More Chicago

Walking through the beautiful Lakeshore East Park on Thursday night on our way to meet Kate and Alex Gonzalez to watch the Bears play.

When who did we encounter but Willard M. Ratney, resident of the back alley who only comes out at night. A quiet fellow, Kermit was appalled that I stopped for a picture but I couldn't resist!!

Even the signs are beautiful here. This is the sign at the top of Randolph Street leading down into the park. It started to rain a few minutes later. We watched the game at Rudy's on Madison and Michigan. Nice crowd, good beer, and good company. The Bears - not so much. 

A reader commented that the tone of my last posting sounded snarky about the way Kermit and I get along. Let me assure all readers that I was describing what it is like when Kermit and I DO get along. This is GOOD. Please don't misconstrue my internal monologue. We really do enjoy each other's company. In fact, we were saying just the other day that we prefer to be together so much more than we ever anticipated. There might be a funny internal monologue going on in each other's heads but we have nothing but respect and love for each other, despite what goes on in our heads!!

Friday, 9/14, I spent with Aunt Pauline, wandering around the north suburbs. We shopped at Old Navy, Barnes and Noble, and DSW Shoes before stopping at Old Orchard for lunch. We found a neat store called Marbles, The Brain Store. It has lots of games, books, and activities for smart people or people who want to be smart. The kids can expect some presents from Santa from that store. I couldn't resist.

Then on to the main event - A PEDICURE!! I love pedicures but only get them about twice a year. I got the last one with Marissa in June. It lasted pretty long I think so I needed a refresh. I love to go with people I can talk to. It makes it so much  more fun. Pauline took me to her salon in Glenview where a lovely Russian lady gave me the most unique pedicure ever - more soaking and scrubbing along with many layers of paint. I think they turned out perfect!!

Saturday morning bloomed bright and sunny. Crowd control in Chicago is a little different than Canton Ohio. Literally hundreds and maybe thousands of runners along the lakefront. This was not a formal race but support groups still have water stands spaced around the lakefront. I decided to join in so I put on my running shoes and started out, run/walking 2 miles in each direction down to the Field Museum and back. I feel MARVELOUS!! And my pants are fitting better to.

 Becky and Mike Mikulka visited in the afternoon and we took a boat ride.

The weather was perfect. We talked and talked. Mike works for the EPA and was particularly proud of the clear water in the marina. You can see 5 or 6 feet down, thanks to the clean up and enforcement efforts of Mike's team. Those loopers going through Hammond - alert - Mike thinks he might finally have clean up actions approved for that harbor. It has been a career long effort - almost 30 years to make that happen. 

After we left the dock for our little cruise, we pulled into the pump out station at the end of the next dock. There were about 4 docksitters but no one helped us tie up to this floating dock. Kermit said thanks for helping guys. This did not go over well. The biggest one (looked a little like Jim Belushi) jumped out of his seat and started yelling at us about being stupid boaters who can't drive (not true at all). He came within a foot of Kermit with the big chest puffed out. This was a mistake on his part because Kermit never backs down. If the guy didn't stop, he would have found himself pushed in the water. Kermit fights great in the water. He would have raccooned the guy!!! Fortunately for everyone the guy backed away. We finished our pump out and left for our little cruise. What a jerk!!

We love many things about this marina and being in Chicago. It is spectacularly beautiful, well cared for, lots of flowers, a short walk to anything we want. But it is not a marina. People don't catch your lines or help each other. They barely talk to one another and hardly say hello. You can tell the loopers because they make eye contact and say hello. It is funny because if you leave the dock and stand outside the marina the walkers, runners, and dog people passing by are 10 times more friendly than the marina people. Also, there is no place to cook out here. All grills are banned and there are no picnic tables within a block of our dock. So they are not encouraging the marina to become a community. We heard that the marina managers rotate each year between the different Chicago Park District marinas so they don't get too close to the boaters or the employees. This seems counter-intuitive but supports the idea that this is not like a regular marina.

Big boat race at the Chicago Yacht Club.

Sunday we hosted the Ricoh crowd. Chris Lindsey who lives at 400 E. Randolph nearby arranged for a bunch of former co-workers to visit. We had a great time! It was nice to put faces with names. Some folks were Savin co-workers, one was a former boss (great guy), and one was a customer (another great guy) named Bob Bergstrom. We will visit him when we get to the south suburbs on our way to Joliet.


In preparation for our visitors, we found a great grocery store thanks to Chris Lindsey's suggestion. We have more food than we can handle but it is worth it because the food is SOOOO good. We want to take advantage of the great grocery store but we have a limited ability to eat all that great food. So our freezer is packed.

A trip to Chicago is not complete without a visit to Second City! We saw the ETC company doing the less political program, passing on the main stage with the more political program. It is difficult enough as it is without injecting "humor" into something that both of us take so seriously. One cast member was new to the team because they took three Second City people out last week to work at Saturday Night Live. We didn't notice any difference because we hadn't seen it before and all the cast members are great.

We loved the two times they pulled people out of the audience. In one scene, two of the women came out as old ladies with lawn chairs. They scooted the chairs in front of the people and talked to the crowd. They asked audience members questions and made a little fun of them. We were in the front row but they talked to the four people right next to us! In another, they pulled a guy out of the front row and had a gay wedding with a cast member dressed up like Prince. Pretty clever!!

On Monday I had some business meetings all day on the phone, the Internet, and in person. In the evening we set out for the Cubs game with my cousin John and Donna. We left about 5:30pm to walk to the train. The sky was gloomy and it was cold. It smelled like rain. Sure enough at about Fullerton it started to rain then to pour. We changed from the Brown line to the Red line and got off at Addison to a complete downpour. Soaked to the skin. We were wearing our rain gear but there is only so much you can cover. Our jeans and shoes were soaked. We made our way to Uncommon Ground where we met John and Donna. No sense going to the park during a rain delay. Might as well eat a nice dinner and walk over when the rain stops. So we did! But the rain did not stop. We gave up about 10pm and walked through the rain to John and Donna's cars. John gave us a ride back to the marina. This morning he texted that he was one of the 5000 people in attendance as the game began at 10:30pm and one of the 1000 still there when Pittsburgh won at 1:30am!! Donna is so lucky!!

Plans for moving forward down the river have been delayed by weather issues. In the meantime we have more loopers in the marina. Two boats next to us. One couple is from New Jersey/New York area. We helped them find a temple for Rosh Shoshona yesterday. The other couple is in "Karma". They said they kept hearing us on the radio for the last few weeks because our boat names are similar! They retired and moved on to their boat 18 years ago and still enjoy boating live (and each other). There are three boats on A dock and one more on C dock. I think we will have docktails this evening and plan a departure for Thursday which looks like the next weather window.

The other group we enjoyed so much last week are moving down the river. We heard from Charlie on Bama Belle. He and Boo are getting along great but Boo will be leaving around St. Louis. So Charlie needs to find another crew member. We might run into him again, I hope.

Today we plan to take a bike ride to the Museum of Science and Industry. I feel ambitious.