Once our trip itinerary was set, we pulled up the Cub’s schedule to search out possible games we could attend.  On the downside we discovered we will only be able to see them in Chicago.  On the upside we found out that their away games this week were against the cross-town rival White Sox, and having two close friends as devoted life-long White Sox fans, I contacted them and suggested we all meet at a game at “The Cell”.  So Saturday we hoped on the “L” and headed to the South Side where we met up with Al and Ruthie Pearlman, and Barry and Claudia Altshuler at US Cellular field to witness the Cubs victory over the Sox 6-3, extending our Cubbie winning streak to six.  I was going to rub it in, but the good folks at the ballpark celebrated the Cubs win with a nice fireworks display so…….

In Enemy Territory!

Inside US Cellular Field

Back to Front:  Sox Fan, Cubs Fan, Sox Fan, Cubs Fan, Sox Fan, Not Interested in Baseball but happy to be visiting with friends.

Final Score

Fireworks Night

This past weekend was the annual Air and Water Show on Chicago’s lakefront.  We caught glimpses of the jets on Friday and Saturday as they flew by our neighborhood during their routines.  Sunday we decided to walk down Lake Shore Drive to see the show in all its glory.  We arrived at the lakefront just in time to watch the Blue Angels.

From our Apt window

Afterwards we went to visit with our friends Debbie Robinson and Bob Bernstein at their really cool home in Lincoln Park.  Debbie and I grew up together in Hoffman Estates, and during this visit we discovered that we were in the same first and second grade class at Lakeview Elementary School.  Debbie found our second grade picture.  She is bottom left, I am top right. Too funny.

Later we all met up with friends Chuck and Rachel Rosenberg for dinner at El Nuevo Mexicano.  Chuck and Rachel just bought a home in Lincoln Park and took some time off from the move for a quick visit.

As always it was great fun catching up with old friends.

We got a nice surprise this weekend when we found out that friends from home happened to be in Chicago this week.  We made arrangements to have Chicago deep dish pizza with James and Patti Yetman (their daughter Meghan played high school basketball with Emily and now lives in NYC where we met for appetizers while on our trip last year. Meghan and Emily reconnected in NY and have been playing in a flag football league). Dinner was at Lou Malnati’s on State Street where we had a great time but got caught in a huge thunderstorm on the way back to the hotel.  Resourceful James managed to get us into a cab but we got super soaked nonetheless!

Yummy Deep Dish!

Tuesday (post morning routine and a picnic lunch by the lake) we met Linda for a movie and dinner.  We saw “Rickie and the Flash”, an OK movie with an outstanding performance by Meryl Streep.  It is amazing how well these actors can sing.  After dinner we got soaked in yet another huge thunderstorm, but luckily we were close enough to our apartment to make a run for it, get upstairs, and dry out.  Wish we could export some of this rain to NorCal!

Today we decided to have lunch in the South Loop at The Goddess and the Baker.  Our friends Adam and Marla Gamoran’s son Daniel is the executive chef, and even though we doubted he would remember us, we felt compelled to see him and introduce ourselves.  So I contacted Adam who steered us to the Wabash location (they have 2 locations).  Sadly (of course) Daniel was working at the other location today.  We did however enjoy a great santa monica turkey sandwich.  Oh well, maybe next visit.

Our plans this evening were to go see Chuck and Rachel’s new home in Lincoln Park.  So, seeing that no rain was forecasted today, we set off to see their new digs. Rachel was in Aspen (lucky Rachel) officiating a Bar Mitzvah so Chuck gave us the grand tour of their beautiful new home.  The building was once a factory for scientific equipment.

Congrats Guys on your new place.  Good luck with the move and enjoy.  Can’t wait to see it furnished!

We finished the day with a nice dinner at Rose Angelis, a really cute neighborhood restaurant.

Here are a few more pictures from our days roaming around Chicagoland.

I actually ran right by this sculpture this morning without noticing it! We found it later while walking to Goddess.

One obligatory Bean Picture.

Night view from our condo

Picnic lunch by the Ohio Street Beach

Pano from the Museum Campus