Day 24

     What a fun day yesterday was.  I've realized that being down here can be pretty expensive and that I have to take advantage of the free or discounted stuff when I can.  TWIK has always been much more money conscience than me.  That's why she is such a fan of Groupon.  But yesterday I did pretty well.   Below are the pictures to prove it, free day at the Chicago MCA, while walking to Burrito Beach for lunch I was handed some Chicago Blend, put on my temp tattoo and scored a free burrito bowl, and then walked to Sprinkle's for a free cupcake (which I gave to TWIK).  Besides paying for a Diet Coke at BB, I didn't have to open my wallet ~ winning!  (too 4 months ago?)

Henri Matisse drawing at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art

Free Chicago Blend street pop corm from Garrett's

Free burrito bowl  from Burrito Beach

All I had to do was wear a temporary tattoo.

Free cupcake and coffee to promote the movie
"People Like Us".

   

     Then I went back to the apartment and waited for the boarding time for our Lake Michigan dinner cruise on the Mystic Blue.  We had a Groupon!!  It was very fun; good food, the staff falls all over you and we had nearly perfect weather.

The Ol' MB

Enjoying the beautiful skyline

Said skyline

     Today we traded in Chicago for Milwaukee to attend the opening day of Summerfest.  It's not a bad drive and TWIK had the day off so we exercised a little and then drove up to Wisconsin.  We had free tickets from a radio promotion last month.  The food was so so, basic state fair fare.  But the music was good.  I used to be amazed by all of the tattoos that I see whenever I go to Milwaukee, but it's not any different from down here anymore so NBD.  I'm posting a video of a guy that was really awesome.

Day 22

Inside Jane Addams' Hull House

     This post is going to be relatively short because we spent most of the last 5 days in Lisle and as anyone from there knows not much usually happens.  So going back to Thursday of last week I decided that I should do something that would be a benefit to my job and so I walked to Hull House which is located on the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago.  I teach about Jane Addams and her work in the settlement house movement every year so I thought going there and getting pictures to show  to my classes might encourage them to go and check it out for themselves.  I won't say that it is riveting, but you can spend a pleasant hour there and make the trip worth the effort especially if you can tie some of the memorabilia to things we talk about in class.

All this for $6.99.

    As soon as I walked out of the front door of Hull House it began to rain.  This was really the first day I had rain on any of my walks all summer.  The weather has been very cooperative.  A couple blocks to the south is the famous Maxwell Street, home of great Chicago Blues music.  It's not anything like it was back in the day, but there is a sense of nostalgia there and some very good restaurants.  So I went into Hash Browns Cafe.  If you go to there website they have some interesting stuff.  They also have great food for very good prices if you're there for the lunch special.  I was very impressed 5 out of 5 bricks.  Here is some of the Maxwell Street trivia found on their website:

SOME MAXWELL STREET FACTS

• Maxwell Street is where the Maxwell Street Polish Sausage sandwich originated.
• The famous direct-sales entrepreneur Ron Popeil began as a street vendor at the Maxwell Street Market.
• The Maxwell Street Police Station, at Maxwell and Morgan Streets, was “Hill Street Station” in the 1980’s television series Hill Street Blues.
• Maxwell Street was featured in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers. The scene opens with John Lee Hooker playing his song “Boom Boom” on Maxwell Street.

East All Stars dugout.

     Friday was basically a non-eventful day because we went back to Lisle to get ready for the State All Star game in Peoria on Saturday, the church picnic on Sunday, and Ty's graduation party next Saturday. The game was fun and overall a nice way to conclude a great season for my son who exceeded all of my expectations and impressed a lot of people during the year. If you've followed along on my Facebook page then you know that he has won just about every award that a high school baseball player in the state of Illinois can win.

Maybe the highest spot in the western suburbs

    On Sunday we stayed in Lisle and went to church at LBC and then to Blackwell Forrest Preserve for our annual church picnic.  I got a little bit of walking/hiking in there and climbed up Mt. Trashmore, nicknamed that because it was created with landfill and until very recently still burned off the methane that was vented there.  It's a great sled hill in the winter and a nice little heart accelerator before a hike.  Afterwards we gathered all of our lawn and deck furniture and moved it to the Kulavich house for our joint graduation party next Saturday.  A lot of work is going into the planning and preparation for this party and fortunately other people are doing it.

