The lack of racing in the America’s Cup regatta off San Francisco had quite an impact on how we planned our last few days in Chicago. Racing officially started each day at 3:15pm Chicago time, so we always made an effort to have wound up our activities for the day and made our way to Ontario Place to watch the races with Max. On the occasional day that this was not possible, Max recorded the live broadcast and we all watched it later that evening.
On Saturday, the stores were crowded and browsing them was somewhat less pleasant. Yvonne and I left our apartment separately, both heading out to wander the shops at leisure. I popped in to a couple of interior design stores in Wabash Avenue, a north/south running street which intersects with Ontario Street, where I found some items that would have made great gifts – if I had any more space in my suitcase. I was back at Max and Sarah’s in plenty of time to watch nothing happening on the television – two races abandoned due to unfavourable winds from the south. To fill in the time, we drank wine, ate cheese and played a game of Scrabble which Max won convincingly.
Dinner was at Sumi Robata Bar, a Japanese restaurant which was an easy walk away on what turned out to be a very pleasant autumn evening. We shared a number of small dishes, including vegetables, seafood and meat cooked on the Robata (a Japanese-style barbecue). Max chose a couple of glasses of Snow Blossom from the ‘bold and rich’ category in the extensive sake section of the drinks menu – the other categories were ‘clean’, ‘aromatic’ and ‘speciality’ – thirteen different sakes in all to choose from. Sarah, Yvonne and I chose a cocktail named ‘Hana’ – it contained gin, elderflower, citrus and grapefruit bitters and was very refreshing. We spent some time discussing the availability or otherwise of different types of bitters – there is a very dusty bottle of rhubarb bitters on the drinks tray in the apartment we are currently staying in. I wonder whether flavoured bitters could be one of the next big things?
One highlight for Sarah and I was the sophisticated toilet in the women’s restroom with its dazzling array of features – the control panel on the armrest held many options for heating, cleaning and drying both the toilet seat and body parts. Our subsequent discussion was ultimately terminated as a favour to Max who was beginning to show signs of succumbing to ‘too much information’ fatigue.
Sunday was Moving Day again – Yvonne and I were leaving the privately-owned apartment we had stayed in for the previous nine nights and returning to Ontario Place, where we would be bunking down with Max and Sarah for our remaining time in Chicago. True to form, we heard nothing from our host Victor regarding procedures for leaving his place, so at 9:30 or so we merely left the key on the kitchen bench and shut the door behind us as we left. We walked the couple of blocks up to Max and Sarah’s, then all headed out for an hour at the stores before our brunch booking.
We headed firstly to Nordstrom where we were looking for a mid-weight jacket to purchase as an early Christmas present for Max. We found one he liked, but the size wasn’t available so we thought we would check other stores before committing to ordering one in. We then headed north along Michigan Avenue where we split up to complete our separate ‘to-do’ lists; I had some shoes to exchange for a smaller size, Max wanted to have a look at the new iPhone in the Apple store.
We met up again at Heaven on Seven on the corner of Ohio and Rush Streets; it is a Louisiana-style restaurant which serves up great Cajun food (including gumbo). The visual focus in the restaurant is the shelves of hot sauces that cover the walls – when the restaurant first opened, you could earn yourself a free main meal if you brought in a chilli/Tabasco/pepper sauce that they didn’t already have on display. The free meal deal is no longer available, but the bottles of sauce continue to expand – there were three or four new shelves tucked above one of the doorways.
We left the restaurant and headed back to Ontario Place for a lazy afternoon of yacht racing, reading and Scrabble. Sarah and I walked to Walgreens pharmacy and Whole Foods market for some necessities, other than that it was a quiet day.
Yvonne and I were up early on Monday and, in an attempt to keep out of Max’s way while he was working from home, decided to walk to Old Town for the last time. We stopped on the way at Paper Source, then when we got to Plum Market had a final cappuccino at Intelligentsia. We had offered to make pea and ham soup for dinner, so were looking for bacon bones, green split peas etc. – not an easy task in a country where most soups seem to be cream-based. We carried our purchases home, choosing to walk rather than using public transport as the weather was still very pleasant. We spent the afternoon sorting out our suitcases for the trip back home, making sure the weight was spread evenly between the bags that we would be checking in.
On Tuesday morning we said goodbye to Max and Sarah, who were off to work and unsure as to whether they would be home before we needed to leave for the airport. After five weeks of seeing them each day I was very sad to be leaving them, though the sadness is tempered with the knowledge that Tim and Amy will be in Chicago in six weeks; then February will be here before we know it. Yvonne and I walked north to Walton Street, popping into a couple of outdoor stores and having morning tea at Hendricks Belgian Bakery. We had been here as part of our chocolate tour last week, but didn’t try the croissants – we were determined to do this before we left, so had an almond one each. Sarah was right – they were delicious.