Tony's: "Treasure your good memories and you need not worry about ending a banquet."
Ahhh, Chicago. What a town. Magic in the many bridges that cross the Chicago River; in the buildings that truly block the big blue sky; in a deep dish pizza crust so light and buttery; in Lake Michigan, where you can see no end of the horizon. We like this city, we do.
Took a long, meandering, back-ways drive to the city from Joliet, thanks to Gertie the GPS. She seems to be on the fritz and lacks common sense; sometimes this serves us well, taking us down the "real" parts of a geographic area. Other times she's just frustrating and leads us into conflicting streets where she invokes the "u-turn" mantra repeatedly. Shut your pie-hole Gertie, we say.
This back road did give us a great view of the 'burbs of Chi. One thing we have noted in this Midwest of ours, there are many, many, many large and quite full cemetaries, and matching funeral homes and monument/gravestone store fronts. They like corner markets here too - "Don and Sal's", "Mercado Giganto", "Little K's"; and package liquor stores, whatever they are. Strip clubs and naughty book stores are also frequent and many. Underlying vices for these Methodists and Baptists. Lutherans have disappeared, and certainly wouldn't condone this behavior. Ha.
Got into Chi, parked, found Lou Malnati's deep dish pizza joint within a block. Ordered the lunch special and found it OK. Lots of yummy tomato sauce, a little light on spices and pepperoni. Tony's sausage was quite tasty. The crust though - divine! Light and buttery, and lots of it - a deep pan of it. I thought it would be thick and gooey like the NW version of deep dish, but it was flaky and didn't overpower the pizza filling. Check Chicago pizza off Jackie's head list. I was so hungry and didn't take a before pic:
Then the adventure began. We were heading for the Chicago Architectural Foundation's (CAF)boat tour, but had no concept of direction or location. We walked alot and found some amazing views and buildings. Asked for directions several time - the parking enforcement guy??? - but no one could tell us where the CAF dock is, the river, or a bridge, it seems. We wandered into the Merchandise Mart, which sounds like a hokey Walmarty type place, but is actually a city block of interior design businesses. It actually had its own zip code it's so large. We wandered aimlessly and frustrated for about an hour until we found a pleasant doorman with the good news! "Six blocks up, cross the bridge and there you are!" Sort of.
It's a hot, busy town. The women and men are fashionistas and dressed beautifully. They are also fit. Lots of running, jogging, fast walking, roller blading. No skateboards. Not much car traffic, but what there is on the streets are treated by the populace as they are in New York - you simply ignore the walk lights and cross streets whenever the hell you feel like it. Tony likes this independent spirit of perpetual chaos, I do not, and dutifully wait for the traffic light to indicate I am free to walk. Here are some random city images:
We finally slogged our sweaty little selves to the "Little Lady" cruise boat at around 4. Tony wisely chose the bow spot and we happily ploughed through the brown waters of the Chi River, noting building after magnificent building.
Lovely place. And onto the river and lake cruise. We went through the Chicago Lock (yes, singular) into Lake Michigan. It only drops or rises a few feet, so it goes quickly. We cruised the lake as it wasn't choppy, and what a glorious ride it was. All the lake, all the skyline you could ever imagine.
After the cruise we headed back to Blue, greeted young man Roku the kitty-boy, and planned the trip for the next day.....all the way across Indiana and into Ohio.
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