Chicago. The Windy City. Birthplace of Ernest Hemingway and Theodore Dreiser. Site of Upton Sinclair's famous muckraking novel, "The Jungle," a novel which almost singlehandedly changed the meat-packing industry. Gangland. Home to Al Capone, the notoriously corrupt political machine of the Daley family, and the storied '68 Democratic convention. Current home of professional basketball player and secular saint, Michael Jordan. Now, it would be ours, too.
It would be ours, but we would need help. Fortunately, help was forthcoming in the person of Extreme Fellow Traveller Steve, a member of the legendary Schaefer family. We left our hotel room in Michigan City about 8:00 AM after a restful three hours of sleep to drive the hour or so into Chicago and meet Steve. Steve was ready for us with the complete lowdown on sights we might want to see. After a brief conference over Dunkin' Donuts bagels (not fast food!), we decided that we wanted more Frank Lloyd Wright.
We had already seen Wright's masterpiece, Fallingwater, in yesterday's episode, but Chicago is sort of mecca for Frank Lloyd-heads (and, yes, they do like to be called that). Not only were his home and studio right in Chicago (Oak Park, to be exact), but also a large number of houses he designed. We started off by heading over to the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, housed as luck would have it, in Frank Lloyd Wright's old home and studio. Worked out pretty nicely, eh? We got there in plenty of time to make the 11:10 AM tour, so we decided to take a walk around and check out a few houses he designed in the surrounding neighborhood. After some nice conversation in which we solved the world's ills together, we headed back for the tour. Predictably, it was wonderful, affording us even more opportunity to marvel at the genius of Frank Lloyd Wright. Now, if only some knock-off designer could manufacture Wright-like furniture at costs that would not break a Von Rothschild. Or maybe, we could get some as a dowry, now that we're engaged....hmmm. And I was going to settle for two goats and a bushel of corn! |
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| The tour over, we decided it was time to get down to business. Time to tackle the old man, the big daddy, a Genuine to Betsy, good heavens to murgatroid, deeper-than-deep your dish, Chicago pizza. Steve looked us over carefully, taking our measure, trying to see if we were up to the challenge. He spat once, then, and shook his head a little bit, muttering something to himself about "foolish, no account, ne'erdowells." We were a little bit intimidated, but managed to gather our courage for the Assault on Dough. Steve took us to a great place called Gulliver's and sat us down with instructions to stay away from the thin crust and mind we didn't spill too much sauce on our clothing. With that, the frenzy began, bits o' mozzarella carried to the wind with our gnashing and swallowing. When it was over, Steve seemed satisfied with our performance, as if we'd accounted for ourselves respectably. For our part, we were sated, filled to the brim with delicious pie. Thanks, Steve! | |
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Then, it was off to try and catch the Cubbies at Wrigley Field. Steve had to go to work, so we dropped him off at his apartment and headed out to the ballpark. 45 minutes later, we arrived, having had our fill of Chicago traffic. Since it was already an hour after the first pitch, we just took a little tour of the area and snapped the photo at left before heading down to Lake Michigan to dunk our toes in the refreshing waters. |
Exhausted, we decided to treat ourselves to an evening in a hotel. Not any ordinary hotel, though -- the Residence Inn in Iowa's Quad Cities. Do we know luxury, or what? See you next time on the Odyssey!
Total Miles for 8/1 = 310