We went on a quick weekend trip to Chicago to go to a concert, celebrate my birthday and to visit with friends and family. Courtney and I picked up Jack at his place at 12:30 and hit the road for an easy car ride to CHI arriving around 5:00PM CST. We stayed at Soupy’s place in the south loop which is wonderful – even a free place to park. We visited with Soupy for a bit before he left to go to the Loyola BB game with friends. We then hit the pavement and walked for about an hour and a half down to Michigan Ave, then walked along the river walk and then cut back across the loop back to the south loop. We had an excellent dinner at Sofi on Printer’s Row and then stopped for a glass of wine at Printers Row Wine Shop and then walked black and quickly fell asleep.
It was a beautiful night to be walking downtown.The Riverwalk is amazingEnjoying a nightcap at a cool little wine bar on Printers Row
Saturday, March 2, 2024
I walked across the train tracks on Saturday morning to get some bagels and fixings for breakfast from a Whole Foods. It was already fixing to be a beautiful day.
After breakfast we did a walking architecture tour that I put together – focusing on 10 buildings mostly in the loop.
The Manhattan building – 1889.The Old Colony Building – 1893.Monadnock Building – 1891 and 1893.The beautiful Fisher Building – 1895.Going into the Harold Washington Library – 1991.The top floor of the library has a beautiful indoor winter garden.
Exterior detail of the Marquette building – 1895.
The lobby of the Marquette building. Each of the brass elevators has a bust of someone who played a part in Marquette’s history.
Admiring the spectacular Tiffany mosaics, tile-work and marble in the Marquette building.
The Rookery – 1888.
The amazing lobby of the Rookery – Frank Lloyd Wright – 1905.Chicago Theatre – 1921.City Hall – 1911.The Aqua – 2009.We walked back along the park, stopped for lunch on the way and took a rest for an hour or so before heading out again.We drove out to the Chicago Botanical Gardens to meet George, Weston and Maddie.It was a beautiful day to walk around the dormant gardens – knowing that Spring was right around the corner.It was a beautiful afternoon and Iook forward to going back when everything is in bloom.After saying goodbye to George and the kids we drove down to Lincoln Park and met Andrew at Pequod’s on our everlasting quest for the best pizza. We’ve never been there before and it is on top of many best of lists for CHI pizza – but we found it just mehhhh. It was great to see Andrew though.We drove just a few miles to the concert venue, parked, and walked to have a quick beer at Off Color Brewery and then headed to the show.The show was at The Salt Shed – the iconic Morton Salt warehouse that we have driven by dozens of times. It was converted into a concert venue about a year ago and it is fantastic. Everything is new, the sound is great and it is pretty small. Courtney and I bought seats with this great view and Jack had floor tix.Show was great. Greensky Bluegrass is so great to see live. This is the second time we have see them and I can’t wait to see them again. Such vibes.
Show lasted until about midnight – we got out with zero probs and were back at Soupy’s in less than 15 minutes.
We woke up early the next day and met Soupy at Walker Brothers in Wilmette for breakfast. We all ordered 49 flapjacks. Duh. Can’t resist perfection. We headed out after breakfast happy with our quick weekend trip.
Eat On Edgecliff 