Jim and I went down to Chicago for a visit this weekend. Was a slightly difficult trip to plan as we were hitting the West Loop and Oak Park AND had to be back to MKE in time for Jim to work Sunday afternoon. (He schedules himself for Sundays about once a month to keep his part time guy from burning out.) Couple this with the fact that I was unable to leave work any earlier than 3 and we have a short, sweet, action-packed 24+ hours.
Some highlights:
Didn't leave until nearly four, thus a 1.5 hour trip was doubled by Friday rush hour traffic and construction on 94. Then I was pulled over about five blocks from my sister's apartment, basically because a cranky bus driver honked at me. By some divine providence did not get a ticket, though! This is really more of a lowlight, I guess, but I must say that the only thing that can make you feel good after getting pulled over is
not getting a ticket, so in the end my spirits were tricked into being high.
Went for Korean BBQ with my sister and the "guy she's been dating for two months but they still are too weak sauce to just call each other BF/GF." You cook your own food on a tableside grill. I've always wanted to try it, but as far as I've been able to tell we don't have any Korean BBQs in MKE. So sad, because it was delicious. We ordered the
bulgogi and were not disappointed.
In addition to the delicious meat and white rice, you get about ten relishes to nibble as your food sizzles before your eyes. My favorite were the sweet, chewy tofu sticks. Also notable was some sort of seaweed salad, sweet pickled cukes and of course the kimchi. I definitely want to do Korean BBQ again, especially because I want to try what the majority of the Korean diners were eating. It was just unmarinated ribeye grilled tableside, and then when that's done they do up a big mess of fried rice in your pan. If that's what the Koreans were eating, by god that's what I want to eat!
We went for drinks at
Delilah's after dinner and we had a lot of them. Closed the bar, in fact. Jim and the "guy" hit it off, which is great because, well, Jim is picky and his approval is like a good rating from Consumer Reports. No need to do further research on the product. Unfortunately we didn't get much sleep and I got the least sleep of all. I didn't feel that drunk, but clearly I was because I decided to stay up and finish off a bottle of rosé and read the second Bridget Jones book. Which I've already read. And didn't like the first time. Le sigh.
They had this beer on tap and it tasted suspiciously like Luden's cherry cough drops. So it was not a surprise when we got a later start heading to Oak Park than originally planned. But we were on the rode by 10 AM and it really only took 25 minutes to get there, not bad. Our short trip was accented by Jim's amazing maneuvering from a left entrance ramp all the way across six lanes of traffic to the 290 exit in less than half a mile. And nary a honk!
My sister came with us and Jim's parents were also there, I love being able to hang with different sides of the family at once. Walked to
Wishbone for lunch. (Thumbs up for the Red Eggs on the brunch menu.)
My nephew drew a "sad mountain" for his grandmother, which was a big triangle with a frowny face. Other nephew highlights included his habit of telling tall tales, like how he is both afraid of the water AND an excellent swimmer. Or when I asked him what kind of ears his friend's dog had. "Hmmm. I don't think she has any ears." "Well, do you know what kind of dog she is?" "I guess she's the kind of dog that can't hear!" I love that kid, he has such a great brain.
We went on the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio tour. It was very impressive, I would recommend it if you have any interest in historic homes, architecture or art. Our tour guide was great, the subject was fascinating and it only cost $12. Taliesin in Madison is $40, though that may be in part due to the gory history of the place. I've never really paid that much attention to Wright besides the most general info: prairie homes, integration with nature, etc. His techniques for creating the illusion of space in a fairly small home were so interesting. Also, the thoroughness of the home's restoration was admirable.
Wright's home stood out from the Victorian style homes around it.But you can tell from some of his design elements that he's an egoist. He designed a lot of his own furniture, and a fair amount of it was built in. He wants to dictate how the space is used after he's done with it. He refers to the kitchen as the "woman's workplace" and, at least in his own home, didn't give it much consideration. He gave the ladies consideration, though. He was running around town with the wife of a client, leaving his own wife and their six children at home. I think in the end he was married three times, but he had hella more consorts than that. Slutty genius!
We stayed for dinner (Iowa sweet corn FTW!) and left around 10 pm. All in all a lovely little trip. Beers sampled: 6. Meats grilled: 2.
