Our friend Ellen came out to visit us last Wednesday and stayed through Saturday. Ellen had come out during her spring break, and I had touted it as “Lavish Ohio.” Since we had sold the house and Ellen had just wrapped up her PhD program, it seemed fitting to go all-out and bill this visit as “Lavisher Ohio.”

I took Wednesday (and the rest of the week) off since Ellen was scheduled to get here around noon. I went for a long run with Jason in the early morning, and I had a terrible run. It was hot and humid and I did not drink enough. I got home and showered and then napped, and I got up just a few minutes before Ellen arrived.

Ellen is a big fan of Chick-fil-A restaurants, so we started off Lavisher Ohio with a trip there. None of us had eaten lunch, so the timing was good, and we once again got very good service, something that Chick-fil-A does very well. We even got to chat with the manager for a bit, and that was interesting; he is a very outgoing man and a part-time pastor, and it was much fun to get to talk to him.

After we were fortified by lunch, we headed over to the Stan Hywet estate. Stan Hywet is a public mansion and grounds that was built around 1915 by the Seiberling family, who were the founders of the Goodyear tire company. The house and grounds are very beautiful, and Mer and I wanted Ellen to see it. We ourselves had not been in the actual house in years, so we were looking forward to it as well. We paid to have a guided tour of the first two levels of the house (the top two floors were servants’ quarters and that is a different tour). It was a warm day, and that made the house warm, but it was still a worthwhile tour. Ellen is quite good at decorating her house, and she was making lots of mental notes about some of the decorative touches in the house, like the sculpted plaster ceilings. I would not be surprised to see Ellen’s house have decorative plaster the next time we visit her in Michigan.

The house is very lavish, with a music room/ballroom, a dining room that can seat 40 people, great bedrooms and balconies, a game room, and indoor pool, and more. The house is decorated extensively as a Tudor-style mansion, with lots of woodwork and leaded windows. The tour lasted about 90 minutes and Ellen seemed to enjoy herself.

We then spent quite awhile wandering the grounds. Stan Hywet sits on something like 60 acres, and much of that land is well tended. There is a lagoon in an old rock quarry (where Stan Hywet gets its name – it means “rock quarry” in Old English) with a very fine stone overlook. There is a Japanese-style garden, a large fountain behind the house, a tree-lined walk, a huge arbor, and extensive gardens. It was a very pleasant place to stroll around.

We stopped by the cafe on the way out so Mer and I could get something to drink since it had been so hot (Ellen passed on the drink). We then piled in to the very warm car, cranked the air conditioning and headed north to the Gorge Metro Park.

The Gorge Metro Park in Cuyahoga Falls may be my favorite metro park in the area. It is a very interesting path that winds around and through lots of rock outcroppings, wanders along next to the Cuyahoga River, and has excellent views of a dam. I find all of these things interesting. We tromped the entire trail, which took over an hour, and Mer and Ellen both humored me by agreeing to take the more difficult path that goes through and over more rock. We were quite hot by the end of the walk, but I was grateful that it had not rained since we had heard one peal of thunder while we were out on the trail and still about 20 minutes from the car.

We finished the walk with just enough time to scoot over to Rockne’s restaurant, which is a local restaurant chain. We were meeting out pastor Ken and his wife Janet for supper. Ellen had met Ken and Janet when she was out here in the spring, and they had hit it off, so I wanted to get everyone together for supper. Ken and Janet were waiting for us when we got there (we were about five minutes late), but had not been waiting long. We ordered food, and chatted about Ken and Janet’s daughter’s recent wedding, including looking at some pictures Janet had brought along. Ellen told amusing stories about her PhD dissertation defense, which included obscure and not-exactly-on-topic questions like “What would Aristotle and Boethius say about the question ‘Is history real?'” It was a jovial evening.

Thursday we headed out fairly efficiently. We were off and headed toward Cleveland before 9:00. We took a few wrong turns along the way, but we eventually found our destination, which was the Lake View Cemetery.  I am well aware that it is weird to take an out-of-town guest to see a cemetery, but I had heard lots of good things about it, although Mer and I had never been. It actually turned out to be really interesting, and the two hours we spent there went by very quickly.

Lake View Cemetery is a very pretty spot, and there are over 100,000 people buried there. President Garfield is buried there, as are lots of wealthy people like Rockefeller. There are also lots of ordinary people buried there as well, and the cemetery is still active (and they claim they have land to continue for another one hundred years). So, in addition to being a very pretty place to walk, there are lots of interesting monuments, including a Tiffany-designed chapel with a huge stained glass window. The chapel was spectacular and worth the trip just by itself, but the Garfield monument was also interesting, huge, and had great views from the balcony. Lake View is a very good trip, and Mer and I will be going back soon.

After touring the cemetery for a couple of hours, we headed back to downtown Cleveland for lunch. I had found an interesting-looking lunch place on 4th street called Pickwick and Frolic. The restaurant had fine food, and the inside of the restaurant was decorated in a 1930s theme that was beautiful. However, the real find was 4th street itself – we sat outside on the sidewalk and enjoyed the fine day. It tuns out that 4th street has been turned into a pedestrian zone, and it is lined with restaurants. The place was humming with people and activity, and it was a great place to relax and have lunch.

After lunch, we walked the six blocks back to Playhouse Square. We went in to the 2500-seat Allen Theater, which is about to be renovated and turned into three smaller theaters, so I was glad to get to see the entire theater one more time. We were there to see Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera. It had been a long  time since I had seen it, and Ellen had expressed a desire to see it. We had excellent seats in the fifth or sixth row since it was a Thursday matinee (Ellen joked that I might as well have tried to get seats on the stage).

There are two versions of Phantom – Webber’s well-known one, and a lesser-known one by Yeston and Kopit. I often get them mixed up. Yeston and Kopit’s version has a very tight story-line and one that explores the Phantom and his story more. So, I was very surprised when the Webber Phantom picked up right in the middle of the action, where it becomes plain that the Phantom has been teaching the chorus girl Christine to sing, and that this has been going on for some time. Once I got over the surprise and remembered that Webber’s version is about the huge spectacle more than the story, I had a good time. I did get a little irritated once in awhile that most of the play is sung, even most of the speaking parts. But, the play lived up to the promise of being a huge production, with a cast of a least forty actors, many many elaborate sets (some which were used for only one three-minute song and then changed out), and a fairly large orchestra of probably twenty musicians. It was an  entertaining time, and the singers were all jaw-droppingly good.

