Well hello! Fancy seeing you here. Sorry to have kept you waiting (again), I’ve just been oh so busy…

Last time we checked in with everyone we had just arrived in Chicago. Remember that ooey gooey cheesy deep dish pizza pic? I sure do! Don’t worry, there will be more food photos to come…and probably a few other things that we saw and did as well.

Our first day in Chicago was a pretty slow-paced one. Dan and Anne (with whom we stayed) were busy doing their new-parent-thing, which meant we were free to roam around their apartment and look in all their drawers! (Just kidding you guys 😁) we had an overflowing bag of dirty laundry and Brian was down to his last pair of undies, so that was our #1 priority. We also took the opportunity to shower, as those tend to be in short supply whilst travelling. Keep in mind this was Monday the 2nd, AKA Labor Day, so we were a bit limited as far as things to do because a lot of places were closed. We ended up binge watching some Euphoria (the addiction continues) and finishing the season…I’m unsure how I feel about it. We finished all our laundry and reveled in our pile of clean clothes! By late afternoon it was time to venture out in search of food and to purchase some Ventra cards to get us around on the beautiful and efficient Chicago public transit system for the duration of our stay…and, of course, to go admire the “Second City” itself.

We headed in the general direction of the iO Theatre to see an improv show, as Brian is a big fan and was heavily involved in some Chicago improv stuff back in his day. We watched the Armando Diaz experience, a long-form style show in which a guest comes on stage to tell a story in several parts and the improvisors run with ideas based on those story chunks. These guys worked really well with each other and we got some hearty chuckles out of their show! We wandered upstairs for a free open mic show after, which was a little…cringey.. in places, but kudos to those folks for getting up on stage in the first place.

The next day we slept in for a loonnngggg time… How out of character for us! Our first stop for the day was the Pick Me Up Cafe. This was another regular spot of Brian’s when he used to live in the city and he’d taken me there on our previous trip together to Chicago. If any of you plan to go to Chicago, do yourselves a favor and make a pit stop there. The food is so delicious. I’ve only had breakfast dishes but the menu is vast and the cafe is open all day. They have lots of vegetarian/vegan options and delicious desserts and shakes too! We both had scrambly breakfast type dishes and split a brownie shake, but alas…no pictures.

After filling our bellies with some tasty grub it was time to don our tourist hats and hit some major sights. Our main focus for the afternoon was Millennium Park. As we had expected, “The Bean” (or the Cloud Gate, if you want to use its fancy real name) was crowded with tourists all the way around. But we’re tourists too, so we dived in for some selfies! We stopped by other points of interest throughout the park with which I was heretofore unfamiliar, including their concert venue and a wacky display of water-spitting faces on screens. Very silly. We walked around the park for a while as the sun went down and got some lovely views of the city. After that it was time for more food!

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We decided to go for some Thai/Japanese fusion this evening, stopping by a little restaurant called Thai Spoon. Brian is usually not a big fan of sushi but he’s willing to try it every now and then. I, on the other hand, had been jonesing for some for quite a while. We got vegetable gyoza, a spider roll, and “vegetable delight” and split it all. It was delightful! Again, no pictures of the food this time – just some wall art with a hungry lad in front.

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The next day, the 4th, we went down to Navy Pier for some more touristy stuff. Brian said hello to some old friends who work at Sea Dog, a river/lakefront boat tour company (which Brian used to work for back in the day! I’m sensing a theme here…) We got tickets for the architecture river tour at 1:15 and waited patiently near the dock for our turn to ride the boat. At a little after 1pm we headed in for a bathroom break before the boat left, and by 1:12 when we got back outside…the boat had departed. Without us. Nooooo!!! I was so bummed… spent too long looking at cute bangs on the internet and before I knew it it was time to go. Don’t browse the internet on the toilet, people. BUT ALSO…the boat left 3 minutes early! What’s up with that!? Either way I was very disappointed in our wasted time. We decided that, instead of hopping on the lakefront tour that we’d both done before, we’d come back tomorrow for the river tour – EARLY this time!

The day wasn’t completely wasted, though. After the Sea Dog fiasco we treated ourselves to some Potbelly’s sandwiches. The location we dined at happened to be right across the street from our other main attraction for the day – The Art Institute of Chicago. We have both been here multiple times before, both together and apart, but it was near the top of our list of things we just had to do. The exhibits change frequently and there is a large collection of really cool art that calls this place home. The exhibit du jour was all about posters from the London underground – how cute! They had some beautiful posters and lots of cool information about the city of London and its attractions at the time. There was an exhibit on Manet as well, but that one cost extra. Oh well! We had more things to see and do than we had time in which to see/do it all already. We decided to split up and come back together at the end to gush over all the cool things we’d seen. The museum closed at 5:30 and we were shuffled out on the dot by the staff who were QUITE ready to go home, thank you very much. This was fine by us, though, as we had a dinner appointment to keep.