Looking north from the sun deck.

     Which brings us to today.  I'm writing this around 2:00 pm.  So far I have breakfasted on the sun deck and going to the pool and once again attempted to swim laps.  But I don't really have too much ambition today to much else than cruise the Internet and blog.  I will make myself get outside on the streets at some point but for now I'm content just to look out the window and playing on the computer.  Wow, that is not how I envisioned "The Summer of Brick", but it's like the saying goes, "I need a vacation from my vacation" or at least a short break.  Don't worry I have lots of stuff planned for the rest of the week.

      Revised: I did go for a walk to Oak Street Beach and watched the waves hit like a calm ocean.  See the video below.

Day 17

Some random woman on a bike.

    Our big activity on Monday was to rent bikes to ride up and down the lake front.  TWIK had the day off work and of course she had a Groupon so we planned the entire day around this ride.  We picked the bikes up around Belmont Harbor and then rode them up to the north shore Loyola campus.  Then we turned around and rode them back to Navy Pier and headed west to go eat lunch, more about that in a minute.  Afterwards we made our way back to the lakefront and rode back up to return the bikes.  It wasn't completely exhausting, but that was the first time I've been on a bicycle in a very long time.  I did feel it the next day.  We rode 18.5 miles and completely enjoyed a beautiful Chicago afternoon.

Soup to die for.

     Now about that lunch, I had read a Yelp review about a place called the Soupbox and they had rated it the best place for lunch in the Streeterville area.  So I looked at the menu and mostly all they serve is soup.  I'm not a huge soup as a meal guy, but I said that we should try it.  OH MY GRAVY!  It was the best soup I have ever had.  I ordered the lobster bisque which is the house specialty and I was in soup heaven.  I wish I could give it 5 bricks, but it was a little pricey for soup so I'll go as high as 4.5 bricks.  The sourdough bread they serve with it was also excellent and we dined al fresco, mostly so we could keep an eye on the bikes, and that made it a completely cool Chicago experience.

When in doubt head to Navy Pier.

     Yesterday I made a quick trip back to Lisle and then we had friends that were going to come down for the evening and so they picked me up and we drove back into the city.  Sorry to be cryptic about who, but they are not ready to go public with their relationship yet so I'm just going to call them "some friends I know".  The plan was to go back see the apartment, go up on the sun deck and look at the city and wait for TWIK to get off work and then head to the Grande Lux (almost always our first choice with new guests).  The problem was the roof was locked because of the wind.  So plan B was to walk to Navy Pier to kill time.  It was fun watching them act young.  Dinner and the night were a success and it also meant beignets for breakfast.

     Which brings me to today.  This week the Shedd Aquarium is having free admission for Illinois residence.  Now I realize when you offer something free in a city of 2.7 million people a couple of them are probably going to take advantage of the offer.  But really that was/is okay with me if I've got the time and right now I do.  So I waited in line for about an hour and I got to see a load of interesting people and interaction.  I did get a little sunburned and I'm sure I'm going to get in trouble for that.  The Shedd was as always entertaining and I got a good suggestion from a friend who is a volunteer diver there to check out these guys found in the video above.  Completely cool to just stand there and watch.  All told the walk to and from, the wait, and the time spent at the aquarium was about 5 1/2 hours.  I took a short nap afterwards and then went and attempted to swim laps; boy do I need help.  Another great couple of days in "The Summer of Brick".

I will conquer lap swimming, I will!!

Day 14 (Father's Day Edition)

In front of the famous Moody Church

     I am on fire, two updates in two days.  Actually I had such a great day I just thought I would post about it while it is fresh in my mind.  When TWIK and Ty ask what I wanted to do on Father's Day the only thing that I really wanted was to go to Moody Church for their special service.  I had gone to their Men's Conferences in the past and I knew that they would be impressed by the building and the service.  So that was the main thing that I was looking forward to.  I didn't really know if the two had anything else in store for me.  It began with breakfast in bed with coffee and pastries from Pierrot Gourmet.  This is a 5 out of 5 bricks rating for both the coffee and the chocolate croissant. In addition I had an audio Father's Day card from my favorite television show "Modern Family" with a nice message from my son.  My presents included a swim cap, swim goggles, and a Groupon for a flying lesson and an actual flight behind the stick.  It should be interesting.  I love that during our trip to Bloomington I mentioned that I had been trying to learn to swim laps in the pool at our apartment and Ty used that info to determine his gift for me.  It was thoughtful and just what I wanted even if I didn't realize it.  I really liked the thought behind the gift as much as I liked the gift.  The second gift I'm pretty sure came from TWIK.  I'm intrigued about the opportunity, but I don't remember ever saying it was something I wanted to do.  Perhaps she is thinking of a second career for me.

