Breathing my Mind into Your Face

We spent the new years weekend in Chicago. It was an enjoyable whirlwind. We all lack sleep as a result, but we wouldn’t trade the memories. 

We got on the train from Ann Arbor at 7:15 Friday morning. We scored four seats facing each other with a table in the middle next to three twenty somethings drinking bloody mary’s. The boys kept their noses in their tablets playing Roblox and the parents read. I’m reading “The Splendid and the Vile” by Erik Larson about Winston Churchill during the bombing of London by the Germans. I think the book contributed to my dream. Upon arriving at Union Station, we rolled our luggage down to the south end of the loop for lunch at Manny’s. James had seen it on Diner’s, Drive-In’s, and Dives. It’s a cafeteria style jewish deli that’s been around for a while. The pastrami was nice. From there, we ubered to the W Lakeshore which is across the street from Navy Pier. Our room was ready early so we unpacked and laid down for a smidge. Then we put our suits on and headed to the indoor pool. I tossed the boys around, mom stayed on the sidelines. After that we went back to the room and put our nice clothes on (No sweatpant policy for the boys) for our fancy family dinner at RPM Italian. Prior to the 4:30 reservation we strolled the magnificent mile. The Lego store was in Watertower Place. In the same building there was a Harry Potter store / experience where you could buy tickets for some kind of wizarding show. You could also buy magic wands for $40. I resisted the wand requests on account of that’s some cheap ass bullshit. We headed up the escalator to the Lego store where there was a line around the corner of the store just to get in. This is just a lego store like they have all over the country. No time to wait so we resumed our stroll toward RPM Italian back the other way down Michigan ave then over to the River North area. 

Spaghetti, meatballs, chicken parm were all decent. Nothing to write your Italian grandma about but pretty good. When we were done we took a cab to Harry Caray’s at Navy Pier where we’d reserved an outdoor warming igloo for $100 that was next to a curling setup. I whined about the $100 for the igloo because I thought we could’ve just walked around the pier then gone home instead of sequestering ourselves in the igloo. We passed the time listening to jams on wife’s phone, eating brownies and ice cream and drinking hot cocoa and coffee. The curling was a cheap synthetic one-way setup as opposed to the two-way ice run I was expecting. All I wanted was to power sweep the ice in front of one of those stones while aggressively shouting like I’ve seen on the CBC man! Before walking back to the hotel we perused the inside of the Pier shops and bought the boys some bulk candy at the sugar store to take to the Blue Man Group performance the next day.

I woke up at 5:45 on saturday so I could attend a 6:00 AA open talk. I went down to the lobby, got some coffee then found a secluded spot on the 2nd floor to listen to Sandy tell her story. After that I went to Starbucks and got a latte for wife and a caramel macchiato with coconut milk for myself. Wife was annoyed that I didn’t follow up regarding her flavor profile but the text asked for a latte, so you got a latte. After getting ready we stopped for some Do-Rite donuts on the way to the subway where we took a ride to the Willis tower. Great attraction, learned the history of the tall buildings in the city, nice views, and you can look straight down when standing on the glass ledge. From there we took the subway back to the magnificent mile area so the boys could try again at the lego store. We got in and resisted J’s persistent pleas for a $700 Harry Potter set. Adios Michigan ave and on to the train toward the Belmont stop in Lakeview. Prior to the Blue Man Group performance we had some tacos. The blue men were at the Briar Street theatre. I was mildly engaged but more enjoyed looking over at the excitement on the faces of the kids. That held up for an hour before they started asking when it’d be over. When it was, we took an uber up to Wrigley to decamp at Lucky Strike Social for the UofM vs. TCU football game. Nobody wanted to bowl which was too bad because I like to be doing stuff when I’m at bars so it’s not just people drinking. There was a good sized arcade so we sent the kids off into that area with some tokens while wife and I sat in the sports bar area. She drank a couple cocktails and some Blue Moons (3). I had ginger beer and a coffee. Even though it was a thrilling game it was long and I got bored. I don’t like sitting in bars for hours but we wanted to watch the game and didn’t want to do it from our hotel room. I couldn’t find any alcohol free sports bars in the city just yet. When TCU was finished beating those UofM scrubs we took an uber to Roscoe Village to see our friends who have kids and were having people over for the Ohio State / Georgia game. It was nice to have other people to chat with. There were a couple other non-drinking males there. At halftime all the males went outside and smoked joints. Earlier in the day I had told my wife I wasn’t going to partake in weed if it was offered. I reneged on that and I’m not mad about it. I’ve now decided that I will in fact partake in weed if offered in a social setting. That shit was enjoyable. I got giggly and more conversant. I won’t do it at home alone. I won’t buy it. This is not a slippery slope. This is not booze. So get off my back!!!!!

The game was close so we had to watch till the end, which meant we were getting an uber back to the W at 11:40. We hit a traffic jam because they had traffic shut down during the midnight fireworks show over Navy Pier. We decided to jump out of the Uber on Lakeshore and walk toward the hotel. It was a chaotic scene at midnight with people everywhere celebrating on the sidewalks and fireworks popping off in the sky. We paused and took some pics to help us seal in what could be a core memory for the boys. I thought it was pretty cool. 

The next day we had brunch reservations at Beatrix. Then we walked from Streeterville south to Millenium Park and the boys played for a bit before getting an Uber to the museum of science and industry. Plenty left to explore at that museum another time. After a few hours we needed to get back to Streeterville for pizza at Roberts Pizza and Dough. It was the best rated non Chicago style in the area according to the one bite app. It had been a busy few days and we were ready for the ride back to Michigan. We got home around midnight exhausted and stronger as a family unit than ever.