Boats, Buildings, and Burritos

  Chicago, Illinois, United States
Monday, June 29, 2009

Day 31 – Second Day in Chicago, IL

Things we did on our second day in Chicago:
- Woke up early to commute to our 9am architecture boat tour.

Us on the Boat with the Skyline

- Arrived just in time! Had complimentary Starbuck’s coffee, muffins, and cookies on the boat. Since it was the first tour on a Monday morning, we had ample room in the front of the boat. The sun was shining, and it was a beautiful morning. Great start to the day!

Bri and Robie on the Boat

- On the tour, we rode up and down the river through Chicago and learned all about modernism, post-modernism, art deco, prairie style, Chicago School style, and other forms of architecture. It was presented to us in an entertaining manner, and we all three found it very interesting.
- Bri fell in love with the Marina City buildings, which she prefers to call the Corn Cobs. She likes the “organic forms” of these buildings.

Bri's Favorite: Marina City

- The Robster was most fascinated by the tallest building, Sears Tower, and the newest building, Trump Tower.

Robie's Favorite: Trump Tower

- Christen’s favorite building remained the Wrigley building, although she also liked the Chicago Tribune building. She really just likes old buildings. The older it looks, the better.

Christen's Favorite: The Wrigley

- In the end, we all raved over this tour. Bri and Christen agreed it was the best organized-tour of our trip so far.

The El Going Over the River

- Trekked over to the Art Institute. Despite pre-selecting the areas we all wanted to see the most, we still spent an hour longer than anticipated inside and only put a dent in the museum. This place is phenomenal. When they say it is second only to Europe’s best art museums, they aren’t kidding. We’ve seen most of the biggies in America, and we vote this one as the best.
- Spent most of our time seeing Impressionists, American & European modern, and American & European contemporary.

Bri's Favorite Two Favorite Leos

- Discovered that the Robster is hilarious in art museums. She likes to rename pieces based on her own interpretations. She also started a trend in the museum. In one room in the contemporary wing, a wedding dress was used as part of an exhibit. Robie had Christen go behind it so that it looked like Christen was wearing the dress in a picture. Then Christen took Robie’s picture doing the same thing. Then everyone that came into the room wanted to do it.

Crepe & Coffee Palace

- Rode the El to Lincoln Park and had lunch at Crepe and Coffee Palace. This is a French Algerian establishment. It was very interesting to eat French food with Algerian décor and ambiance. But the crepes were delicious! We split the Crèpe de Roma (capers, mozzarella, Roma tomatoes, portabella mushrooms, fresh basil, and spinach) and the Chicago Crepe (avocado, muenster cheese, sundried tomatoes, roasted bell peppers, sunflower seeds, cilantro, scallions, and organic mixed greens). For dessert we had the Crepe LaBella (bananas, Belgian dark chocolate, toasted almonds, coconut, and homemade whipped cream). We are drooling just recalling this goodness. This was Robie’s first crepe experience, and she enjoyed them very much.

The Sweet Crepe at Crepe Palace

- Walked to Lincoln Park. Decided to skip the Lincoln Park Zoo to take a looooong walk around Lake Michigan and the beach. During this walk, we decided that if it weren’t so damn cold in the winter (down to -30 degrees with wind chill last year!), we’d live in Chicago.
- Rode to the hip and trendy Wicker Park, home of many hipsters that Christen would normally like to punch in the nose, but found its atmosphere and shops appealing in spite of ourselves.
- Accidentally walked many blocks down the wrong street, thinking we were heading toward our dinner destination. It was not until we discovered that the restaurant was missing that we realized we were not in the right place. Bri asked a lady in a shop for directions, as we were now going to be late meeting Maggie. We stupidly took her directions without double-checking them on any of our maps. Dumb woman told us to walk many, many blocks out of our way in a semicircle, and come to find out our restaurant was two streets over from where we originally were. This made Christen blow steam out of her ears. She will never let this happen again.

Maggie with Her Souvenir from the Zoo

- Met Maggie at Irazu, Chicago’s one and only Costa Rican restaurant. We chose this restaurant not only because of its high reviews, but more because Christen had read that they had SALSA LIZANO! Salsa Lizano is a yummy Costa Rican condiment that is made with cauliflower and carrots and has a sweet and spicy taste. Christen has been looking for this stuff for about seven years, ever since Becca brought a case of it home with her from Costa Rica back in the days when Becca and Christen lived in Cabbagetown and ate burritos for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. (We were young and poor. Leave us alone.) Shout-out to Becca! Holla! Becca now lives in Buenos Aires. You just can’t hold her down.

In Front of Irazu with Maggie

- Bri, Robie, and Christen ate veggie burritos with sides of Salsa Lizano. Bri swears that Salsa Lizano tastes like an Indian condiment—it is brown, it has cauliflower, and it has a slightly sweet cumin flavor. Christen continues to passionately (bordering irritably) deny Bri’s assessment. Maggie took the path less traveled with crispy potato taquitos, plantains, rice & beans, and mole. All of us enjoyed our food except for Robie, who learned that she prefers Tex-Mex.
- Rode the El to Second City. This is the comedy club where most of the big Saturday Night Live stars got their start. Most Second City shows are a mixture of skits and improv. They cracked us up for three hours! We even got to see a third act of new material that they were testing out. The third act wasn’t as good, but hey, it was free. One memorable laughing point: 99% of Belgians can correctly identify the US capital as Washington, D.C.; 90% of Americans identified “waffle” as Belgium’s capital.
- Arrived back at our hotel near midnight. We really wore ourselves out today. And Christen set a new record for dirty feet. They were so dirty that she couldn’t get her footprints off of the bathtub, even after hardcore scrubbing. She is hoping that we are not charged for destroying said bathtub…


Some of our favorites from the Art Institute:

Paris Street, Rainy Day (Gustave Callibote)

A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (Georges Seurat)

Self Portrait (Vincent van Gough)

The Bedroom (Vincent van Gough)

Portrait of the Artist's Sister (G. Lemmen)

Sky above Clouds IV (Georgia O'Keeffe)

Untitled Blue Sponge Relief (Yves Klein)

Single Elvis (Andy Warhol)

Christen in a Wedding Dress (Robie Dayton)

The Old Guitarist (Pablo Picasso)

Champs de Mars (Robert Delaunay)

The Banquet (Rene Magritte)

Times Transfixed (Rene Magritte)

Nighthawks (Edward Hopper)

American Gothic (Grant Wood)

Tattoo & Haircut (Reginald Marsh)