off we went - meeting Jack and his friends Tony and Peter there. They were already well into the (half price!) pitchers of delightfully juicy Margaritas, so we, of course, were morally obliged to jump in to help them out. Several fajitas, quesadillas, tortillas and nachos washed down with Margaritas later, Jenny and Ju were both presented with bright pink T shirts to symbolise our love for Caeser's Killer Margarita Bar, and Juliet had scored sample CDs of the DJ's work (she has no idea why, maybe he though she was a fellow DJ?) Joined later in the evening by both Samantha and Lisa, we had a lovely time and suspect that Jack paid more than his fair share of the check - thank you guys for a lovely evening!

Friday!
Jenny again feeling culinarily inspired, we breakfasted on a very well presented spread of fruit salad, pancakes and fried bananas, and looked through the photographs of the night before. We couldn't really decide about the pink T shirts... we'll post a photo here in due course so you can see for yourselves! As five pm rolled around, we believed the sun could be said to be sinking, and began on the tostidos and salsa, which match surprisingly well with strawberries and champagne, it turns out. With a movie running in the background, we demolished all the above in due course, and had assembled a lasagne by the time Lisa arrived. Settling down after dinner we watched Roxanne in which a long nosed Steve Martin pursues Darryl Hannah, and we had successfully spent the whole day indoors. Hooray for couch potatoes!

and Saturday!
With both the boys at work for the day, the girls set to and did some housework, breakfasting on leftovers and sucking up dust with a vengenace. Then it was time for a trip up the lake to one of Chicago's suburbs, Glencoe - which felt like a pretty village-y small town, and seeing how close it was to Chicago, probably costs millions to live in, judging by the pristine gardens and expensive cars. We feasted on onion rings and baked potatoes in the sun, and then returned into town to visit Lisa's cat while she took her daily run (nothing can sway this girl, rain or shine, run she must, and we admire her for it!) Spanky was very glad of the attention, attacking his toy cat cousin with a vim and vigour, and performing all manner of acrobatics, before settling in under a table and watching us suspisciously until his mummy came back from her run. Lisa has an incredible view of Lake Michigan, not to mention a spectacular collection of African violets, and we again suffered from apartment jealousy.

Back at the boys' place, we ordered pizza from the famous Lou Malinari's, and awaiting our meal sat down to watch Mark's exploits as a college gymnast. He was pommel horse and parallel bars specialist who won a lot of national medals back in the day - and we could see why, he was a dynamo of whirling legs, with never a hair of his side parted do out of place!

Mark said he had a suprise for us, and everyone seemed keen on it, so all six of us piled into a taxi and headed downtown - where we queued for a lift up to... the 96th floor of the John Hancock building! The Signature Room at the top is a restaurant and bar with amazing full length plate glass windows providing a panoramic view of Chicago. We had cocktails and admired the magnificent city lights stretching out in all directions - apart from the inky blackness that was the lake - then walked all around the windows, scaring ourselves by leaning up against the glass and looking all the way down. That was breathtaking!

and next....wait for it....Sunday!
The weather was good and the time was ripe for Jenny and Ju to visit the famed Millenium Park. This is a relatively new park on the Lakeshore right in central Chicago, and it features an amazing outdoor stadium/concert venue as well as gardens, walks and sculptures. We caught the train all by ourselves for the first time, and headed off. The park was crowded with others similarly inclined, it was great to see so many people enjoying this beautiful public space, even if it made photography a little trickier. The electronic water feature Crown Fountain. The seemingly hallucinogen induced blob of the Cloud Gate. And a great view of the skyline from the bridge over the park to the lake.

Arriving home at the same time as everyone got in from work, the boys organised a visit to another Chicago institution for our last night - Leona's is an Italian restaurant which has a branches throughout the city. Starting off with mozarella sticks, (deep fried cheese in crumbed batter,) we should have been suspicious when the waitress told us they came singly - they were at least an inch thick - more like mozarella logs! Mark and Sam enjoyed our expressions upon seeing them way too much. But they were very tasty, and proved a foretaste of what was to come - more food went home in boxes than made it into our stomachs. Apparently one friend of Mark's orders half his portion wrapped straight off rather than even attempt eating it. It was all absolutely delicious and we left with the warm happy glow of full tummies, good company and the knowledge of a good night's sleep ahead of us.

Our last night in Chicago.... *sob*

and finally, farewelling Chicago...
Monday was a mess of procrastination as we packed our gear (bizarrely spread throughout the apartment by this stage, by what we can only assume was a process of osmosis) and sorted out some of our car rubbish. Jenny hopefully recharged her ipod, only to find it was as broken as ever. We took rather longer than we should have getting our things together, and Mark took an extra hour off work to farewell us as we departed, after several rounds of farewell hugs, and invitations to visit our as yet non-existent London apartment. As we climbed into our little car (nearly untouched during our time in Chicago, our entymological collection happily intact) we suppressed a tear or two, looking forward to our route along the lakes to come and with fond memories of our fantastic time in Chicago. Thank you so much to our hosts Mark and Sam, and to their gracious partners, Lisa and Samantha, for the hospitality, the great nights out and the lazy days in. We love you Chicago!

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Photos

'Leftovers' from Leona's
Each of us brought enough home for another full meal... it seems this is considered normal for a restaraunt meal in Chicago, even more so at Leona's.

Comments

[Chicago Mark]

Chitown!
I'll have more to add when I get a chance, and the pictures are up, but for now, just know that both of you are deeply missed. It was a great week, and I'll always remember it.