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Anne had been working and Dan was between jobs with a list of tasks to accomplish, not to mention the needs of infant Ava to tend to, so we really hadn’t seen a whole lot of our hosts up until this point during our stay. We had decided to order in some dinner after Ava was asleep so that we could all spend some grown-up time catching up and hanging out. We spent about 45 minutes deciding on food and ultimately went with some delicious Italian dishes from Pasta Al Gusto. We talked about life and jobs and “growing up” and performing arts and all kinds of things until we were all tuckered out and ready for some sleep. Before this visit I had said maybe a handful of words to Anne and Dan combined, as my only previous meeting with them had been at their wedding 2 years prior. It was great getting to know each other better – and all the more for having done so over truly delicious pasta!

We had to go to sleep at a reasonable time so that we could get up to catch that dang boat before it left the next day. We set 2 or 3 alarms and grumbled profusely about getting out of bed. Brian had slept terribly and thrown up a couple of times in the night for some reason, so I had my doubts that we’d make it down there at all. Luckily he awoke feeling much better, though understandably sleeby. We hustled our butts down to the pier and made it in time for our tour! The next 75 minutes were filled with silly quips from the tour guide, lots of craning necks up at buildings, and all kinds of information about the city of Chicago and the lifeblood that is the Chicago River, which they forced to flow backwards in the late 19th century. I had neglected to put on sunscreen in my haste to leave in the morning and thus disembarked with a bright pink nose… and a noggin full of fresh knowledge.

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Due to our lapses in judgment and tendency to sleep forever, we were left in a bit of a pickle trying to fit in all the other items on our Chicago itinerary. We had time to stop by the little beach near the pier, but our next destination was tricky to choose. The John Hancock building could be fun, but we wanted to get lunch and the restaurant up there was comically overpriced. The Museum of Science and Industry came highly recommended, but would only be open for about 2 more hours by the time we made it over there. Instead of getting frazzled, we conceded that we’d have plenty of time to do all that stuff when we inevitably move to Chicago. We would just relax and enjoy the rest of our time today wandering to wherever we ended up.

….yeah, I said it!
I mean, we have the rest of the trip to go still. But let’s be honest – we just frickin’ lo0o0o0ove Chicago. Who’s gonna come visit when we move!? We’re taking reservations.

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With that in mind, we were off in pursuit of some tasty lunch and some more Chicago-esque sightseeing. We decided on Epic Burger for lunch, a small chain burger joint which has Beyond Meat burgers AND brats! Cool! After that we soaked up some authentic sights and sounds of the city by…. catching a movie. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood! That killed a good 3 hours, by which time we were scheduled to go visit another old college buddy of Brian’s at his place of employment.

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Alex, Brian’s first roommate assigned to him at Columbia College of Chicago, had suggested we visit him at the Mouse Trap taproom for some yummy Off Color Brews. We had also seen Alex when we were last in town but so much has happened since then! It was great to see him and to share stories and updates. We spent lots of time sipping beers and catching up and discovered that we had all been in Coeur d’Alene at the same time in July! For at least 24hrs! Ain’t life wacky?

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We stayed til closing and then stumbled back out into the street, somehow managing to find our way back to Dan and Anne’s. On their street, to my delight, we saw ANOTHER skunk!! We proceeded with caution as this fella was alone and giving us a bit of stink-eye, so to speak. After giving him a wide berth, we went to check on Lloyd who had been Llonely for a few days. There had previously been signs where we parked saying that street sweeping came on Friday mornings and that parking was prohibited at that time, but when we got there to check (late Thursday night) the signs had been removed. We decided everything was probably fine and we probably wouldn’t be towed and headed back to the building. On the way we saw…at long last…a raccoon!!! A real-life, first-one-I’ve-ever-seen TRASH PANDA! Lil grabbies and all!! He was scurrying around in a tree so we left him to it, but my little heart was bursting with the preciousness. As if that wasn’t enough, we saw a little opossum waddling up the street not a minute later! It was a little far away but there was no denying the bright white face and rat tail dragging along behind. 3 kinds of vermin in one day!!! Lucky us!!
(I kid, of course. They’re all adorable and cool and NOT vermin and I love them all and skunks are actually good for gardens and stuff…thanks for coming to my TED talk.)