After Phantom, we headed down to Canton to go to a very cool restaurant and vineyard called Gervasi’s. Gervasi’s has a large and pretty grounds, and the restaurant itself is an old converted barn. Sadly, after we ordered, Ellen became mildly ill with a headache and went out to the car to lie down. Mer and I ate our food efficiently, and got Ellen home so she could get some sleep. I was sad that Ellen did not feel well, but a good night’s sleep cured the headache, so Lavisher Ohio could continue on Friday.

On Saturday, I took Mer to Canton to the $1.50 theater to see a movie that neither of us had heard of – Letters to Juliet. I knew from a on-line summary that it was a romantic film, involving a woman who answers a letter to Juliet (from Romeo and Juliet). That was good enough for me, especially for $3.00 total.

It was a gem of a film. It was sweet and clean and well written. The characters were sympathetic, and there were several twists that I had not seen coming. It was all filmed on location, mostly in Tuscany in Italy, and the scenery alone is worth seeing the film. We were both charmed, and I highly recommend it.

In the evening, our friends Eric and Shanna came over, and we headed out to the far west side of Cleveland, to Lorain County Community College. The college was hosting (for one weekend) free plays by The Cleveland Shakespeare Festival. We were going to see the very rarely performed Titus Andronicus, but first we wanted to eat. I had found an intriguing-looking bar that was praised for its huge sandwiches, called Fat Boys. It turned out to be a pretty decent find. None of us tried a full-fledged Fat Boy, but Mer and Shanna got half-sized ones. The food was tasty, and we were early enough that we were the only people there, other than a few at the bar, so it was pretty quiet and easy to talk.

We got over to the college a little before 7:00, and found out that the performance, which is usually held outside, had been moved inside because of weather concerns (it was very hot and looked as if it were going to rain). That was nice – we got out of the heat and, since we sat in the front row, we were sometimes less that three feet from the actors.

Titus is largely condemned by scholars as being a “bad” play of Shakespeare’s. It is argued that it was his first, and it is very very violent, with multiple limbs being cut off, several decapitations, and a huge body count by the end of the play. It is basically an out-of-control revenge play. Everyone is trying to get revenge on pretty much everyone. Still, I liked it. It is not a particularly deep play – there is no symbolism to speak of, and no subtlety at all, but the language is still Shakespeare and there is certainly lots of action. You do end up feeling for several of the characters, and you can see where many of the characters are coming from in their motivations. There is even a character who is evil and scheming just because he loves being evil. I am very glad to have gotten to see it.

Since The Cleveland Shakespeare Festival performs every weekend all summer long at different locations, they rarely have any kind of scenery or set. It still works. They generally use storage boxes to create different levels for actors to stand on or hide behind, and the audience simply fills in the rest. The acting is quite good, and the company gives younger actors a chance to get some experience playing in a Shakespeare play.

Sunday, Mer and I headed back to Canton to have lunch with Aunt Mary after church. We went to a small cafe that Aunt Mary had found called Caffe Gelato, and it was an Italian-style cafe with real gelato ice cream. They served lunch, and it was very good, and I was able to get an excellent hot chocolate that I had for my dessert. They were playing Roman Holiday on the TV screen in the corner, so I was sometimes distracted from conversation with Mer and Aunt Mary, but it was certainly a pleasant distraction (I like both Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn).

We then went back to Aunt Mary’s place, where I took a nap while Aunt Mary and Mer played Trivial Pursuit. For the first time ever in playing with Aunt Mary, Mer won, although Aunt Mary was only one space away from getting a chance to win herself. She is a very formidable Trivial Pursuit player.

That evening, Mer and I went back to Lorain County Community College to see the second play of the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival, The Merry Wives of Windsor. This time, it was outside, and we were probably seventy-five feet from the actors, but they had the stage pretty well miked, so we could see and hear just fine.

Wives is the story of how the very popular Shakespearean character, Falstaff, is tricked by two women he is trying to have an affair with (so that he can have access to their money). The women get the upper hand in every instance, and Falstaff is duped and humiliated. It is a very funny play, and we enjoyed it quite a bit. This was the third production of the play we have seen together, and although it was funny, we both agreed the other two productions were better. Mer pinned it down when she said she thought Falstaff should have been much more over-the-top. Falstaff is a fat and old character, and it is ridiculous for him to think he could seduce any woman, let alone two married women. There is a lot of potential humor to be played up if Falstaff is played as being completely full of himself. Still, it was a very solid play, and we were very happy to have seen it.

Meredith got back home from Romania last Tuesday around 8:00 pm after almost 24 hours of traveling. I met her at the airport in Cleveland, and it was a very happy reunion. Mer got off the plane as efficiently as she could so that she could see me, and then as an added bonus, her luggage came out as the third bag on the conveyor, so we were out of the airport pretty quickly. Since Mer was pretty tired, I did not take her out anywhere, but we went home and went to bed right away, where Mer slept for about twelve hours.

Mer was all recovered by Wednesday evening, so I took her out for supper at Aladdin’s, where one of Mer’s favorite former students is a waitress. They had a good time catching up. We sat inside because I had thought it too hot out, and I was glad for that as it started to rain pretty heavily by the end of our meal. Happily, there were enough inside tables to accommodate the outside diners. After supper, we headed down to Clarice’s place, where we met up with Matt and Clarice and Josh and Kristen for a game night. We played a word game where you had to be the last to say a word inspired by a card (like “cars”). I came in last. We then played Celebrity Taboo (celebrity in this case simply meant famous people as opposed to just Hollywood people). Mer and I won, and we are finally at the age where we have an advantage over people in their twenties. We knew a lot of people from the 70s and 80s that our friends were vague on. I broke up the party a little after nine because I had to work Thursday.

Thursday we had a date – we went to Akron’s best mansion, Stan Hywet, to see the Ohio Shakespeare Festival’s production of Taming of the Shrew. The plays happen outside, in an old quarry that has long since been converted into a pond and garden. It is really quite beautiful. The sets for the plays are always simple – this year was a stage in front of a two-story house that was decorated to look Italian and of an older and fancier style. The festival always starts the evening with “the green show” – a 20-minute review of dancing and music and swordplay and the like. It is fun to see, and it gives the actors who have minor roles in the play a chance to show off their skills. This year we had a special treat – one of Mer’s former students was an actress in the production, and had some very good stage time in swordplay during the green show. It was very cool to see someone we knew on stage at a professional production.

