Goodbye Chicago!

Paul did a great job detailing yesterday’s events, so I’ll try to be brief.  I really enjoyed the zoo, which was beautiful and free (thanks John!).  Even though it was pretty hot yesterday I’m glad we chose to walk back to downtown along the lakeshore.  It never occurred to me that Chicago would have beaches!  They were packed, too, and it looked like everyone was having a good time.  A constant breeze kept the heat bearable, and having a bottle of water along helped.  I still managed to get a sunburn neck, though, because I didn’t reach far enough down with the sun block.  I can now declare that they have at least one redneck in the Midwest.  Live and learn.

The architecture tour on the boat was really cool – it’s a great way to see much of downtown and the guy giving the tour was uber-knowledgable.  (Like crazy-smart.  Like, whoa.)  It was right up my alley, though, and I ate it up.  Despite the heat yesterday it cooled down quickly (which seemed unusual for a city, but I’m not complaining).  We ate outside at a nice Italian place with a table right on the corner – it was fun; busy, but not too noisy.  There was always something to look at, the food was good, and the cool air and breeze made it a beautiful night.  As usual, I ate too much.  Then we went to a froo-froo fro-yo place (seriously, they refer to it as ‘yogurt couture’).  It was pretty tasty, and had much more of a yogurt twang than the usual frozen yogurt stuff.  We came back and crashed: Paul blogged while I tried to read Ecclesiastes and watch Burn Notice (note to self, it’s impossible to both at the same time).

This morning we went to Mass at St. Alphonsus church in Lakeview.  What a gorgeous church!  Stained glass, statues, mosaics, murals, gilded details on the ceiling – the church had it all!  Then we walked down to a really cool restaurant in Old Town (Nookies, see photos for the meals that conquered Paul and I).  The walk was nice, through some interesting neighborhoods.  There were some fighter jets doing drills overhead.  It freaked me out a little but it didn’t look like anyone was diving under tables so I decided we probably weren’t being invaded after and tried to ignore it.  Great breakfast!  Now we’re packing up and off to Milwaukee via Racine.  I know, I know – but there’s some cool buildings there.  Paul is totally humoring me on this stop.  Good man, that Paul.