Chicago in the Rain……or Not!

Our granddaughter is spending the summer interning for her graduate studies in risk assessment for a large commercial insurance company……and we decided to visit for a long weekend.  As the weekend approached, the weather forecast was dismal:  no rain on Thursday (our travel day), some on Friday and all day on Saturday and Sunday.  Pretty dismal.

Well, the Bromberg Weather Luck held.  At no time were we inconvenienced by rain.  It simply did not rain except at night —  until Sunday when we were inside — twice while we were inside (but that’s later in the story).

Kathryn was able to come into downtown on Thursday to “work from home” on Friday.  We decided to try some famous Chicago style deep dish pizza.  Giardanos is supposed to be the best and it was excellent.  Very different from what I am used to.

But we had discovered that there was a Ghiradelli one block from our hotel — Hyatt Regency Chicago.  So you know that we stopped there on our way back to the hotel after dinner.  We were sensible enough to share one sundae!

However, in the morning our first stop was Wildberry — a wonderful and diverse pancake & waffle breakfast place.  John and I shared the cinnamon roll pancakes; Kathryn had an egg dish with a side of chocolate chip pancakes.  Trust me:  sharing a full order was a lot of food…..and delicious.  So far, all we had done was eat!!!!

Kathryn went back to the hotel to work and John and I took the Chicago  Architecture Tour by boat on First Lady Cruises, the only boat cruise partnered with the Chicago Architecture Center.  The docents leading the tour are well trained and volunteers who do it for love of the city.  His first words to us were “do you know how lucky you are?  It has been raining solid for two weeks.”  This was in full sunshine :). This city is truly beautiful — even more so on a gorgeous day!

We went back to the hotel (one block away) and scooped up Kathryn for a lunch break — another Chicago experience.  We went to Portillo’s for a Chicago Red Hot.  I am ambivalent, but enjoyed the trial.  We took a cab to the Magnificent Mile and walked a very little, but without my “bike” I tired too easily…..so it was back to a taxi to the Navy Pier.  John and I had seen it MANY years ago and I remembered a modest pier with walk up shops; it was in January and covered with snow so that may have contributed to a false memory.  However, it was much, much larger and more modern than my memory — and the shops were all inside — all weather friendly now.

During all of this John was in contact with his law partner, Sandy Esserman, who told us that his 92 year old mother, Ruth Esserman, was having an art showing opening of her most recent work that evening.  We pushed back our dinner and joined them briefly to celebrate with her.  Ruth was so surprised that we were there; she took us back to her studio to show us where she worked.

The one above is my photo of the opening invitation print — also the real one was my favorite in the show.

With Ruth:

Kathryn had asked for Italian so we went to The Village, the oldest Italian restaurant in Chicago; it was very good!  Plus, I had asked for a quiet table — and they put us in our own little “room” — just big enough for our table — very romantic for the three of us!

The next morning the sightseeing with Kathryn began; we were off to the 360 Degrees Experience at the top of the John Hancock Building.  You could see all four directions, pose for pictures, learn about the city and more.  It was interesting.

Navy Pier below…..

Afterward, we walked again on the Magnificent Mile, but this time with me on the scooter.  I was very struck by the HUGE support for Pride Month — even spotting a pride flag on a church.  It made me very happy…..

And I loved the Burberry Building.

John introduced Kathryn to Uni Qlo — a Japanese clothing store that is very hip and very reasonable.  Both of them had a great time shopping away….  Then we grabbed a quick lunch at Shake Shack — great cheeseburgers and fries!!!

We went into the Apple Store situated right on the Chicago River.  It is totally glass and (surprise) beautifully high tech.

We ended our day of sightseeing at the Art Institute of Chicago.  It is so massive, but we concentrated our time at the Impressionists, the Modern art and a special exhibit of Manet.

But we were not yet finished — we crossed the street into Milennium Park to look at the Gehry designed J. Pritzker Pavillion and the “Bean”.  So beautiful and whimsical.

We were exhausted — what a full and fabulous day!  We rested for awhile, but John had an inspiration — tickets for Second City!  We zoomed over to that area having scored tickets “on the rail” — great seats!  Not much time for food so we ended up at a Chipotle almost next door — should have waited for the Second City food, I think.  It was a funny show — we laughed a lot.

Now we truly were exhausted — got back to the hotel and fell out with a promise of “no rush” on Sunday.

John and Kathryn made a pack that we had to go back to Wildberry on Sunday for breakfast — 35 minute wait and worth every minute.  I had a senior special:  one egg, one bacon and a side of Berry Bliss French Toast (luckily only two large halves).  Spot on…  The others split a full order of chocolate chip pancakes and extras.  They look a little messy in the pictures because we had already cut into them before the picture!!!!!

Kathryn’s cauliflower hash browns — not bad…..

At the  hotel:

 

We went back to the room, packed up, checked our bags and took off for the Shedd Aquarium.  I don’t know for sure, but it must be one of the best aquariums in the world.  Truly amazing shows:  we watched a movie about “Monsters of the Deep”,  ended our visit with a Dolphin and Beluga Whale show.  And wandered through all of the exhibits.  John said it wouldn’t be crowded — it was very crowded as I thought it would be on a Sunday in the summer!!!

Finally, we had our Chinese food that was scheduled originally for Saturday night at MingHin.  A lovely ending to a lovely weekend.

We kissed Kathryn good-bye back at the hotel, picked up our bags then found out our flight was 30 minutes later than its original 8:20 p.m. departure.  So we sat in our hotel lobby for awhile while he played on his computer and I wrote this blog…..

See you next trip!

Beth

P.S.  So much for that “happy ending”.  We waited around in the hotel lobby then headed to the airport — only to find out that our 8:30 departure was delayed until 10:20 p.m.  At 10:00 p.m., our flight was cancelled due to weather AND THE FACT THAT DALLAS LOVE FIELD HAD LOST ALL COMMUNICATION!  John jumped up and got us rescheduled to get to Houston Hobby that night, but she tried to put us on a connection to Dallas at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, but it sold out while we were at the counter.  We said to just get us to Houston.    Surely we could get a car or a bus.

Turns out that EVERYTHING was sold out — must have been some weather event!!!  We scored a room at the Marriott Courtyard and fell into bed at 2:30 a.m.  In the morning, no rental cars, no flights, no buses.  John reserved us a seat on an 8:00 p.m. American flight.  I called Southwest and talked to a great agent who got us back on to the 3:30 p.m. flight — boarding at 5:20 p.m.  She held the seats but I had to ride back to the airport, stand in line and get new tickets.  Good news (if any) = no additional charge.  Bad news = no reimbursement for a hotel if a weather event.  Worse news — no clean clothes, no brush, no makeup and a LONG day….

And then, once we got to the airport, we were able to get on a flight that left at 4:40 p.m. — another welcome improvement.  And then, when John got to baggage claim in Dallas, it appeared that our suitcase had just recently arrived as an agent was moving that pile of the suitcases to the back as John went for it…….glad that part was easy.  Apparently, while we were in the airport the skies opened in Houston dumping 3 inches in 30 minutes — must have been while we were in a restaurant; we didn’t notice or hear…..

But the even better news: the AA tickets were 7500 miles each plus $70 total (I think).  When we switched back to the SWA flight, John called AA and was told it was an additional $150 to put the miles back into our account…..BUT, if the flight was more than an hour late we could get our miles and money back at no cost……and the flight was at least an hour and a half late, so John called and we got out of that one clean — hip, hip, hooray!!!

It was all worth the hassle!  Bye!!!

Beth