Shrew itself was excellent. The actors threw in a lot of body language and large gestures to add to the comedy of the night. This production also added the rarely performed prologue to the play, where a nobleman finds a drunkard and decides to take him home and convince him that he (the drunkard) is a lord who has been mad for years. As part of the cure for madness, some actors then put on a play, which is Taming of the Shrew. Most productions skip all of that, and just do the play of Shrew, but it was fun to see the additional material.

The actors were quite strong, but the best were the leads. Katherine (the shrew) was very good as a fiery not-to-be-tamed spirit. She had lots of anger in her speeches. The man playing Petrucchio (the man who sets out to “tame” Kate) really shone. He spoke the speech trippingly, which is to say he spoke all the lines very naturally, and his physical humor was excellent.

At intermission, it began to rain lightly. This was the first production (of at least five or six that we have been to) where we were caught in the rain. The show continued on, and most people stayed. It did begin to rain harder, and finally lightning rolled in, so they had to stop the play with about 20 minutes left to go. It was a shame, because the production really was entertaining. The director offered to give free tickets to another performance of Shrew or the upcoming production of King Lear to anyone who was still there, which was very kind of him since refunds usually are not given if the play gets to intermission. Despite the rain, we were very happy we were able to see (most of) the production.

Friday, we had the last of the CVCA graduation parties, for one of Mer’s students. We were there for about an hour total, and got to talk with some students of whom we are very fond. Most people spent most of the time inside because it was very hot outside, so we did not get in any cornhole this time (although they had a set outside ready to go).

We went to video store to rent Valentine’s Day. Mer had seen all but the last twenty minutes or so on the plane trip home, and she wanted to finish it. It was a mellow activity, so I was game. It was an okay movie – I did not relate to most of the characters, but it did have some twists at the end of the movie that I had not seen coming. And I got to watch the movie with my own Valentine, so that was well indeed.

With Mer gone in Romania for the last nine days, I have been bachin’ it. I miss Mer terribly, and I am anxious to see her tomorrow, but I actually did do a few things while she was gone.

On Tuesday, I plotted a fun get-away for me and Mer for our twelfth anniversary in August. I’ll blog more about that when it happens, but it did take me about three or four hours to get everything taken care of.

On Wednesday, I had the piano tuned. That is not ultra-exciting, but the piano had not been tuned since we moved three years ago. It was certainly time.

Craig invited me over to his place on Thursday. It was a good time. Craig, Karin, and three of the four kids were there (Ian was off with the grandparents, I think). We talked and played Wii video games, and Owen showed me his Pokemon card and toys. I felt like a mini-celebrity – Owen and Emma went wherever I went and seemed to want me to see everything they did. It was really hectic, but very cute.

Saturday was a usual early-morning run, except I was happy that Jim Gaul was able to join me and Jason this week. Jim has been recovering from a hamstring tendon injury, and we have not run together since last October or so. After the run, I headed to Canton to have lunch with Aunt Mary at Quaker Steak and Lube, and we had a good visit of about three hours altogether. Then, I went by myself to see Iron Man 2, which was playing at the $1.50 theater in Canton. I had a good time and quite enjoyed the movie. I finished the evening by going up to Hudson and eating a light dinner at Aladdin’s restaurant, and I even allowed myself a piece of cake since the waitress was a graduated CVCA student. I got dessert, and she got a bigger tip!

Sunday, I went to church, and then made bread in the early afternoon. I then went by myself to a graduation party of a student whom I knew fairly well through Ceili Club. It was a great party. I got to talk with the mom of another former CVCA student, and the mom told me the girl wants to be me and Meredith in about ten years (I think the mom was being polite – I assume the girl wants to be Meredith since Mer was her teacher). I then hung out with some recent CVCA grads that I am very fond of, and I ate some really good food. I stayed for about an hour and a half, and I had a really good time.

Mer comes home tomorrow, and that will be the best day of all!

Last Saturday was our last day in Chicago, and it was only a partial one since Mer was catching a flight to Romania that evening. So, we decided to have a mellow, but still touristy day. We slept in, and then wandered over to Tre Kronor, a small Swedish restaurant that we were fond of when we lived in the area. They serve a good French toast, and an amazing raspberry Danish. Can a Swedish restaurant serve a Danish? Anyway, it was a good and welcome brunch.

We then wandered across the street to walk around North Park University. Mer used to work there, and it is where we got married (in the small on-campus chapel) and had our reception. The campus looks great – they have bought up several of the streets that used to protrude into campus, torn down the old library, and opened up a lot of green space that makes the campus feel more rural than it really is. As we were wandering slowly toward the chapel where we were married, a woman came out of a building and asked if we needed directions. I started to tell her we were okay, but Mer was laughing – this was a woman who had been teaching in Hungary when Mer was in Romania, and had started at North Park about the same time Mer did. The woman was not normally there on a Saturday, but she was giving tours to families of new students, and she happened to glance out the window and see Meredith. That was happy! We stood and chatted for about 15 minutes, and then Mer’s friend had to get back to work. We proceeded to the chapel, and were able to get in. I had forgotten how small it was – our wedding had about 100 people in attendance. It really is a pretty chapel, although it has been redecorated for the better since we were married.

We took our time crossing campus as we went back to Shannon and Jolene’s place. We packed everything up so that it would be ready to go, and we decided that we had time to get in one last thing that Mer wanted to do – go get cupcakes at Molly’s. Molly’s is a Chicago bakery where they specialize in cupcakes. They have dozens of varieties, most of which are “filled cupcakes” – cupcakes with a center of frosting. Brilliant idea! Anyway, we jumped on the El, headed toward downtown, and then walked the six blocks or so to Molly’s. There was no real wait, and we both got two cupcakes (I figured it might be months or years before we get back). They certainly hit the spot. My only regret was discovering that Molly’s had forks available after I had already messily eaten my cupcakes (although Mer still had one left to eat with a fork). I’ll try to remember that for next time.

