Notes from Illinois and Michigan trip

So, this was my first week back to work after vacation with L. We went to Illinois and Michigan to visit family. My grandma lives about an hour outside of Chicago, and L.'s grandparents and some other family live in Detroit.

We flew into O'hare airport on Saturday, July 7. All things considered, our flight was uneventful except for the couple of babies on board who proved to have healthy lungs. My dad picked us up from the airport, and we stopped at the White Castle for some wrap burgers. I suppose that some things are just better left to the recesses of our minds, since it was clear that my memory of the burgers was fonder than they actually were. Perhaps this is because I no longer eat fast food, so I'm not really used to it anymore. I dunno. Anyway, we then drove out to check in at our hotel in DeKalb. The room we got was so-so, but it worked for having a place to crash and take a shower. We spent most of our time with my dad and grandma anyway.

We did a lot in the few days that we were there. On Sunday, we drove all over rural Illinois to see the various farmhouses that have been in my family for generations. They have all been sold to other families now, but there is a rich history of farming from both my mom's and my dad's families. One of the highlights of this part of the trip was our visit to Starved Rock, which is a really beautiful location with a dark past. We had lunch at the lodge and then wandered around the grounds looking at all of the amazing chainsaw-cut sculptures. It seems so random to be up on cliffs in such a flat part of the country. The weather was mercifully mild, although we were subject to one whopper of a storm on Monday night to the point where power had gone out in our hotel room for awhile and we had to navigate through some pretty deep water to get back.

On Tuesday morning, dad drove L. and me to Chicago to pick up a rental car. From there, L. and I drove to Detroit to visit L.'s family. The drive was pretty nice with the exception of our stop in Hammond, Indiana. We made the unfortunate mistake of getting off of the freeway to get gas and snacks, and had a heck of a time getting back on to the freeway. I kind of forgot that toll freeways are a little trickier than our freeways in Washington state, since there has to be a toll to get on or off, and sometimes when you get off of the freeway there isn't a corresponding on-ramp nearby. We drove around for about an hour before we finally stopped at the CVS pharmacy so that I could pee and buy a map. L. was completely against buying a map, but I did it anyway and we were then able to figure out how to get on a different freeway that met up with the one that we had gotten off of. All in all, a very stressful event that we now laugh about. The highlight of this drive was stopping at the Cracker Barrel somewhere off of the freeway in Michigan. There are no Cracker Barrel restaurants on the west coast, which is really sad if you ask me. There's nothing like the pancakes at this place. I also love the general store part with all of the random gifts and goodies.

We arrived in Detroit on Tuesday in the late afternoon and checked into our hotel in the Sterling Heights area. We met up with L.'s dad and step mom for dinner. They flew up from Florida to see us and the family in Detroit. On Wednesday, we walked around the gardens and campus at Cranbrook Academy during the day, and I took a ton of pictures. It was a photographers haven. We then went to L.'s aunt's house to visit with all of the family. It was really nice to meet all of them, and his grandparents came for a brief time. On Thursday, we made a stop at the Detroit Harley Davidson shop to pick up some gifts for my family, and then headed back to Chicago.

When we got to Chicago, we were pretty beat, but we dropped off the rental car and checked into our beautiful hotel in the Loop. We stayed at the Hotel Sax, which was previously the House of Blues hotel. We cleaned up a bit, and then got a cab to the Art Institute of Chicago, where we went for their free evening to see some of the wonderful art collection. AIC has my favorite painting, Georges Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, so that was a must-see. We then popped across the street to Bennigan's and had a nice dinner outside. Honestly, the weather has never been so nice in Chicago in the dead of summer. We walked all over the place. The last few days while we were in downtown, we went to Shedd Aquarium, walked through Grant Park, and headed up to the Armitage area for some shopping where I ordered two custom bags from one of my favorite stores, 1154 Lill.

We definitely did our share of eating until we were ready to explode. I had the best Chicken Vesuvio at Harry Caray's Italian Steakhouse, and L. got a wonderful pasta dish. That night, we had dinner with an old friend of mine at Smith and Wollensky where we had one of the best waiters ever. The next day, we had deep dish pizzas at Pizzeria Uno, home of the original Chicago deep dish pizza. We were lucky to get there a little early (at 11:15 AM), because it was standing room only outside of the restaurant by the time we left. On our last evening in town, we went to Lawry's the Prime Rib for gut-busting good meal. You've never had prime rib until you've been to Lawry's.

We then flew home early on Sunday morning. Amazingly, there were no crying babies on the flight. However, I happened to sit behind the one person who didn't seem to understand chair-reclining etiquette. I understand that his head will be reclined to a location dangerously close to my lap when he wants to sleep. But he never raised the seatback when he was doing anything else, like eating or reading. And I wasn't very comfortable with his long hair and propensity for scratching his head while I was trying to enjoy my ginger ale. Oh well. We took off and landed safely, and we got our bags at baggage claim. So, I guess those are the hallmarks of a successful flight.