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!!