We swung by Border’s on the way home so Mer could get a book she needed for school, and then got back on the El. We got home and packed up the car, and we left around 5:30 for the airport. It only took about 30 minutes to get to O’Hare, and we parked the car and went in to Terminal 5, the international terminal. I wanted to stay with Mer as long as possible, so I went with her. Mer was flying Lufthansa, but we could not find the desk for the airline. After going up and down the entire terminal, I finally asked. It turns out that Lufthansa, the German airline, flying to Romania, is not in Terminal 5, the international terminal, but in Terminal 1, a domestic terminal. As we found and looked at a map, it appeared to be the only international carrier not in Terminal 5. Live and learn! We were both happy that we had left some time for security lines, and so we jumped on the inter-terminal rail line (after just missing a train – an ongoing joke with us all through Chicago – we always seemed to just be missing the pulling-out train) and took the train to Terminal 1. Mer checked in with a minimum of trouble, and just before security, I reminded her to empty her water bottle so she would not have any fluids going through security. She dumped her water in a nearby fountain, and then we walked back to security.

I could not go any further, so we hugged, and Mer got a little misty. I did not say much, since I was trying not to cry. Mer was going to be gone ten days, which is the longest we will have ever been apart since we were married. After a long hug, Mer proceeded to the security line. She looked back a few times, and I kept waving, finally crying a little bit now that she could not see me. I’m afraid I lost her in the security line, so the last time she waved, by the time I saw and realized it was she, I did not have time to wave back.

I walked back to the train to get back to Terminal 5 and the car. I was sniffling the whole time, and rather morose, but still managed to smile as the train pulled out just as I got there. I caught the next train,and got back to the car. I found out later that Mer was snuffly through security, and then went to a bathroom for a good cry. She then ate dinner, and even had some chocolate, which she said helped some, but did not make up for me. That’s love for you!

I was going as far as Mom and Marc’s place that night, so I caught the 290 ring-road around Chicago. It was very fast, but a little stressful in that it had four toll stops in thirty minutes, all for 85 cents or less, and only two lanes on the far right of the road took cash. I crossed into Michigan, and hit some lake-related thunderstorms, but only for about twenty minutes of real hard rain.

Once I got to Bridgman where Mom and Marc live, I stopped at Subway to get a sub and some cookies. I was not feeling hungry, but I figured I should eat. I got it to go, and went to the house. When I got there, I was surprised to find Mom, Marc, Aunt Linda, Uncle Kenny, and two other people up and talking over glasses of wine. I’m afraid I was not in a conversational mood. I hope I did not come across as rude, but I pretty much ate my food, which I was now grateful for as I got very hungry while eating it, then I went downstairs to check on Mer’s flight. She had arrived in Munich, so that was good. I e-mailed her, and while I was doing this, everyone went to bed. When I went back upstairs to try to be sociable, everyone was asleep and the lights were out. So, I followed suit. I went to bed. Because of the time difference with Romania, I knew that I would not hear from Meredith until Sunday around noon, so I would have to wait until I got home before I heard from her.

All in all, the Chicago trip was a great success. We saw a lot, and had a good time.

Friday was our last full day in Chicago, so we wanted to make it a good one. Sadly, Shannon and Jolene left for Maine directly from work on Friday, so Friday we’d be without them. However, we still made a good day of it.

I went running on the park path again, and then got back and showered. Mer got up shortly thereafter, and we ate our Ann Sather’s leftovers. Mer got ready while I puttered around. Once Mer was ready, we jumped in the car and headed north a fair amount to the Chicago Botanical Gardens, on the recommendation of James. We are very pleased he suggested the trip.

The gardens are free, but they do charge $20 for parking, which is certainly reasonable by Chicago standards. We wandered into the visitor center, used the bathrooms, Mer got her map and worked up a plan, and we were off. Or not – the first thing Mer wanted to do was wait 10 minutes for a tour guide. So, we did just that, and joined a group of about ten people. We were led by a woman in her 60s who seemed very knowledgeable about the gardens. She took us through some of the gardens nearest the visitor center, and I was exposed to a new kind of nerd. Mer and I have a theory that all areas of life have nerds – people who are really really “into” something. Here at the garden, I was introduced to the plant nerd: a woman next to me started talking about how such a plant was not doing well anywhere, and other such things. She was not obnoxious at all, and I was amused to find a new type of nerd.

Anyway, the tour lasted about 30 minutes, and barely scratched the topsoil of the gardens. Mer and I were pleased by the introduction, and the we headed off on our own. We climbed to the top of a hill (of course) to see a waterfall and to get a good look at the Japanese gardens. We then headed back down the hill and toured those gardens, which were beautiful. We go to see a traditional house that had been built in Japan and shipped over and that used no nails of any kind (it was all tongue and groove fittings).

We then spent a very nice four hours or so wandering the grounds. We saw all the major gardens, but did not see the outlying areas like the prairie section. There were some isolated stone walls set in circles to sit on, and lots of pretty flowers and trees and grasses. About a third or so of the gardens is made up of water, so that added much to the beauty of the place. Mer lamented that we had not known about the place when we lived in Chicago – the touch of nature, even artificial, would have been very welcome to walk through often. Live and learn – at least we got to see it on this trip.

We did have a light lunch at the gardens, and we toured the rose garden after lunch. They were pretty, but suffering from days of extremely hot weather. I’m afraid I could relate, as I had to spend some time in the bathroom during the early afternoon as the result of the heat (my body seems not to like the heat at all). We then tried to walk a woodlands trail, which we did find, but we were running out of time and the trail was very buggy. So, tired but happy, we headed back to the apartment.

Once back, we called James to arrange our get-together. After a little going back and forth and calling around to check things out, we settled on going to the Steppenwolf theater to see a new play called A Parallelogram. We had never been to the Steppenwolf before, and we were looking forward to it. But first, Mer felt as if we should eat a little pick-me-up since we were going to go out to eat after the show, and so we would not be eating until about 10:00 or later.

So, we jumped in the car and braved rush-hour traffic to go the two to three miles to The Taste of Heaven bakery. Taste of Heaven was a bakery we liked very much when we lived in Chicago, and it has since moved a few blocks, but we found it after parking the car on a side street. We went into the bakery and ordered an old favorite, thousand chocolate chip cake. It was still quite good, but I had remembered it being a richer cake. Maybe they had slightly changed the recipe in last nine years. I have to admit I was a little edgy because of time. I thought we would need a full hour to get to the theater, but Mer kept telling me it would be fine since we were going on the faster Red Line. We left the car on the side street and walked the four blocks to the El. We waited for a train, and the long and short of it is that Mer was perfectly right – we got to our stop efficiently and with spare time. Silly me.

