Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, got up once at 3:30, finally waking/getting up at 6:30am.

We left the apt at 8:15 and had breakfast at the Sugar Bowl. Teresa spent some time talking to the manager in Spanish before we had even ordered our food. She’s from Costa Rica and Teresa gave her the contact information of her breast surgeon in Medellin. We finally ordered and got our food and as we were finishing up I realized our train would arrive in 20 minutes or we would have to wait an hour for the next one. I made a quick trip to the restroom, paid the bill and we drove across the tracks to where we had parked last time. As I was driving on the opposite side of the parking lot when I noticed 2 empty spaces but when I got around to them they were Handicapped Parking. I moved to the west lot and found a nice spot to park but then I couldn’t find the machine to pay. We walked to the station and I asked the first guy I saw and he said there was a payment machine at the end of the parking lot. I went back, took a quick photo of our license plate and walked to the far end of the lot where I quickly paid the $2 daily fee. By then our train was coming into the station and we ran back and caught the train just in time.

I paid $11 on the train for 2 one-way tickets to Chicago.

We arrived at Union Station around 10:15 and stopped at the same restroom as last time but today they were closed for cleaning. I asked a worker the location of the nearest restroom and he explained we had to go back upstairs, outside track 9, halfway down the track and downstairs to the next available restroom. We did and retraced our steps and had a little wait for the next Water Taxi to Michigan Ave. We walked 3 blocks south and thru Millenium Park

 to The Bean where Jimmy soon joined us.

He guided us toward the lake then turned south to Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park.

On our way back we stopped in the Chicago Cultural Center and viewed a Haitian exhibit. We returned to the river and down to Riverwalk where we followed the river to a restaurant named Tiny Tapp where we had lunch. 

Teresa had a flatbread Cesar chicken sandwich that she said was delicious and I an Italian Beef sandwich with au jus that was surprisingly good. Jim had a burger and we all had Cokes and Jim picked up the check. It started raining so Jim headed out before it got stronger. We left a few minutes later and retraced our steps to Des Plaines (ground was much wetter there) and returned to our apt by car.

We took a nap (lots of walking downtown) as we were pretty tired.

Teresa made pasta for supper.

Tomorrow night, if Jeannie & Jacob’s dinner plans with another couple don’t fall through, we’ll return to Ravinia to hear the Cuban pianist, Chucho Valdes. Weather permitting!

We went to bed at 10pm.

 

BURMA SHAVE