   

Awesome!

   After breakfast we went to Moody and it was a great sermon and even better time with the fam.  Afterwards Ty surprised me with news that he was able to score tickets to the Cubs game.  But we had to go back Lisle to get them.  During our trip back home I decided that I had the time to replace my computer which had blown up last week.  I went to Costco and I got a great price on a closeout deal and I took it home.  I didn't have time to actually set the thing up, but I'm looking forward to finding sometime next week to get it up and running.  Loving computers is the most geeky thing about me, and I know that I'm opening myself up to lots of possibly clever comments by saying that, but I trust my readers to treat me with respect.

The scoreboard in the background
tells a very sad story.

   
     We were driving back into the city to go to Wrigley when Ty sprang even more good news on me.  He was named to the Illinois AA All State Baseball team.  He really had a phenomenal year!  I'm going to post this on Facebook at sometime when it becomes official, but you get the scoop just because you're willing to read my blog.  The Cubs game was fun like it always is and even more so because our seats were really great but the Cubs dropped another one.  We were sitting in the midst of several Red Sox fans, but when your team is so dismal it's hard to generate much competitive banter knowing that there is little chance that your smack talk won't be in vain.  We came back to the apartment and Ty went back to Lisle because he has to work tomorrow.


     And I'm sitting here just basking in thoughts of another great Father's Day. I am blessed to say that  I've had several in my life, but I think the thought that Ty is going away to college next year makes this one extra special.

Day 13

I need more t shirts like a need
a hole in my head, but that didn't
keep me from buying 3 of them.

     It's been four days between posts because I was away for three of the last four days in God's Country otherwise known as Indiana.  We were registering and orienting the boy for his time at IU.  Now I am very protective of my Chicago time even turning down my annual trip to Paris this summer in order to spend more time downtown.  On top of that just about anything that could go wrong on this trip did including a late night trip to the Emergency Room at Bloomington Hospital.  But the reality is that having the chance to spend three days with Ty was the best Father's Day gift I could have gotten.  It was great talking, hanging out and just sharing the experience of his time on campus.  I'm going to miss him terribly when he goes but I couldn't be happier with the choice that he has made to go to Indiana.  It is a perfect fit for him in so many ways and I've never seen a school that is so accommodating to their students.  He could have gone to an Ivy League school or some other big name school (he was accepted to Northwestern which was the only other school he applied to), but IU was his first choice ever since we visited last summer.  The fact that he was a Wells Scholar finalist didn't hurt either because they treated him so well during the interview process and I think that impressed him as well.  I know it impressed me.  So while he did his thing I walked the campus.

People, boat, Navy Pier

     Getting back late last night I determined that I was going to make the most out of today and boy did I.  I got up and went to our health club, swam, hot tubbed, and showered.  I came back to the apartment and had lunch and then went for a two hour walk.  I went down the lakefront to the Planetarium into Grant Park were I stumbled on the Puerto Rican Day parade.  There were some great "low riders", good music and lots of patriotic people watching the parade.  It was also cool that the parade went through Grant Park because I was able to walk along with it on the sidewalk and not really break stride.  I even think I was on the news because a camera man was filming me as I walked along. 

     After I got back to the apartment TWIK was just getting off from work and she wanted to go for a run.  I told her to knock herself out and while she was jogging I took a short nap.  Once she got back and I got up we started looking for stuff to do.  We had a choice of either a classical music concert at Millenium Park or an 80's cover band at Land Sharks on Navy Pier.  Guess which one won?  I know the quality of the sound and the video are not great, but take my word for it they transported me back to my head banging concert days.  Then to top off the evening we watched the fireworks show before heading home.  That's how you make up for lost (albeit good) time in Indiana.

Day 9

I like this statue of Lincoln found
in Lincoln Park.

