At Long Last, My Chicago Wrap-Up

I realize I've been home now almost a week, and yes, it's taken me that long to find time to get pictures ready for the oft-promised wrap-up of the goodies I acquired in Chicago. So without further ado (because, Gentle Reader, you've had enough ado already), on with the show!


I wouldn't mind having a pair of lions guarding my humble abode. Alas, these guys are firmly affixed before The Art Institute of Chicago. We'd planned to go there Thursday evening since admission's free (and I'm all about free), but a three-hour jaunt to O'Hare to retrieve the younger sister and an evening shower put the kibosh on those plans.

Since I have no sense of direction, I can't tell you if this big guy is On the Prowl north lion or Stands in an Attitude of Defiance south lion. (Methinks Chicagoans ought to give them better names.) Nevertheless, bringing this guy home as a souvenir would have been nifty!


Here's proof that I went to a bar. That's a stylized H in the center of the circle, the gang sign for Howl at the Moon.


Nifty shot, non? Makes a boring 'ol Metra train look manga-rific, huh?

Anywho, this is the last train headed out to Ravinia before the start of the Lyle Lovett concert. There's nothing like a train that'll let you booze on board!

The younger sister took some pics of the concert, but the stage lighting made things a bit difficult.


Here's the initial view from our eighteenth-row seats. Too bad it didn't stay this head-free!


Lyle lights up the stage--literally--in his beige suit. I tell ya, there's something fun about a band who wears very nice suits. One of the backup vocalists, Sweet Pea Atkinson, was tres stylish in a nice fedora.


Meanwhile, back at Chez Boeckman-Walker, the boys girded their loins for battle.

Fearsome, ain't he?


P-Dude just slept. That's what he does.

Toy Time!
Since I'm a big freak and wanted to shop for culinary implements of destruction and creation, many of the gifts I brought home were kitchen tools.


I'd never seen a combo lemon-lime squeezer before, so I couldn't resist picking this one up for the husband while at The Chopping Block. Granted, he'd actually wanted an orange squeezer after seeing one in action on America's Test Kitchen, but we'd have far more use for a lemon-lime one.


Two in one! Me likey!


I believe I related the great hunt for the deep-dish pizza pan in another post, but here it is in all its Chicago Metallic glory. The castle cake pan is for the boy, who saw it at The Surly Table a few weeks back; the sword-fighting knight wannabe decided he needed it for his next birthday. Since it was on discount at a Linens 'n Things that's closing, I couldn't pass it up.

Annual Gift Man Comes Early
Bright and early Monday morning as the (bleary-eyed) human residents of Chez Boeckman-Walker prepared to start another week, I took time to dole out gifts.


The boy received his vintage Cubs hat (as in vintage logo, not as in used and sold at a glorified Goodwill that calls such used garments and whatnot "vintage" just to justify the ridiculous markup) and the Junk Food t-shirt he got from his eldest auntie.

I also gave the boys one of the other fun treats I hauled back from Chicago: cold, leftover sausage deep-dish pizza from Pizzaria Due for breakfast.


Yummy!

Last year when the three of us visited my elder sister in Chicago, we waited some three hours (1.5 for a table, 1.5 for a pizza) at Due. The following morning, the boy and the husband had cold pizza for breakfast. Naturally, having cold pizza for breakfast was one of the top three highlights of the boy's trip to Chicago. So what kind of mother would I be if I didn't somehow let him relive the experience?

Eh, I'm still a crappy mom.


Okay, that officially wraps up coverage of my Chicago trip. While you let it all soak in, enjoy this shot of the city skyline, taken at the butt-crack of dawn last Sunday morning from the elder sister's condo patio by the younger sister. I do hope, Gentle Reader, that you enjoyed reading about my misadventures outside the "Oasis" of the Lone Star State. If not...well, you could have navigated away from this blog at any time.