Sweet Home Chicago

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We arrived in Des Plaines, Illinois at 2:30 am, Sunday, August 9. Des Plaines is home to the very first McDonald's restaurant. This is unimportant to our story. What is important is that Eva's mom and dad live here. Also, Des Plaines is about an hour's subway ride from downtown Chicago.

We spent that Sunday sleeping and recovering from our cross-country drive. That evening we enjoyed a multi-dish supper with soup, beef, fish and shrimp at Eva's Aunt Lei's place. On Monday, we went with Eva's parents to Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. We toured the U-505 submarine captured from the Germans in WWII and a new 'smart home' which is energy efficient and uses no fox skins or elephant ivory. We finished the day at the traveling 'Harry Potter' exhibit featuring props and paraphernalia from the movies, where Eva could prove she knew more about the series than the 12-year-olds.

Nothing happened on Tuesday. . Wednesday was my birthday - hard to believe this handsome face has seen 36 orbits round the sun. We went to Chicago's Botanical Gardens. New to me at least, this public garden actually has vegetables. We spent about an hour checking out the peas, squash, brussel sprouts, apples, and tomatoes before moving on to the inedible portions of the garden. We got our deep-dish Chicago style pizza fix at Giordano's that afternoon. Two hours later after getting back home, we headed to Bobby Chinn's crab shack for a birthday celebration with Eva's Aunt Lei and her cousins Ray and Calvin . I ate soft shelled crabs from Maryland - shell, teeth and all. Later, my in-law family surprised me with a B-day cake, but there were too many candles for me to put out at once.

Thursday evening, Eva and I headed into Chi-town for a little music at Buddy Guy's Legends. Mr. Guy was not present that evening, so we enjoyed the wailings of Tab Robinson. Actually Tab and his band were quite good, if a little loud. Our Chicago trip ended on Friday with an outdoor concert in Ravina Park, featuring the Chicago Sympony Orchestra, and Eva's uncle Yo-Yo. Yo-Yo played the Cello Concerto in B Minor by Dvorak, which I am told is quite difficult. We exchanged brief hello's with an exhausted Yo-Yo before heading back for the night.

Chicago was the final stop for my old Corolla as we left it with Eva's aunt and cousin. We spent the rest of Friday night packing a year's worth of supplies into our backpacks. Saturday morning we headed to the airport to catch an early flight to Toronto.

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Photos

Museum of Science and Industry
Special exhibits

Mmmm...Pizza!
My parents and Giordano's deep dish spinach pizza!

Bobby Chinn's
My Aunt Lei and my cousins Calvin and Ray with George and I in front of Bobby Chinn's Seafood Restaurant.

Buddy Guy
Blues club in downtown Chicago, located near the Harrison stop on the "El".

Ravinia Festival
Ravinia Park is an outdoor concert hall with a pavilion containing "indoor" (i.e. covered) seating, and a huge lawn area for picnicking and/or enjoying the concert. In addition to the multiple speakers present, a gigantic screen was recently installed on the lawn area so those on the lawn can see the concert as well.

Backstage at Ravinia
Calvin, George, Yo-Yo, and I backstage at the Ravinia Festival after the concert.