There have been times on our trip when Jules and I just stop and acknowledge how blessed we are to be having such a wonderful adventure, and today was one of those days. But rather than be thankful for a particular adventure, we were grateful for a wonderful couple who made us feel part of their family within half an hour of meeting them.
Denny and Mary-Ann, or Mak, to her mates picked us from Union Station in Chicago and we had three brilliant days with them, especially enjoying Denny's "Robert Deniro" Chicago accent!
The train from New Orleans was an hour late, and instead of being confronted by an irritated Mak, we were confronted by an elegant, composed lady, waiting patiently in her long coat for us. After introductions and waiting another 30 minutes for our luggage, we went outside to meet our chauffeur, otherwise known as "Denny". Denny drove us around for three days with a smile on his face, with nothing phasing him in the least ..... even being chased by the police!
So Jules and I jumped into the back of the car and we were taken on a great tour of Chicago.
We started with Lake Shore Drive, driving along the banks of Lake Michigan and seeing Buckingham Fountain, Adler Planetarium, The Field Museum of Natural History and the Shedd Aquarium. We stopped for a photograph of the Chicago skyline with Navy Pier in the foreground. Denny and Mak pointed out the tallest buildings - Sears Tower and the John Hancock building.
Mak explained that John Hancock had signed his name extra large (sarcastically) on the USA Declaration of Independence for King George to see (who had supposedly bad eye sight) - so Dad now I know why you say "give me your John Hancock"!
We were rushed past a big stadium that had Roman style columns on the side of it and then it appeared as if a flying saucer had landed in the center of the stadium. We asked what it was and reluctantly, we were told it was Soldier's Field, the home of the Chicago Bears football team. Denny and Mak trash talked the Bears and their field something awful! Ok, I am just adding that in, they were gracious enough to explain the history of the Bears, before they began to preach to us of the one and only football team, the PACKERS! So now we are brain washed Green Bay Packers fans for life - go Favre! (ooooo I know I will get it from Mak when she visits South Africa in March, but, bring it on I say ...... as I have the Amarula!)
Back to the serious stuff, we were then taken to the "Bean". This is a massive, stainless steel kidney bean that sits in Millennium Park, with the city's skyline reflected on it's surface. We admired this piece of art while watching some locals skating in the ice rink just below the Bean. The main attraction in Millenium Park is designer Frank Gehry's band shell.
It is a huge stage where big bands deliver performances, while the audience sit in front of the stage. Overhead are mounted lights and speakers, so even people sitting on their picnic blankets at the very back of the lawn can hear clearly. It looked very good and we imagined joining Denny and Mak, sitting on their blanket, sipping some wine, enjoying the symphony while we ate copious amounts of cheese ..... well that's cheeseheads for you!
We were brought back to reality by the -3 Chicago cold and the wind chill! Dennie picked us up and we set off on the quest to find the best hot-dog in Chicago! Lonely Planet guide book says that a "typical Chicago dog is piled high with onions, relish, mustard, hot peppers, celery salt and a warm pickle spear". Denny pulled out his little orange note page and told Mak to guide us to 2622 North Clark street, to the "Wiener's Circle", which she duly did.
So there we were, inside the Wiener's Circle, with Denny getting us a "real" Chicago dog, while Mak went for a dog with mustard and tomatoe sauce! Now everyone knows you never put tomatoe sauce on a dog! Oh well, there was nothing we could say, but Paul & Debbie certainly showed Mak the error of her ways that evening!
We enjoyed our Weiners big time and then Denny set off to find Wrigley Park, home of the Chicago Cubs.
Wrigley Park is in the suburb of Wrigleyville, surrounded by lots of bars. This is a very unique baseball field as it sits slap bang in the neighborhood and has games in the afternoons. This ensures it stays local, with school children able to finish school and then go and watch the Cubs playing. None of the "big stadium out of the city" crap like other baseball fields!
The only downside we discovered was that if you are a Cubs fan, you will probably never see a World Series win in Wrigley Park - since 1910, no Series win in Wrigley! However, the Red Sox broke a similar streak in 2004,
so maybe, and it's a big maybe, the cubs could do the same?
We pondered this very important thought as we introduced Mac to a beer shandy. Mak did not know that the beer shandy is for wannabee beer drinkers, too woosie to have a real pint, so they have half a pint of beer and half a pint of 7-up. Well, she took to it like a duck to water and from then on Jules and Mac could not be separated from their Shandies!
We were then dropped off at Macy's to have a look at the storefront windows. Macy's has a new Christmas story in their windows each year, with robotic puppets acting out the story. This year it is the Nutcracker (which, when I first saw it, made me break out in a cold sweat when I remembered being forced to watch the Russian Ballet perform it in London - I remember Julie's Dad and I excitedly jumping up to leave after an hour of pain, only to realise it was just intermission!)!