We met up with James at the theater with no great trouble (it is only a few blocks from the Red Line). The biggest issue was that the theater was having trouble with the computer system, and could not print out our tickets. That became a bigger problem when they told us we were going to be seated standby. We had picked up excellent seats after someone had canceled (it turns out there are no bad seats in the theater, but I also wanted to make sure we could sit together). I knew the seat numbers, and after a bit of very rare insistence on my part, they let us sit in those seats.

The play Parallelogram was excellent. The play focuses on a woman who may or may not be able to see the future and may or may not be able to “rewind” her life to try to change events. She may or may not be mad. It was a dark comedy, and was quite engaging. The set was very cool, with the corners of rooms (including furniture) rotating to change the set as needed – very spiffy. My only complaint about the play was the language. The main male character swore up a storm. He rarely could get through a sentence without throwing in a little salt. I sometimes think playwrights feel as if they are being “real” when they have characters who swear all the time, but in all my years of being around numerous groups of people, including on construction sites and logging operations, I can only recall one person who actually talked like that. I do not think the play would have suffered at all if the swearing had been cut in half. I’ll get off my soapbox now. Excellent play – I recommend it to my Chicagoland readers.

After the play, we wandered about for some time to find a good restaurant. I am fairly picky, and the first couple of restaurants did not look as if I would find anything good. James took us to a nearby watering hole that he likes, but while they were open late, the kitchen had closed at 10:00 (it was 10:05). we wandered back to one of the original bars, the Black Duck, and it turns out they had a very extensive menu that included a very good burger. Don’t judge a bar by the specials board, I guess.

We got a seat outside, and the street was dimly lit and quite lovely. My food was excellent, and we were even offered free beer for some reason (which we all turned down). Still, it was a nice gesture, and may have been a promotion, but it was still friendly. I would certainly go back to the Black Duck again, as long as I could sit outside (the inside seemed more typically bar-like to me, dark and sort of cramped). It was a really great and mellow way to end the evening. We ate and talked about Mer going to Romania. We finished up near 11:00, and all three of us walked to the Red Line. We said goodbye to James, and he went to the south-bound platform. We caught our north-bound train, walked back to the car, and headed back to the apartment, getting our usual easy-access parking spot. It was not hard to fall asleep that night!

Thursday started off well, with a trip to our favorite Chicago breakfast place, Ann Sather’s. Ann Sather’s is in the Swedish neighborhood of Chicago, Andersonville, and is about two to three miles from Shannon and Jo’s place. They have the best cinnamon rolls I have ever had anywhere. The breakfasts there are huge – you get a main dish (usually eggs or a wrap for me) and two sides. One of the sides is two enormous cinnamon rolls – two! I usually pick hash browns for the other side. So, you end up with this huge meal for about $8. Mer and I both got wraps, and unusually and wisely saved half the wrap for breakfast on the next day. Ann Sather’s was the one thing I felt I had to get to while in Chicago, so I was happy to have made it.

I more or less planned Thursday – Mer had let me know she did not care what we did as long as we did not sit around the apartment all day. So, we jumped on the now-familiar El and went back downtown, getting off at Adams Street and walking west to the (building formerly known as) Sears Tower. Neither of us had been up in the Sears in a decade or more – on the rare occasions I consent to going up in tall buildings, I usually opt for the Hancock’s lounge, which is free as long as you buy something to drink or eat. I felt it was time for Mer to get back up in the Sears again, so we went in.

I’m finding out that weekday touring is pretty great. We walked right in to the building, paid for our tickets, and walked though a bunch or rooms designed to hold lots of tourists. They were empty. We stopped in the small theater to watch the history of the Sears Tower, and then made our way to the elevator. We had to wait in line for one carload, and then on we went and then up we went. A new and slightly disturbing feature of the elevator was the addition of a screen that flashed the famous buildings of the world (like the pyramids or the Eiffel Tower) as we passed their heights. Since I was scared going up on the Arc de Triomphe, it was not particularity comforting as we zoomed by it pretty early in the ride to the top.

The elevator opens on the Skydeck, and the flow of the room leads you around south-east-north and then west. The views south and east and north were very impressive with lots of tall buildings and the lake. Mer loved it. She was right up against the glass looking around. I could take being near the glass as long as I looked out and not down, and only in spans of a minute or two. After that, I would get frightened and retreat to the middle of the Skydeck, where I read about the history of Chicago.

After we had roamed the three sides of the building, we came to the fourth side and the reason I’d wanted Mer to come – the Ledge. Last year, the Sears people added four retractable plexiglass boxes that go out from the building about four or five feet. So, you can walk out on the clear ledge and look straight down the building. I could not do it, but Mer edged her way out into one of the boxes. She said it was pretty freaky to look down the side of the Sears Tower, and it even made her scared. The fourth and last box was reserved for Sears Tower people to take official photos of people. I decided that Mer and I should get one, so I screwed up my courage and backed out onto the Ledge without ever looking down or around. The camera guy was a bit impatient, but I could not go any faster. He took the photo, and I was back in the building in a shot, and then made a bee-line for the elevators. I had had enough. Mer humored me and came down with me, and we bought our photo.

We then went on to the next part of my plan, but stopped by the ever-convenient Shannon’s office to get water and to use the bathroom and to say hi. We were there for only a few minutes, and we kept on our way. We walked through Millennium Park and crossed the winding BP Bridge that I thought crossed Lake Shore Drive. It does not – it crosses some other street, so we used the more pedestrian route of the crosswalks to get over to the bike trail along the lake. We walked north along the trail, and after some time arrived at our destination – Navy Pier, about 2 miles total as we walked. Navy Pier is a fun place where there are a ton of little shops and small fair-like attractions, as well as the place where you can catch some lake and river boat rides. All of these things jut out into the lake on the huge pier.