    Over the past two days I've felt like I've had my feet back under me, both literally and figuratively.  I've used both days to walk around with no particular destination in mind, just walking in a specific direction.  I do know enough about Chicago I think to know when to stop because it is not all that safe in some areas and since I'm a small town boy turned suburbanite with very little city savvy I'm always going to error on the side of caution.  But I'm only walking in one direction for about an hour and then I'm turning around to go back home.  (I like saying home meaning the Onterie Center.)  Yesterday I walked 8 miles and today I walked 8.5 so I'm on a pretty good pace to realistically walk over 300 miles while we are down here, maybe even more if I would stop eating so much and making my feet hurt.

Iconic Marina City featured in
the Steve McQueen Movie "The Hunter".

     My direction yesterday was north.  I took off down Michigan Ave. and made my way over to Rush St.  It actually goes north-west but by the time I  reached the Lincoln Park neighborhood I was zigzagging streets.  I was walking in the direction of Wrigley field, but my phone told me that it is 5 miles away and I didn't think I was up to a 10 mile walk yesterday.  I have tickets for a game later on this summer so I might be able to do it if I have a baseball game and a couple of hot dogs in between the two 5 mile walks.  The walk was fun, lots of people out.  I especially liked walking by the Moody Church.  They appeared to be having a graduation ceremony there.  On my way back I went to the lake front for the last mile or so.  I really enjoy walking along the lake.

I should crop out the Walgreens but I think
it would be a copyright infringement.  

     Today I decided that I wanted to go into the business district for a while and then head west.  I had a general idea that I was going to go to Greektown and get  a gyro for lunch, but I was going to wait until I got my hour in before I started looking for a place to eat.  We have been spending a lot of money lately on eating out so I went to a cheap fast food Greek place and still had a great lunch.  On the walk back I followed the Chicago River by walking along Wacker Drive.  It's been two great days of walking the streets of Chicago.  I'm not going to say that I could get used to this because I already am.  What is going to be difficult is when August gets here and I have to go back to dumb old Lisle.  I'm going to have to find a new route to walk besides Ogden, I'm getting spoiled down here.

For 10 bonus points:
where would you find this piece of art?

Day 7

Outdoor wedding prelims.  

     Days 4 and 5 were spent in Lisle so not much to report on except Ty played in the Interstate 8 All Star Game and looked good. His senior year of baseball has been phenomenal.   Day 6 started in Lisle with a graduation party and then a very nice wedding out in the country.  Then we went back to the apartment and started a very nice couple of days.  Ty had a guest stay with us.  They went to the Grand Lux which I've already discussed as being an excellent restaurant.  Then later they went to Navy Pier and afterwards we all spent a very pleasant evening.  I'm really glad that we were lucky enough to get a two bedroom because part of the fun has been when people have come to visit with us.

So consider this an open invitation to anyone that would like to come down and spend some time in the city with us.

Kel, the Boy, and TWIK coming from
 our so-so breakfast.

     I got up early this morning and went up to the Sun Deck, afterwards I walked a little by the lake and waited for everyone to get up and moving.  That took awhile, but when they did we took a little walk down the street to eat at Yolk.  Unfortunately there was a long line and we were too hungry to wait.  That was a mistake.  We went to a place called the Streeter Irish Pub and Cafe.  They didn't have a line and with good reason; bad service, high prices, and only so so food.  It was a 2 of 5 Brick rating.  Next time we'll wait.  I have heard lots of good things about Yolk.  We spent sometime at our health club and then spent some time at the lake.

Kim Chee Fried Rice, really good.

     We skipped lunch and then met a friend at Yeowoosai Korean Restaurant for dinner.  It was pretty close to a five brick place.  The only real problem was the price (a little high), but we had a Groupon!  So we are wrapping up the weekend on the couch.  TWIK is reading a book and I'm on the computer, all is right with the world.

Day 3

I love this view.

     So in a way this is going to be a  journal of the events this summer.  I've never kept a journal and I wish that I had during various points in my life.  For example I have very few specific memories from my days coaching.  If I had kept a journal I'm sure that I would have a much more realistic view of how well my teams really did.  In my mind I think I had several undefeated teams with state championships.  But I digress.  Day 2 was relatively uneventful because I was recovering my feet from Day 1, but we did go to the health club here at the Onterie Center.  It is awesome.  It is located on the 10th floor of our building.  It has a pool, hot tub, steam room, sauna, and pretty good exercise equipment.  So I had a pretty good work out there.

