Chicagoland and beyond

I had no Net access for the last two days, so this post will bring you up to date on my four days in Illinois and today's trip across Wisconsin. Sorry, it's a bit long.

Lynwood, IL

I have only one picture to show you from my two days in Lynwood with Yolanda and Nicole: the lovely and tasty peach cobbler that Nicole baked to top off the big dinner that she and her mother prepared in honor of Nicole's boyfriend Rick on his first visit. The main course was Rick himself, presented half-humorously to Mom's "sisters and her cousins and her aunts" (pace Gilbert and Sullivan) for inspection. It's not for me to say what they decided, but I like him. I have lots of other photos that Nicole and I took, but they're all of people and I keep full names and faces out of this blog to protect everyone's privacy.

Since family dinners Friday and Saturday precluded any restaurant outings, the way I found to earn my keep was to assemble a TV stand that had been waiting for someone foolish enough to tackle the confusing instructions and multitude of look-alike parts. I finished it up the morning I left, with only a few glitches. I'm kicking myself for not taking a photo.

Chicago

Sunday I moved to Mary and Jack's gorgeous home in Hyde Park on Chicago's South Side, a stone's throw from the University of Chicago campus; it was once the home of a UC professor who's now a well-known national figure - no, not President Obama, though he spent the holiday weekend at his home a few blocks away. Here's a view of part of the house, with apologies to Mary for my mangling her face and the house number for reasons of privacy (and the limited photo editing tools Windows Paint provides).

I have to show you two more buildings from Mary and Jack's neighborhood that carry special memories for me. One is Frank Lloyd Wright's famous Robie House just a few doors away. As a kid I actually dared to yell to my father to stop the car when I spotted this house, which I had recently read about in a national magazine. And he actually stopped so we could admire the gorgeous (but, I'm told, impractical) lines of the house. It's now a museum of the architect's works, and I plan to save time on my trip home to take the tour.

The second, a block away, is the Oriental Institute. Once we kids were old enough to understand mummies and cylinder seals and to take a little interest in Assyrian and Egyptian art our family made pilgrimages to this museum of Near Eastern antiquities at least once a year.

I didn't find time to get a photo of the Museum of Science & Industry, also a short walk away, which we visited dozens of times as I was growing up. Another photo I missed was of the building where I had my first real job when it was the headquarters of the R.R. Donnelley & Sons printing company. Now under new ownership as a data center, this historic building is surrounded by newer structures and I wasn't able to see it from Lake Shore Drive or from I-55.

The big event was to have been a backyard barbecue Sunday that brought together many of Mary's, Yolanda's and my former Treasury colleagues from the Chicago office. It became an indoor barbecue when Jack discovered that squirrels had gnawed a hole through the rubber covering of the grill's gas line. The food was just delightful, and seeing so many old friends and some of their family members was priceless.

Yesterday afternoon I had a wonderful visit with an old (but young) DC friend, Rebekah, her husband Martin and their charming eight-month-old daughter Daliah. Since a severe thunderstorm was coming through they treated me to a tasty lunch delivered by the Indian Garden Restaurant. The best moment of the visit was when we discovered that Rebekah's and my good friend Philip in DC is also well known to Martin from numerous committee meetings they have participated in together in a completely different context.

Finally, this morning my friend Dorel, from countless DC-area square dances in the 1980s, and I spent two hours reminiscing over brunch at Sally's Waffle and Pancake House (no website) near her home in far northwest Chicago. A wonderful time, huge portions, and barely $20 for two. Amazing.

Wisconsin

So here I am in Menomonie, WI, an hour from the Twin Cities. The drive up I-90/94 through Illinois and diagonally across Wisconsin was uneventful except for the pleasant surprise of finding that my Maryland EZ-Pass device was accepted at Illinois' I-Pass toll gates, and a rainy cold front I crossed about an hour before reaching my hotel; the outside temperature dropped in minutes from 84 to 61, a welcome change.

I took a very slight detour to visit Castle Rock, a series of towering limestone pinnacles I had seen many times 40 years ago as we drove down the Interstate between Duluth and Wheeler. Here's a photo; if you're ever on the freeway between Tomah and the Wisconsin Dells, take exit 55 to Juneau County Highway C and follow the "Wayside" signs about 100 yards to the parking lot just outside the gate to Camp Douglas of the Wisconsin National Guard. (As always, click on the picture to view a larger version, still only about 1/6 the original photo size.)