I woke her up around 6:30 and finally told her what I had planned for two weeks and what we were doing downtown that afternoon. We'll get to that soon. So I started making my cinnamon-strawberry French toast. We had breakfast with mom and got ready to head downtown.
We were halfway down Whittington Course, when she realized she left her jacket in the house, so we went back to grab it. So we got to Geneva, parked, and were waiting on the platform. The train was two minutes away. I casually asked her where her jacket was. She sprinted back to the garage to get her jacket. While she was in the garage, I saw the light. The light of the oncoming train.
Thankfully, she made it and we headed to Ogilvie Station. The train arrived 25 minutes late, so we walked quickly to the corner of Michigan and Wacker. As we were heading north on Michigan, I happened to see a Chicago Blackhawks Team Store. It wasn't planned, but let's just say it worked out very conveniently in my favor.
We took the 90-minute Architecture river tour. When I purchased the tickets, I don't think I realized that different companies do these tours. This one seemed a little bit different than the two I had taken before. First, it was much more educational, while the guide offered plenty of historical facts on the city and buildings, she really incorporated a lot of information about architects and the history of architecture. I learned that a lot more riverwalks exist in Chicago than I ever knew. The only down note was we did not go onto Lake Michigan; we focused more on covering the entire Chicago River.
So after a 90-minute ride, where Catherine took at least 100 photos, we went straight to the Blackhawks store. I waited for her to browse for over 30 minutes. That was one thing to deal with, considering my appetite was growing. I knew she was excited, so I understood. But what made it really annoying was the Boston Bruins Stanley Cup celebration was being televised while we were in there. At the end, she came away with four programs and a pair of Stanley Cup pucks for her and Nicole.
We were really getting hungry by this point, so we started walking east to Navy Pier. I was on the lookout for the free trolley ride, but it never came. So after getting a little lost, we found Illinois St and I recognized the AMC theater that I was at with Nona seven months earlier. Once i saw that, I knew where to go. We thought about Harry Caray's Tavern or Bubba Gump shrimp, but the lines were just way too long, over an hour of waiting. Jimmy Buffet's Margheritaville appeared to be open, but we found out the customers sitting at the bar were just family and friends of the staff and that it was a soft opening. The restaurant did not open to the public for another two days. So that was a disappointment. Finally, we went with Capi's Italian Kitchen, which was like a counter service eatery. I knew it wouldn't be the greatest quality of food, but we were ready for almost anything by this point.
I liked at that at the drink station, there were pepper mills, and jugs of olive oil and balsamic vinegar for the taking. We started with some decent breadsticks and salad. Catherine got an Italian sandwich that I would never have gone near since it had regular ham on it. I had a rigatoni dish with ground country sausage, mushrooms, and a dark red sauce. It was a nice-sized lunch portion; it filled me up just enough. Had we stopped there, I would have felt the place was pretty average, but not worth returning to, especially with all the other options at Navy Pier.
Then came dessert time. I can't remember which of us noticed it first. But when we saw the dessert selections, the idea of zeppole homemade Italian doughnuts appealed to me. We ordered them and the waiter actually brought them out when were about halfway through our main courses. The golf ball sized dougnuts came in a brown paper bag with plenty of powdered sugar. After about 10 minutes, I took one out. It was still hot and I bit in. Crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside, and a perfect blend of fried sugar and fresh taste. We got a ramekin of honey for a buck extra, but the truth is, the honey was completely unnecessary. Why distract from such a marvelous flavor?
We strolled to the end of the pier where there is now a beer garden. We passed by a series of fun house mirrors and we took plenty of photos. We started to head back toward Ogilvie since it was around 4 p.m. and Catherine was a little tired from so much walking. We headed back north on the LSD (Lake Shore Drive) walkway up to Monroe St. We sat down a few times to rest. We headed west from there, and i did get lost a time or two, but we eventually found our way back.
I don't remember which street corner it was on, but we had stopped when she suddenly laid her head on my shoulder, and I could only react by kissing her hair.
We caught the 5:40 train home and within five minutes of leaving the station, she fell asleep again. We arrived in Geneva and headed straight to Graham's. I knew that would satisfy her craving for peanut butter and chocolate. As she explored the shelves of homemade chocolate indulgences, I had a feeling dinner was already taken care of. She had a peanut butter chocolate chip shake and brought home chocolate covered bacon, peanut butter cups, and one or two other treats. Me? Coconut almond ice cream in a waffle cone. Yep, that was a fine dinner.
We tried sitting outside, but a huge swarm of mosquitoes kept following us, so we sat in the car. I played some more John and Suzyn clips and that got us both laughing hard. The comedy and the shake seemed to instill some energy into her. OK, maybe the sleep helped a little. We went back home and headed into the basement, where I played some more clips. We pulled our chairs next to each other, and as we continued to laugh to the point that our stomachs ached, I think that was when we started to realize how much we were going to miss each other. I just know the next hour or so went by really quick...
I woke her up the next morning at 3:45, dropped her off at O'Hare around 4:45, got back home around 5:30, and slept until 9:15. Made it to group on time at least...
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