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.