We had been up pretty late with all the storytelling and wildlife viewing, but we had to wake up earlier than usual on the 6th (our final morning in Chicago) to bid farewell to Dan, Anne and Ava. We took a picture together and said our goodbyes and let them get on with their days…and then we slept for a little while longer ☺️ Dan and Anne, thank you again for your hospitality and willingness to let us stinky weirdos inhabit your home for almost a whole week! You guys are great and we are so grateful. And Dan, you were right – Ava is a pretty dope baby 😎

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From Chicago we were headed to the Indiana Dunes National Park. Little did we know we’d spend about $8 on tolls getting there. Curse you, Midwest highways!! And more are coming…

The Lakeshore itself was a pretty little stop. We almost got directed into the state park, which would have cost money, but the lovely lady in the entrance booth explained the different areas to us and sent us in the correct direction. We spent about an hour on the beach watching the waves and nibbling some mixed nuts, careful not to let the seagulls overhead see our snacks… Then it got chilly and windy, so we were back on the road toward our home for the night – the New Buffalo Welcome Center/Rest Area in New Buffalo, Michigan!

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According to Google reviews (a mighty reliable source IMO) “Michigan is awesome because it allows 24hrs.” …That is to say, you may rest at a rest stop for 24hrs before any authorities will come along and hassle you. This was wonderful news. This rest stop was lovely. The information booth was closed but it still had access vending machines, water fountains and bathrooms 24/7. There were fully stocked shelves of pamphlets and maps inside the building, in which I found a brochure for the one and only Paw Paw Wine and Harvest Festival in Paw Paw, MI. Say no more!

To our delight, Paw Paw was only an hour drive away and the festival was taking place at the very same time we were in town! It was a weekend-long affair and we were able to spend all day Saturday at the festival….well, almost all day. We slept too late to see the Turtle Derby, which ended at noon ☹️ but with time zone confusion and an hour drive, it was never meant to be. Nevertheless, our time in Paw Paw was a lovely little surprise. We saw horse-drawn carriages, some gorgeous classic cars, sampled a variety of wines (paired with amazing cheese and chocolate, no less!), ate the most delicious grilled veggie quesadilla of my entire life, and drank some local craft beers while boozy folks of all ages rocked out to hair metal cover bands. If there’s a better way to spend a Saturday in Michigan, I don’t want to hear about it.

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We spent another peaceful night without disturbance at a rest area in Coldwater, MI after a scary swervy situation involving a raccoon running across the road… we all survived. In the morning we were headed out of Michigan and into Cleveland!

Come on down to Cleveland town, everyone…

Little did we know, our arrival in Cleveland also coincided with the Cleveland Browns playing at home against the Tennessee Titans. We held our breath and headed downtown anyway, hoping to find somewhere to park that wouldn’t cost an arm and a leg. As luck would have it, we happened upon a public lot that only charged $5 for the whole day and had a bizarre box that you had to poke money into with a special tool on a wire…anyway, enough about that. We hopped on a free shuttle (very cool of you, Cleveland) and were en route to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame! 🤘

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This was one of my must-see stops on the trip the minute I found our we’d be in the general vicinity. So much history and nerdy band trivia for me to soak up! We arrived just as people were starting to filter out of the stadium and had a weird feeling of swimming upstream in a big river of orange and brown. We only had about 2½hours to explore the R&RHoF before it closed so we split up to cover more ground. There are 4 floors to explore with different types of exhibits on each. We moved through at a good pace and ended up being juuust about finished by the time the velvet ropes started coming down and we were ushered toward the gift shop. We spent a grand total of $1.50 on a sweet guitar sticker to add to Lloyd’s cargo box hat, a memento of our short but sweet time in the “Mistake on the Lake” (that’s a real nickname…)

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We worked up an appetite whizzing through 4 storeys of rock memorabilia so our next item of business was some delectable Cleveland cuisine! Which, of course, is…….
???
We were stumped too. Google gave us a whole list of different options with nothing in particular sticking out as an “authentic Cleveland staple.” We ended up deciding on a Ty Fun, a Thai restaurant that came highly recommended. It was a little outside of the downtown area in a neighborhood called Tremont. Brian and I split some spring rolls and a #63…whatever that was. Brian said, and I quote: “that might have been the best Thai food I’ve ever had.” It was scrumdiddlyumptious. The picture’s messy because we couldn’t wait!

As we strolled back toward the car, we pondered life in this little neighborhood. There were cute affordable houses and tasty restaurants nearby…but something tells me Cleveland won’t be on our list of potential homes. Don’t take it personally, Cleveland. Chicago is a tough act to follow.

That night was spent at another rest area, this time the teeny tiny appropriately named “Rest Area” in Irondale, OH. The water in the taps was yellow and smelled like rust… But it was a quiet enough place to sleep. Upon entering we saw a police car lingering across the street and Brian worried that we might get hassled for staying too long, but I’d read up on the Ohio state rest area codes and discovered NO time limits! I KNOW MY RIGHTS!! AM I BEING DETAINED!?! Plus the 5 or 6 big rigs between us and him were probably not going anywhere.
Did we make it through the night? Find out next time on…….26 Sundays.
XOXO