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.
Thursday was a beautiful sunny day. We did a walk to Millennium Park, saw the Bean and enjoyed the day. We had lunch at a pizza place recommended to us. Chicago is famous for pizza. This pizza was meh. Oh, well, maybe another time.
We enjoyed part of the Riverwalk and some of the architecture Chicago is famous for. One was Marina City from the early 1960s. It was one of the first examples of mixed use development. I remember studying it in school. I never liked the style from the photos I saw. And now, seeing it first hand in person? I still don’t like it.
However, on our walk long the river, we did see the FirstLady dock where we would be doing the Sunday Architecture River Tour. There are a lot of other famous buildings to see in Chicago.
As I mentioned, we got tickets to Riverdance 30. This was in large part because we had seen the original Riverdance back in the mid 1990s. So impressive. We thought, “why not?” to see it again.
We had dinner at The Dearborn directly across from our hotel just before the show. I had an excellent burger and Brenda had their fish and chips. Her review of them was that they were the best fish and chips she had had in her life.
The play was also just a couple of blocks away in the Cadillac Palace Theater in the French Baroque style from 1926. Amazing. And the performance was just about as good as the original.
Our annual neighboring conference we’ve attended for about 15 years in Seattle moved this year to Chicago. Wanting to still attend, but not too excited about flying to Chicago just for a weekend, we decided to stretch it out a bit and go for a full week and see the city. We had heard the end of April had a good chance for good weather.
Our day started at about 3:00 am in order to get to the airport for our flight. As always, I start with a quad-shot chocolate latte. Even more so at 3:00 am. Brenda’s brother graciously offered to shuttle us to the airport, saving parking fees and/or Uber costs.
By leaving when we did, it allowed us to arrive in the Windy City around 4:00 in the afternoon. We did not rent a car (after our experience in Boston with absolutely insane traffic) because we had heard the transit in Chicago is good and we could buy a 7-day unlimited pass for $20 each. Way cheaper than renting a car and paying for valet fees.
Our hotel was old, but had been renovated. The most important thing was the bed was comfortable. This was a huge plus because we were only staying one place the whole trip. I booked it in the Theater District partly because it was about two blocks from a major transit hub for the L. We were able to board the Blue line at the airport and arrive within a block of our hotel. We exited the train and when we walked out to the sidewalk, our hotel was directly across the street.
As is my custom, I rely on Yelp for dining. I found an Indian restaurant (Maharaj) just a few blocks walk from the hotel. The weather was perfect so we walked.
It. Was. Incredible! A perfect start to our trip.
Arriving on a Wednesday and with a Friday start to our conference, we booked tickets to Riverdance 30 for Thursday night at a theater two blocks from our hotel and dinner at a restaurant across the street.
Brenda had never visited the Pittock Mansion in Portland and I hadn’t been there since before we were married 43 years ago. So we decided to spend part of a day and a night in the City of Roses.
Brenda in front of the Pittock MansionPittock MansionPittock Mansion
Our hotel was downtown and had valet parking with “free” charging. I say that because the valet parking wasn’t free, so the charging really wasn’t free, either. But, after a brief snafu on check in, we walked to dinner.
We had asked our good friends who live in Portland for suggestions on where to eat. We were within walking distance of the Waterfront Park, so we chose, on their recommendation, Il Terrazzo. We made reservations (which was a good choice, even on a Wednesday evening). We like good food and good atmosphere and wanted to end our trip on a high note.
The food and service were excellent. We often split meal at restaurants, because true to “the American way”, bigger seems better. The photos you see are our split Caesar Salad and our split Boscaiola. The Caesar was a Caesar (it’s kind of hard, in my opinion, to mess up a Caesar salad). And the Boscaiola was phenomenal. When it arrived, we thought it looked a bit small and wondered if we should have split, but it was so rich and flavorful, we were glad we split.
Caesar Salad (split) and a very nice Cab at Il TerrazzoBoscailoa (also split) at Il Terrazzo
The next morning, we walked to a nearby coffee shop (we love urban settings), which had good coffee and average pastries, then packed up and made the short drive back to Eugene.
