Time to to unwind

For a Monday evening, it’s been pretty lavish and relaxing.  A and I had leftover pancit palabok from my birthday dinner at my parents house yesterday.  We then took a walk to the Locks where we watched boats pass by and big Blue Heron perched themselves on trees that sit on the river.  A played “Let’s Stay Together” by Al Green on his phone and we danced to the whole song.  The afternoon was warm enough to take our time with our steps back home where we set some lounging chairs out on the balcony, poured a couple glasses of wine, and read books.  I stopped reading when the sun finally set so far down I couldn’t see the pages anymore.

Tomorrow is another day.  I hope it ends as well as today did.

Protected: A warm summer birthday weekend

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Photo of the moment

“Standing on One Leg”
May 2013
Photo by Marivic Pinedo

Sculpture: “Flamingo” by Alexander Calder
Chicago, Illinois

 

 

Photo of the Moment

“Artery”
Chicago, IL
May, 2013
Marivic G. Pinedo

Chicago: 5 1/2 days wasn’t enough

Here is one photo from the trip.  I’m still processing more.  I don’t think any of my shots are good.  Just snapshots of whatever I passed.  I didn’t get time to take my time.  I took what felt like a million steps a day getting from one venue to another.  Doing this with a partner keeps you from settling into yourself photographically.  Anyhow… I’m going to be quick.  This is what we did, saw, and enjoyed.  This was our introduction visit to Chicago.  We will have to go back for more.  Bottom line, we had a great time.

Learning

• CAF Architecture River Tour – Totally worth it, and the weather was perfect.  I took too many photos, but it was fun.
• Shedd Aquarium – SO many awesome species.  Incredible.
• Art Institute of Chicago – I have to go back to Chicago just to go through this museum again.
• Field Museum – saw three special exhibits that kicked ass.  The permanent collection was great, too.

Views and just looking around

• Sky Deck at Willis Tower
• John Hancock Building
• Start of Route 66
• Millennium Park – Sculptures in the park, Buckingham Fountain, Cloud Gate!
• Wrigley Field
• Belmont
• Wicker Park
• Harold Washington Library – 9 floors?  Functioned like the library that existed back in the mid 80s.  Amazing.  I was incredibly tickled to go through library.  So fun.

Entertainment

• Blue Chicago  - saw Ronnie Hicks and the  Machine and _____
• Green Mill Cocktail Lounge – saw Alan Gresik and the Swingshift Orchestra
• Theater Wit – local theater group, saw “Rabbit” and the acting was great.
• The Second City – Ben Bailey at Up Comedy Club and The Second City, etc. – Did not disappoint.
• Street corners and train stations with live performers – seriously. They all sounded like people would could be on stage and getting paid.
• Strange Cargo – shop with fun t-shirts, shoes, pins, bags, etc.  Picked up some buttons and a funny coin purse.

Eats

• The Purple Pig – bone marrow (not great.  Just fat. too bad), salad with sardine was good, milk-braised pork shoulder was also good.
• UB Dogs – Chicago dog: tomato slices, slice of pickle, pepper, onions, relish. Just the thing when you need a small snack before a later dinner.  Got a bag of chips with our dogs and the guy said in his Chicago accent “Don’t be shy.”
• Gino’s East Pizza – Venisen deep dish with mushrooms and apple?  crust was cornbread-like. Fried egg on top.  OMG.  We were there to catch a Blackhawks game and they’re in the Stanley Cup playoffs.  We expected more people, but alas, it was just a few of us.  But the food was great.
• Avec – EVERYTHING was good.  WINE was top notch.  SO freakin’ good.  Chorizo stuffed dates wrapped in bacon, pork shoulder (yes, again) with raisins and almond slivers, coffee gelato, rhubarb sorbet.  I had to be rolled back to the apartment.  We cabbed over, but walked back because it would have been a terrible idea to sit and sleep with all that in our tummies.
• Potbelly – quick and easy and had a live performer at lunch who was excellent.
• Mia Francesca – Solid Italian food, decent wine, good solid service.

Observations:

• I liked the people.  Straight forward and relaxed at the same time.
• Chicago is walkable… and you walk and walk and walk… but you burn calories… the calories you got eating deep dish pizza, hot dogs, cupcakes, and donuts
• Intelligentsia for crafted coffee.  Starbucks for convenience.  Some places ask you if you want cream and sugar in your drip coffee.  They’re standard questions.
• CTA is easy to use and a good price to get a little further than you can walk.
• It’d be cool to live here!
• Tip – Get the City Pass if you’re interested in doing all those things in the book.  You get access to the special exhibits and fast track through the sky scraper views.

Photo of the moment

The tallest building in the U.S. designed by an architectural firm headed by a WOMAN. Award winning and has “green” sustainable features that conserve energy. Boom!

Aqua (2010)
82 Stories
Chicago, Illinois

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