Chicago.....It's my kind of town!

Thursday - Sunday, July 6-16, 2017

July 6 & 7 
Beginning on July 7th we had another house sitting gig in Chicago.  Our hosts have graciously allowed Joe to come out and visit us while we stay in their home...With that in mind we secured a room at the Residence Inn near O'Hare airport so that we could pick Joe up at 9am on the 7th (we left Elwood at the house sit).  What a great treat to have one of my children with me for my birthday...of course I've decided to change my birthday this year from the 7th to the 8th so that it's a full day of activities separate from meeting our house hosts and pets and while getting situated at the house.

July 8-16
Driving our hosts to the airport has become one of our things....Our host family had an early flight out of O'Hare and Wilson drove them...He would pick them up late on the 15th as well.

Joe will be here until late afternoon Monday.  One of the reasons that he is here is because he has been wanting to see the Broadway musical Hamilton.  Broadway tickets are like gold, luckily the show has begun touring.  In March Joe will be celebrating his 1/4 Century birthday and as we did with Gabriela we wanted to to give him something special to commemorate such an occasion.  Hamilton was the perfect gift for him.  The show will be coming to Boston in October but in researching it, we found that the cost was beyond what we could, in all good conscience, afford.  What we found was that he could fly to Chicago and see the show there (bonus visit for us) for basically less than just seeing the show in Boston...He and I went to the show together on Saturday evening (8/8)....a true gift for each of us.

July 8
Whoooo....hold the horses, I've jumped forward a bit.  We had a full day on Saturday before the show that I didn't even talk about yet.  It was filled with all sorts of activities including a Free Chicago Walking Tour.  We chose the River and North Loop tour, mostly because of the time it was offered and the fact that you get a little bit of everything...history, art, & architecture.  Several large cities offer free walking tours, the only expense is tipping the tour guide.  Based on our experience we will certainly do another if they're offered in any upcoming places we visit.

Interesting Fact:  In order to keep the drinking water clean the flow of the Chicago River was reversed.

Chicago has great food!  For the past three weeks I have been basically carb-free, which was about to end.  You can't visit the Windy City without having a deep-dish pizza.  We went to a place that was recommended to us by our tour guide, which is an off-spring of sorts of the very original deep-dish Chicago tradition...the restaurant was called Pizanos.  We walked into the E. Madison location and were greeted with a feeling of a deep sense of tradition and family right from the get-go.  On top of that we were waited on by "The Chach".  Chach, himself, is a legend in his own right.  He was voted "Best waiter in a pizzeria" in 2012.  He is an over-the-top character that in another time and place could be considered too much but at this place and this time he just added to the charm of the place.  His thing is taking pictures with his guests and having them posted online as well as collecting t-shirts.  When we get to Wilson's cousin's house we will have the shirts that we had made and we plan on sending him one....We're sure he'll never get another one like it since only 24 were printed.

After lunch we headed back home to rest for a bit before Joe and I headed out for the show.  While staying in the suburbs of Chicago we use public transportation to get around.  We are not that far from the Orange Line at Midway airport which is sort of our home base for transportation.  Over the weekend we drive and leave our car in the lot but on the weekdays Wilson and I pick up a bus from around the corner because parking in the lot closest to the station is nearly impossible because of commuters but it's also an extra expense that we don't need.

Leave Lake Hudson, MI - 8:20am - 64°, cloudy

Rte. 156S (8:36 OH welcomes us)►20W(9:25 IN welcomes us)►2W(11:30 Time Change)►20W►94W►65S►30W►43N
1:41pm IL welcomes us

Arrive – Host's Home (drop off Elwood) 2:00pm
►55S►294N►90W►
Arrive - Residence Inn @ O'Hare 2:50pm

Miles traveled - 256.9