We wandered into the mall-like area, where we were out of the sun, and made use of the restrooms. Then we walked along the pier on the inside. And we walked. And we walked. I was beginning to worry that the attraction I had wanted to see was not actually here, but we finally came upon it – Amazing Chicago. Amazing Chicago was a fun-house-like place with the theme of touring Chicago. You are supposed to be going up in the tallest building in Chicago when the elevator fails and plummets you to the sewers. You then need to find your way out. It was on the short side, but was really cool. It started out with a dark hall of mirrors that were only lit by ever-changing laser light. Mer and I had the place to ourselves, and we had to feel along with our hands so we would not smack into a mirror, which we would have once or twice. Then, we had to squeeze through a very small opening between two airbags – it felt like six inches, and was pretty claustrophobic. We then had to find and ring a bell attached to a single punching bag in a small forest of punching bags. Once we found that, we were confronted by a tunnel lit only by pinpricks of light in the tunnel walls, and the tunnel was rotating. We had to cross a catwalk in the middle of this tunnel. I did not think all that much about it until I stepped on the catwalk; then, my brain freaked out and was convinced my body was moving. My body leaned into the spin of the tunnel, and I had to struggle to get my legs to move in a straight line. It was a bizarre experience. The last attraction was a balcony you stepped on to to watch fake fireworks to celebrate your having made it out. Then a clock starts a countdown. I saw the countdown and wondered what it was for. Mer figured it out; I did not, and I was surprised when the countdown reached zero and the floor dropped a few inches. On the way out we had the choice for the exit or a door marked “Do It Again!”, so I ran back in. Sadly, that door led only back to the tunnel, which was still bizarre. I had hoped to do the hall of mirrors again. All in all, though, it was a very successful outing.

We wandered along the outside of the building on the pier, and I mentioned that I had seen a photo of a giant circular swing, like you can find at fairs. Mer said she had seen it near the Ferris wheel, so we went up the stairs to that section of the pier. Neither of us had done that kind of swings in years, and they even had couple-swings, where the swing was a two-seater. Shucks. We bought tickets and gave it a whirl. It was fun, although it started out kickier (faster and higher) than either of us had anticipated.

Having finished up with the pier, we walked a long ways back to an El stop, passing by (and even under) parts of the Magnificent Mile. We got back to Shannon and Jo’s and they were both home. We had tickets to a play for that night, and there was not time to go out for a real sit-down dinner, so Mer and I headed back over to the Charcoal Pit. Once we got back, everyone was set to go, so we headed a short distance north and east to the Raven Theater.

The Raven Theater was not a theater with which Mer or I had been familiar, but they were one of the very few theaters in Chicago actually doing a play we had heard of – The Odd Couple. Neither of us had ever seen it, although I had seen the television spin-off based on the play. The theater is well laid out, and fairly small, seating about 70 people. As far as I could guess, it was maybe a little over half full. No one had taken the front row seats, so we grabbed them.

The set was simple – a big room in an apartment, with a hallway leading to bedrooms offstage, and a kitchen in the center of the stage but behind a wall (so we could not see into it). The initial set of the stage was messy – there were pizza boxes and clothes and newspapers scattered everywhere. The play opened with five guys playing poker, and they find out that a friend and fellow poker player has been kicked out of the house by his wife. The slovenly owner of the apartment lets his friend, Felix, stay with him, and Felix turns out to be a neat freak. The comedy of the play come from the interaction of the two main characters.

The play was much fun. The actors all did a very good job, but the actor who played Oscar (the slob) had remarkable body control and comedic timing. Felix was more or less a straight man, and played that role very well. Felix even stayed in character during the intermission, during which time he cleaned the apartment with the help of two closely-supervised maids.

Fear, optical confusion, and laughter – another good Chicago day.

Wednesday we were prepared. We were up fairly early, and headed downtown. We got to the Shedd around 8:15 or so, and there was no line at all. We were both quite pleased. We walked right in, and bought the basic ticket (no dolphin shows or the 3-D movies). Mer grabbed a map, and plotted out a course that would take us around the aquarium in a systematic order, so that we would not miss anything.

The main level of the Shedd is in a semi-circle around a huge aquarium tank. The starting point for us had us looking at freshwater river habitats, mostly South American. There were lots of turtles, tons of fish, a few rays (we both like rays very much), a slew of poison arrow frogs with crazy colors, and a couple of snakes (one of which was huge and we never did find the head of the thing).

The South American river section led into a North American fresh water section that included local Chicago waters, but first we toured the big main tank that looked as if it was probably salt water. It sure had some big fish in it, including some very large rays and a big turtle. Back in the North American section, there was a lone freshwater otter (they prefer to be alone, unlike the saltwater variety), and a huge turtle, and lots more fish. I generally found the local fish to be less interesting than some of the other fish – they are not so colorful.

We then wandered downstairs to look at the sea otters. They really are adorable and sure seem to have a great time. We walked around the main stage area where the shows are held, and we got to see the beluga whales being fed. They seemed like play creatures as well, and seemed to enjoy playing and swimming. Next to the beluga tank was a very large and vocal sea lion. We watched him for a few minutes, and then wandered over to the cafe to get some very welcome breakfast/lunch in the form of pizza.

After lunch, we headed downstairs to look at the otters from under the water, and we got to see underwater views of the dolphins and belugas. Dolphins in the water are very beautiful and graceful. Past the beluga tank were the penguins, most of whom were asleep or staring fixedly at a spot on the rock, but there was one lively penguin who was swimming laps and playing with a floating basketball.

We finished up our tour of the aquarium by going to the lowest level, where they have a special exhibit on coral. As part of that exhibit, they had a whole shallow tank full of rays, and tanks and tanks of coral and the fish that live near coral, including some medium-sized sharks. I was especially fascinated by two fish who can change color to look like coral. I mistook them for coral at first, and only their blinking eyes gave them away. It was pretty amazing.

We left the aquarium around 1:00 or so, and we congratulated ourselves on seeing the whole place, and for getting there early. As we were leaving, we saw that the main floor of the aquarium was pretty mobbed, and as we went outside, we saw there was a long line again. Lesson learned – get there early.

We wandered toward Shannon’s office again, this time going by Buckingham Fountain. It was still hot, so we were again grateful to get to Shannon’s cubicle. He was in a meeting, but we helped ourselves to the bathrooms, the water cooler, and Shannon’s computer to plot our next destinations. Having down that, we headed out to find the Red Line again, which we took north toward the Water Tower and the Magnificent Mile. We wanted to go see the Newberry Library, which is a public research library, and which Meredith wanted to see again (we had stopped by the lobby once several years ago).