We love road tripping, but we also love getting back home. We drove 2,330 miles, which was about average for one of our road trips. Total charging cost was $145.19, about a third the cost of gas.
So until next year…
The Portland skyline from the Pittock Mansion grounds
Well, we were winding down our trip. And we were getting ready to be home. We typically can go about 8 to 10 days of living out of a suitcase, then we’re ready to be home. And this trip was no exception.
After the incredible time in Glacier, nothing was as spectacular or as beautiful. But we did see some pretty scenery on the way to Yakima. The drive from Couer d’Alene to Yakima is mostly uneventful, boring and nondescript. This was no exception.
Thankfully, we had a second audio book to listen to on the mostly boring drive. The Lincoln Highway. We recommend this one, too.
But we did see the Ginko Petrified Forest along the upper part of the Columbia River on our way in.
Ginko Petrified Forest on the Columbia River
We took a short stop for coffee and charging in Hood River, then landed in Portland for the night.
The trip to Helena from East Glacier was about 198 miles, so I thought we’d have plenty of range. However, I didn’t factor in the high winds that were still buffeting the area and the speed limit (70, 75 and 80 on the road in).
About 50 miles in, our car gave us a notice we needed to keep it under 65 mph in order to make it to Helena. I hadn’t received a message like that before, but was glad to see it. It had us (at our current speed) arriving with less than 4% range. We generally don’t like dropping below about 20%, so I backed off. As I did, over the next 50 miles or so, the projected range on arrival crept back up and eventually made it to 18%. And we arrived in Helena with 18% range.
Since it was a shorter trip to Missoula, we had decided to stop at the Cathedral of St Helena for a free tour. It was worth the stop. Not only was the architecture amazing, we ran into three massively tatted guys, one who lived in Helena and had never visited the cathedral and the other two, his cousins, from Concrete, Washington. Another great conversation time.
Cathedral of St Helena undergoing exterior renovation/restorationCathedral of St HelenaCathedral of St Helena
From Helena, we went on in to Missoula for the night. We had a supercharger at the hotel. Food choice adjacent to the hotel appeared to be so-so on Yelp. So we picked the top rated spot relatively close (about 2 miles away) and went to the Tap Club.
Hazy IPA. Was really good. Brenda liked her cider, tooPulled Pork Nachos. They were incredible!
We ordered the pulled pork tacos to split. So glad we split! It was huge! and it was probably the best meal we had up to this point. We left stuffed.
On Sunday, our last day in Glacier, we spent the morning rerouting our trip home. Originally, we were going to travel through Joseph, Baker City and Redmond to see the Wallowas, Hell’s Canyon and our favorite restaurant in Redmond, Carnaval.
But the smoke in all of those areas bumped the air quality into the unhealthy range, so we rerouted to come home through Yakima and Portland.
The timing worked well, because we got to Logan Pass around lunchtime and actually found a parking space!
Proof that we got a parking space at Logan Pass
We ate our lunch, packed our bags and decided to head out on the Hidden Lake Trail.
Blood blister from hiking. Massively padded and protected. Note: I wore my Keens for the hike to Hidden Lake
We were NOT alone.
Hidden Lake TrailheadThe hike was uphill in and downhill outMountain GoatAbout halfway along the trail
I was glad I had my Keens, glad I had padded my blister on my toe. However, we left our hiking poles in the car. We did fine, but it would have been a much easier hike if we had them. Beautiful along the way (as is everything in Glacier NP).
But I don’t think anything would have prepared us for just how stunning Hidden Lake was. We are so glad we held out and did it. We were so glad our motel host recommended it. Words don’t capture the breathtaking beauty of this spot.
Hidden Lake OverlookA fitting end to our time in Glacier
We are still talking about this hike. For me, it was my favorite. Same for Brenda. And the same for a lot of people we talked with.
When we returned to our motel, we decided to go back to Serrano’s for a second dinner. This time, we split a foot-long pulled pork burrito. It, like the tacos, was awesome. A fitting end to our stay.
We plugged in Scarlett and retired for the night. Tomorrow it would be Missoula via Helena, where the nearest Supercharger was on our route.
