Sept 17, Friday
States seen: Wisconsin, Illinois (somewhat new), Indiana
(new- but I’ll explain)
So, we took our time this morning leaving since Chicago, our
final destination, was only 2 hours away. Got up pre-dawn and hoofed it down to
Lake Michigan to take pics of the sunrise. We were not disappointed. Met a lady
walking her dog and talked to her for a while; and got to pet the pup too.
Got some breakfast and headed out around 9ish. We passed
into Illinois, but only got crappy, blurry pics of the state sign.
This is my first time in Illinois, unless you
count the fact that we crossed the Mississippi river while we were visiting St.
Louis a few years back so we could say we were in Illinois. But we didn’t see
much there, just kind of crossed in and then left. This would be the first real
visit.
Got to the Chicago area around 11,
but couldn’t check into
the hotel until around 4, so we had some time to kill. But… we also had some
tasks to accomplish. My wife’s family was from Chicago, and she had spent some
summers here in her childhood at her grandparents’ house (dad’s side).
So, we went to see that house, in the Schiller Park
neighborhood to the east and slightly north of Chicago. Took some pics and she reminisced about previous visits.
Then we went to the house where her mom grew up, at least
after WWII, in the Wood Dale neighborhood. I talked to a neighbor, a Mexican
guy from Zacatecas that had lived there for 21 years.
Then we went to Sweet
Baby Ray’s BBQ just down the street. Yep, the famous BBQ sauce you find in
stores. Got some great food there.
Then we went to the Montrose cemetery to see if we could
find and take pictures of a few grave sites where some ancestors are buried.
Shell’s sister, Carey, had asked if we could do this. But we couldn’t get the
info from the cemetery staff, so we left. We drove streets through a lot of the
city but took the express lanes at some point downtown. We were still too early
so we decided to do a cheap visit to Gary, Indiana, so I could say I’d been in
that state too.
We drove across the state line about half a mile to a Wal Mart,
where we could use the bathroom, and buy a few supplies.
Still too early to head to the hotel, we stopped at a DQ and
got a sundae, talked with some people, then headed up streets, back into
Illinois, through South Side Chicago to downtown. Like I said, we were
technically in Indiana, but I can’t really claim to have ‘seen’ it, since we
just went barely across the state line.
We made our way over to Lake Shore Dr. and stopped to get
some pics of the Lake, beaches and the skyline off the 31st Street
Beach.
Then we headed up to our hotel- the Travelodge off Harrison
and Wabash.
From our room, you could see a bit of the skyline to the north,
and
again, cramming up against the window, some of Lake Michigan to the east.
Parking had no in-and-out privileges, so we just left it, went and got a Metra
card to use for the L and either walked, if close enough, or took the L to
places we wanted to see.
We walked north up to the Chicago River Walk,
…got some pics
of the city,
then went to dinner just north of Millennium Park. When we came
out, it was raining, but not too much. We decided to walk over to the park and
get some pics of the Bean at night, but since there was lightning, the cops
wouldn’t let us in.
I’ve heard jokes that go: if you don’t like the weather,
just wait about 5 minutes and it’ll change. I now get it. Chicago was a
constant guessing game about what the weather would be. There were moments of
wind and chill, hours where it was sunny, hot and humid, times when it was
overcast, but still warm and humid, rain, and cool weather. All within 2 days