Along the way, we planned a refreshment stop at Ghirardelli’s. They are famous for their chocolate, and they did not disappoint. The handed us a free square of chocolate as we entered, and then we proceeded to order some very welcome hot fudge and marshmallow sundaes. Again, a very welcome break.

We proceeded to the Newberry, and discovered that we were not allowed to go see the stacks unless we were researching something, which was disappointing. However, we did go into their small but interesting exhibit on King Henri of France (circa 1600), whom history seems to regard as a pretty good king. He build many buildings and public works, got France out of debt, and reigned for a very long time. The exhibit showed many period documents, including some of Henri’s own writings. After perusing the exhibit, we spent a happy half hour in the small and eclectic bookstore of the library. After this, we walked to the Brown Line and headed home.

Shannon was home, and Jo soon arrived. Jo felt she needed to get ready for the upcoming Maine trip, so she stayed at home, but Shannon and Mer and I got in Jolene’s car and headed south to Hyde Park to visit James. It was a long time coming, though – almost an hour and a half to get the 25 miles or so. Lake Shore Drive was down a lane or two downtown. According to James, it had been so hot that the pavement had started buckling and rippling, and the city had to start repairs (which must not have taken too long since it appeared to be open the next day).

Anyway, the four of us walked from James’ apartment in the back of a house, down to Medici’s, a restaurant that Shannon and James both like very much. We ordered some excellent food, and we talked for quite awhile. James is likely to get a position taking care of computer needs for the University of Chicago for their new campus in China. That was exciting to hear about. While we were at the restaurant, the heavens opened up and it just poured and poured. We were pretty happy not to have been caught in that rain. It had stopped by the time we finished eating.

We walked back to James’ place, and he asked us to go over his extensive book collection and to help ourselves to 10-15 books. He wanted to give his books a good home since he was likely to be gone for three years. Mer and I found a bunch, and then James threw in a pre-sorted bag of his books on religion that he wanted us to have. It was very generous of him. We then lounged about and talked some more, and James gave me and Shannon a very smooth and good root beer. We headed out at around 9:30, and tentatively made plans to get together with James before we left.

Water, ice cream, books, food, books, and good conversation. A good day in Chicago.

I was up early on Tuesday of last week. It had been hot, and was still pretty hot, so I did not sleep well. Since I was up and it was as cool as it was going to get, I took advantage of the park and ran six miles. The cool thing about the park next to Shannon and Jo’s place is that you can go three miles north and only have to cross one street – most streets are crossed under bridges that go over the Chicago River’s north branch. It was a hot run, but I was happy to have done it.

I showered when I got back, and Mer was up but puttering. By the time I got ready and she got ready, it was almost mid-morning. We headed the four blocks south to the Brown Line of the El, and headed downtown. We got off the Brown Line at the Washington Library stop so that we could transfer to the Red Line to keep going south (we were headed to the Shedd Aquarium on the museum campus near the Field Museum). As we walked over to the Red Line, we came across a huge eyeball. Like 30-feet-tall huge. We had stumbled across the latest public sculpture in Chicago, The Eye and the Cardinal. The sculpture was actually supposed to be unveiled the next day, so we happened along just at the right time, when it was still uncovered.  We never really saw any cardinal – the best I could come up with was a banner of a cardinal on a lamp post near the giant eye. Maybe that is the cardinal, maybe not. Still, seeing the eyeball was a happy example of serendipitous timing.

Another happy example of serendipity was stumbling on the Bongo Room, a small restaurant on our way after we got off the Red Line on Roosevelt. We were both hungry, and the Bongo Room was serving breakfast. They had a great menu, with lots of unusual breakfast foods. I ordered the three-stack of red velvet pancakes, while Mer was very happy to discover she could order three different pancakes, which ended up coming on three plates. She liked them all very much, but was unable to finish the last pancake. Apparently, two is sufficient.

After breakfast, we continued walking toward the museum campus when we stumbled across more public sculpture. We came across 100+ bronze sculptures of abstract walking people, with no real arms or heads. They looked to be all the same to me, but I could be wrong on that point. There are certainly lots of interesting public spaces in Chicago!

We did finally cross the museum campus and get to the Shedd Aquarium around 10:30. We were pretty surprised to see a huge line. We waited in the line for about 10 minutes (Mer waited while I fled for some shade, since I had not used sunscreen that morning). In the 10 minutes, the line barely moved, so we figured we were looking at a wait of at least 45 minutes, if not more. We decided to change plans on the fly, and headed across the park system toward the Art Institute of Chicago, where Shannon works. We figured we would come back to the Shedd the next day, but much earlier.

It is not a small walk over to the art museum, and it was still fairly hot. We were both surprised to see a long tour of Segway scooters roaming around – there is a tour company that shows you Chicago on Segways. Anyway, we found Shannon’s office building on the second try, and security somehow recognized me as a relative and let me in the building. Mer and I were very grateful for the air conditioning and the water cooler. Anyway, as it turns out, Shannon was out doing his job, and we hung out in his cubicle for about 30 minutes, chatting with his co-worker. We then decided to take a walk about Millennium Park and then we would come back.

So, we headed over to the park, and walked by the faces that “spit” at you (near the Bean sculpture). Not surprisingly, the face-fountain was in high use that day with a whole mess of little kids splashing around in it. Mer and I were kind of heading toward a small artificial creek that marks the old shoreline of the lake; we wanted to dangle our feet in it. We decided to head over to the band shell in Millennium Park first. As we got closer, we heard some really excellent music. The Chicago Symphony was practicing in the band shell; they do this during the summer for exposure and to bring music to the public. Mer and I wandered over and sat down to listen. It was Latin-influenced music, with heavy rhythms, and it was a lot of fun to listen to. After about 15 minutes, the orchestra took a break, and the two conductors held a question and answer time that was fascinating to listen to. Both conductors were ludicrously young and handsome too, but that is probably beside the point. Once the presentation was done, Mer and I wandered over to the artificial creek and soaked our feet for about 10 minutes. I was wandering around in the stream and was firmly told by a park worker that that was not allowed – you had to be sitting. I complied, but I would think they would post signs if they really cared. Ah well.