I love this picture.

     Day 3 is one I'm going to want to remember.  It started with a quick trip to the Starbucks across the street where I had a free drink postcard.  I came back up to our sun deck on the roof of our 60 story building and enjoyed a venti skinny vanilla latte with a  sun rise over Lake Michigan.  It was very picturesque.  Unfortunately my camera didn't do a very good job with the brightness so I turned it around and shot the picture above.  Afterwards I went and swam a couple of laps and sat in the hot tub.  I then walked to Lincoln Park Zoo.  I walked along the lake front and it was very pleasant.  The zoo was nice and I took pictures of all my favorite animals.  But it's not about the destination, it's about the journey.  Then I walked back.  It was total of 6+ miles and on the way back I took the city path.

   
    When I got home I had a text from TWIK that said she was so busy at work that she didn't have time to eat.  So I thought here is the perfect opportunity to score points... I mean show her how much I love her by taking her something over to eat.  And so a quick trip to Garretts and voila, I'm a rock star.  The only down side is that we are both missing Ty a lot.  Tomorrow he has a Conference All-Star baseball game so it's back to Lisle.  And the jet-setting continues.

I love this caramel corn.

Day 1

I can look on the wall or look out the window.

     Let me tell you about my day yesterday.  It was the first day of being downtown on a workday since my summer break started.  It was the kind of day that I envisioned when I would daydream about living downtown this spring.  Actually I'll add a tidbit about the night before as well because it allows me to post another picture.  On Sunday we went to church in Lisle and had a graduation party to go to but we also made a trip to IKEA.  Now that is not my typical place to shop, but I actually suggested it this time because I wanted to find something to put on the wall at the apartment.  I found something.  So Sunday night we came downtown and I hung my new purchase in our living room.

     Monday arrived and the only thing on my agenda was a retirement party back in Lisle at 5:00 pm.  This woman I know had to work so she was up and moving around 6:00 am and that got me up as well.  I'm pretty sure she enjoyed leaving for her 6:30 start time at 6:15, another reason we are downtown for the next two months.  I looked in the fridge and saw that we needed milk.  I went down the elevator and across the street to the building that houses a Treasure Island grocery store and bought a bottle of Oberwies 2% and came back up and had breakfast and started planning my day.  I decided that I would go back to Lisle early and finish up a few loose ends before the party.  I also decided that I would take the train.  Union Station is 3.25 miles away and that gave me the perfect opportunity to do a couple of the things that I love, walk and people watch.  For an observer like me, Chicago during early morning rush is visual chaos.  It was great!  The train ride, chores, and walk from the train station in Lisle to my house were uneventful.

I read a Facebook post about a free
concert in Millenium Park so I stopped on
my way home to the apartment...Sweet.

     The worst part of my day was the retirement party, not the party itself but my misinterpretation of an email that said this year the party was going to be more casual than last years.  I took that to mean casual attire and so I wore a polo with shorts.  I was the only one of 150 or so guests that made that misinterpretation.  It was very embarrassing.  Since I was only going to stay for an hour going back home to change wasn't much of an option so I just toughed it out.  I'm sure I added a couple of levels to my weirdness quotient in most people's minds, but I hope no one saw it as me being disrespectful.  I caught the 6:38 back to the city and reversed my morning course.  I did stop at a concert for about 10 minutes and then went back to the apartment.  The doorman (yes we have a doorman because we're cool like that) said there was a package for us.  It was our cable box so I hooked that up when I got up to floor 51.  Timet to eat.

     Eating at 9:00 pm in Lisle doesn't happen often for us.  In fact there is about a 50/50 chance that by 9:00  pm in Lisle we are already in bed.  But hey this is the Summer of Brick so anything goes.  We ate in the same building as the Treasure Island at the Bistro Pacific  that serves pan-Asian cuisine.  I had the Chicken Pad Thai and TWIK had Bie Bim Bop.  I'm giving it 4 out of 5 bricks for good food and better than average Chicago prices.

     So that was my exhilarating first real day in the Summer of Brick.  I logged 8 miles walking, did the commuter thing, embarrassed myself among my peers and colleagues, and thoroughly enjoyed myself.  In the words of Ice Cube, "Today was a good day".