thesimpleHOUSE

Wednesday morning, we started with breakfast at The Good Eating Company, bid farewell to our server there (who recommended a cafe in Portland for us). Then decided to just check out and head to the airport. Our flight didn’t leave until about 4:00, but we were tired and ready to go home.

We were glad we did. There was some construction going on around the Blue line and the airport was packed. We had a comfortable ride in, had lunch and bought some salads for dinner on the flight and hung out. It was comfortable timing, with just enough margin to not feel rushed.

We arrived home around 10:00 pm and Brenda’s brother shuttled us home and we could sleep in our own bed. All flights were good, connections good and a very enjoyable experience.

Tuesday we took the subway down to the Field Museum. We had walked so much and it was just a little farther than we wanted to walk this day, so we took advantage of our transit pass and took the red line down.

We had visited the Natural History Museum in New York and that still probably has to be one of our favorite museums. We had kind of expected a similar museum experience at the Field, but it’s just a “normal” museum. 

Not as many pictures this day. We were winding down. Usually a good vacation for us is right at a week. And we were at a week. We finished our day off with a second dinner at Maharaj. And it was just as good as the first time. A wonderful bookend to our trip!

Monday was the Art Institute, largely because they are closed Tuesdays, the Field Museum (our other museum stop) is open every day and we were headed home Wednesday. Our breakfasts so far had been at a little spot next to our hotel. Average muffins and poor service so we went on an online search. I found the Good Eating Company a few blocks from the hotel. WAY better! And they had good Americanos. We ended up eating there Tuesday and Wednesday, our last day in Chicago.

The Art Institute had a special Freida Kahlo exhibit for an extra $5 so we opted for that. Interesting, but glad we only paid $5.

What impressed me the most was Van Gogh’s self portrait (small, about 12 x 18 inches), Wood’s American Gothic (also small), and Seurat’s La Grand Jatte. I had studied these in college, but to see them in person was awesome. La Grand Jatte is 10 x 12 FEET in size. Impressive use of the equivalent of late 1800s pixelating.

So many other things we saw there; we could have spent two or three days and not seen it all.

Sunday, the weather was much better, for which we were grateful because we had booked the architectural river boat tour. Since I’m an architect, this was especially interesting to me. But the boat tour wasn’t until late afternoon, so we wandered around in the morning.

We decided to walk down to Navy Pier and enjoyed the view from the Centennial Wheel. Had lunch at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville (and reminisced about the one lost to the fire in Lahaina).

The we walked back along the Riverwalk, arriving at the boat tour just in time. A docent from the local Chicago Architecture Center gave an excellent summary of the architecture of Chicago and some local history. Well worth the trip!

We finished the evening with a trip to a local Taco spot that looked like it had a similar vibe to our favorite local Tacovore. It was good, but our local one is still better.

Friday and Saturday were the neighboring conference that was the spark to get us to Chicago. It was so good to reconnect with old friends from around the continent. Russell from Saskatchewan, Tim from Chicago (formerly Seattle), Dwight from Seattle. And to make new friends as well.

The church lives out the gospel in their neighborhood. Lawndale Community Church. They started asking what the neighborhood needed and now have a medical center, youth center, senior center, healthy option restaurant, and, oh yeah, a church.

Friday sessions went late and we debated whether or not to take the Pink line back into town or call an Uber. Friday night, late, on the L. We decided to go ahead and take the train.

And we were glad we did. We were the only people in our car except an older black man and a drunk man who we later found out was Argentinian. The black man was trying to convince to Argentinian to accept Jesus. It was not going well. Voices raised and we started wondering if we had made the right choice to not Uber.

Soon the black man exited at his stop and the Argentinian came over and sat across from us. We engaged in conversation (as best we could) and found out he was mourning the Pope. That time of night was just about the time the Pope’s funeral was happening. And the Pope was Argentinian. We had a bit more conversation before our stop. 

Saturday at the conference was a walk around Pilsen neighborhood. A very poor neighborhood with a lot of gang activity and an extreme food desert. The only greenery/lawn area was some fake grass in front of a Taco Bell. And to top it off, it was raining. Actually it was a deluge. We were all soaked by the time we finished the neighborhood tour.