After the toe-dipping, we headed back to Shannon’s office, and he was there this time. We had missed him by about 10 minutes, and he had come looking for us at the creek and at the band shell, but had not seen us sitting down front. We met a couple more of Shannon’s co-workers, and then Shannon walked us across the street to the Art Institute and got us in free. He went back to work, and we started looking around.

Mer wanted to see the miniature rooms, so that is where we went first. The miniature rooms are about 50 small rooms decorated as if from different times and different places, mostly 1600-1950 England and America. They are to scale, I think one real foot being one inch in the model. I liked the British rooms, but found I was not able to distinguish all the differences between a Virgina room from 1800 from a Kentucky room from 1800. They just looked like different rooms to me, but the furniture could have been swapped around without too much trouble and I would not have noticed. I’m afraid my mind glazed over for the last dozen rooms or so because they looked much the same to me.

Since it was right next door, we looked at the collection of paper weights. That sounds dull, but there are a lot of differences in fancy paperweights, and we only spent about 15 minutes looking at them.

We then headed over to look at the sculpture section of the museum. Sculpture is my favorite art form, and the statues were all very impressive and classical in style, which made for good harmony in the exhibit.

We ended our three-hour tour by heading over to the early modern section of the museum. This section houses painting from (roughly) 1900-1950, and in general I liked the paintings very much. These were all early modern paintings, so they tended to pass the Matt-test (the could-I-make-this? test), and they did not make me angry. We then headed back over to the El and headed home.

When we got home, both Shannon and Jo were home, and Jo decided to make supper. She made a vegetarian lasagna and some very good garlic bread, and Shannon loaded up Mythbusters using Netflix. We watched an episode investigating the Hindenburg explosion, and one that tested if you can get away from alligators by running in a zigzag (the findings:  if you can avoid the first lunge of an alligator or crocodile, you can usually get away even without the zigzagging).

After that, we were all ready for bed. Shannon man-hauled the futon mattress to the back bedroom, which was happily air conditioned. I slept very well that night.

Meredith is currently in Timisoara, Romania, having arrived there today (tonight for her). She has gone to help out some missionary friends, and will be gone for ten days. When we went to buy her tickets to get to Romania, they routed her through Chicago, but with less than an hour-and-a-half to get from her domestic flight to her international one. Neither of us liked that, so we decided to have Mer fly out of Chicago and back into Cleveland, which you can do. Since we had to go to Chicago, we made the decision to make it a vacation, and we would try to do as many tourist things as we could. We lived in Chicago for five years back in the nineties, but you tend not to do touristy things in the city in which you live, which is odd. Anyway, I took four days off, and we would have four-and-a-half days in Chicago in which to tromp around.

We left last Sunday, after a very leisurely morning of packing and getting ready. I think we got on the road about 1:30 or so, but we were unhurried about it. We were aiming to get to Mom and Marc’s place in western Michigan, which is roughly two hours from Shannon and Jolene’s apartment in Chicago. It makes for a great stopping place, and we get to visit with Mom and Marc, so we almost never go straight to Chicago anymore. Our trip was efficient since we had eaten before we left, so we never had to stop for food. We did get gas and used the restroom once, but we got to Mom’s in about five hours, which is very good time for us. Mom and Marc were both there waiting for us, and Marc soon got going on grilling some of his very excellent burgers. Mom threw in some corn, and we had quite a good meal. The rest of the evening was spent talking, taking in the sunset very quickly and hearing taps played at the beach (a nightly tradition there), and we made use of Mom having internet at her house for the first time in five years to look up weather, things to do in Chicago, and so on.

We were on the road mid-afternoon the next day, having spent the now-hot day walking down to the beach and back to the house, and then stayed indoors where it was cool. The ride to Chicago was not quite so smooth as the ride to Michigan had been – it was Sunday afternoon of a holiday weekend, which, combined with construction on the interstate, backed things up considerably. I got off the highway and we made our way along a road that followed the lake. We could not see the lake, which was too bad, and the road was much slower, but it was not so frustrating as sitting in traffic. We rejoined the interstate after a particularity uninspiring stretch of the road we were on, near Gary. We made it the rest of the way to Chicago without any real trouble.

Shannon and Jolene moved about two months ago, so we got to see their new apartment. It is in a great neighborhood, near Foster Avenue, and is next to a park. There is a ton of available parking (thanks to the park), which is a nice perk in Chicago. All week long we were able to find a parking space right in front of the apartment building, and I was to use the park twice to run in during our stay. The apartment has an entrance that is only used by two apartments – the first floor and the second floor, which means Shannon and Jolene could turn their second-floor landing into a small mud room, and leave shoes and jackets out there. We never once heard the neighbors at all, so the apartment is very quiet. Shannon and Jolene speak highly of all the neighbors in the building, and seem to be very friendly with the landlady and the downstairs neighbors.

The apartment had the usual Chicago style – long apartment, with two bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen, and a living room/dining room that is pretty large. It has a ton of windows, high ceilings, and freshly redone wooden floors. Jolene and Shannon had painted, so the walls looked good and were a variety of colors.

Shannon had not expected us until Tuesday (my fault – I had told him Tuesday at some point), so had not really prepared anything. He offered us a cold bean salad, but that did not really suit me. Since Shannon lived roughly in our old neighborhood, Mer and I walked the three blocks to Charcoal Delights, a burger place we fondly called “The Charcoal Pit” or simply “The Pit.” We both got sandwiches and I got fries and a shake, and was very content.

Back at the apartment, we talked a bit and poked around on the internet, and then got ready for bed. Shannon and Jo do not have a bed for the second bedroom yet, so I slept on the couch and Mer slept on the futon. It was very hot in the apartment, which was to be the case all week long (Mer and I hope to get back there in cooler weather so we can erase the association of the apartment with feeling sweaty and hot). Shannon turned on the window air conditioner for us, but it was not really up to the task of cooling such a large space when it was so hot. I slept fitfully all night, and drank a 20+ oz bottle of water through the night. Happily, we were able to make arrangements to move the futon mattress into the back bedroom for the rest for the stay, where the air conditioner was able to keep up, and so I was able to sleep quite well the rest of the time. This was good, because Tuesday saw the start of the real tourism, and it involved a lot of walking for the rest of the week.