Well, I wiped my brow and followed the story across 9 or 10 windows, and it was impressive (especially since this nut cracker only lasted 10 minutes!).
We hailed our chauffeur and set off for the Sears Tower. The Sears Tower was originally built to house all the Chicago based head office employees of Sears, in a time when Sears was economically booming, but fairly soon after moving in Sears were forced to move out and sell their building as they could not afford to stay in their own building!
Denny parked the car near the Sears Tower and we were shocked to see the cost of parking - yes, it appeared the mafia still controlled Chicago! After Denny mortgaged his house to pay for the parking, we had an ear popping ride up to the 103rd floor in 70 seconds.
It was an amazing experience up there. Not only was the 1454 feet high view magnificent of every Chicago nook and cranny, but the entire history of Chicago was displayed on poster boards for us to read. In 1971 (I think), the Sears building was the tallest in the world.
We learnt about the great fire to the present day and had a good laugh with Denny when he made real some of the history we were reading. In 1959, during the Cold War (when US citizens believed the Russians were coming) the Cubs won the World Series away from home (obviously!). When the news reached Chicago, the fire chief let loose the city's sirens in celebration!! Well, most folks had no idea that this was a celebration and so Denny's family along with most of Chicago (except for the fire chief) were bundled into cars and started heading out of the city. The plan was to evacuate to bunkers in the country. Denny said after about 15 minutes they heard on the car radio that the sirens were just a celebration! I'm not sure whether the fire chief kept his job, but today Denny can laugh about the experience, while he helped us to understand a bit of Chicago's history.
Next our tour guides mortgaged their lake house to park near Miracle Mile. The best way to describe the Miracle Mile is to say it is the Rodeo Drive of Chicago. All the designer label shops are there, with all their Christmas splendour.
We strolled along the beautifully lit up street and agreed with Mak that only some snow could improve the evening.
We admired Chicago's famous landmark, the Water Tower, which is a 154 foot turreted structure, which is famous for being the only building to survive the 1871 great fire (mainly because it was made of brick!) unlike the rest of Chicago that burnt to the ground.
We saw the famous "L train" that loops around Chicago's downtown area, before Denny said it was time for our second Chicago only eating experience - the Deep-dish pizza. Out came the orange note page and we were off.
Denny had used the web to find Chicago's best hot-dogs and pizzas. The hot-dogs had been great, so we eagerly awaited the pizza! We were in such a hurry to get to the pizza place that Denny went through an orange light, that turned red on us very quickly! We heard a police siren and then the hi-speed chase began ....... ok, so Denny politely pulled over, but imagine if he had decided to make a run for it?!
The police agreed with Denny that the light did change quickly and off we went. Rather exciting we thought, never having been pulled over ourselves, for driving up a one street, so not familiar with the whole procedure!
We drove in the 6pm rush hour traffic, thankfully, in the opposite direction of the heaviest traffic until we found it. The name escapes me, but Denny's reaction I remember well. We did the perfect drive by ...... Denny slowed down, we rolled down the windows facing the pizza place, we all leaned out the windows and then we sped away a we rolled the windows back up. Denny screamed in anguish as we saw the pizza place, proudly offering customers pizza by the slice.
So, the orange paper was discarded, alas it had failed us. However Denny and Mac had the perfect back-up plan ...... Mr. Weber!
As we approached Mr.Weber we saw a huge red Weber kettle braai outside the restaurant. It was huge and was soon a prop for a photograph. The meal was one of my best on the trip .... kettle braaied chicken and ribs with red beans, coleslaw and biscuit.
The chicken was great, but the ribs were something else ..... they had thee most meat on a rib bone I have ever seen, sort of like a double-story rib!
The red beans were in a sweetish sauce that was magnificent, the cold slaw tasted like the Colonel's cold slaw (which everyone knows is the best cold slaw in the world) and the biscuit was a warm home made one, simply delicious (for those that may not know, a biscuit in the US is a scone like piece of bread).
Jules enjoyed her meal, but not as much as I did. The only problem we had was again trying to pay for our meal, but Denny and Mak just kept shaking their heads and refusing to take our money. The only time on our trip we had this much fun for nothing was with my Dad, so we thanked them for a wonderful day as we set off for our digs for the night.
We were asked to abuse the Chicago Bears as often as we could, as we went into meet Paul and Debbie (Denny's sister and brother in law).
We had a great time doing what we like best - talking about our trip. Paul and Debbie were gracious hosts and we went to bed happy and amazed at how at home we felt with Denny, Mac and their family.
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