DS’ mother, LS, asked, “So how was the great Chicago trip?” and the answer is….

Well…the attractions were nice. We managed to do quite a bit…the “Ferrist” Wheel, the Carousel, and a really lovely night architecture cruise. The decision to have Italian food at Capi’s

http://www.eatatcapis.com/

was a good one..the food was excellent

next day, breakfast became a very protracted lunch, thanks to a dreadfully long wait for a table, and an equally long wait for (good) food at Yolk:

http://eatyolk.com/

by the time we got out of there (we actually gave our names and went and tried our luck at Waffles, which was just as bad, so we came back!) the Aquarium was also getting crowded. As Derek puts it, we admired the incredible length of the queue, and we came back to the hotel, and drove over to Evanston in the afternoon, and though we didn’t see the House Where Lynn Lived, (or the House Where Al Capone lived!) we did visit the Bahai’i Temple, and then went to the Indian area, and I met up with an FB friend of mine, Manini Rao, and her son Hrittik and we had excellent south Indian food at the Udupi Palace

http://www.udupipalacechicago.net/

My friend’s son had a dosai with us, and she had a coffee. Hrittik, who’s a very sweet 6, and Boodi got along famously! DnA did their Indian grocery shopping while I took care of the kids…here, too, the crowd and noise factor was immense, and it was raining, and cold. The groceries, supposed to be half the price of St.Louis, turned out to be the same prices…PLUS very crowded shopping conditions!

On Sunday morning, we made it in reasonable time to the Shedd Aquarium. . Boodi didn’t get very interested in this place, though Anjana and she did see the Dora the Explorer show, and the exhibits were good. The crowd and noise level got more and more stressful, and we were very, very happy to be out. We were done by about 1pm or so. We had so many leftovers from our other meals that we just came back to the hotel, picked up our bags, and drove back. The little one did not seem happy in the car after a couple of hours, and we had to make multiple stops to try and pacify him…we got home around 8.30pm, I think.

MOTS (Moral Of The Story)….do not visit touristy attractions on a long weekend! However, we still managed to have quite a good time, and certainly Boodi and Bobby (don’t ask me why, but Mohan calls him that and it seems SUCH an apt name for him, much more than Kalyan…it reminds me very much of Big Bob!) bore up very well to the trip. Here he is, praying that we get home soon…

Boodi Ma is sitting next to me trying to ruin my phone, and she said “hi to Nanna” in a tiny voice when I told her I am emailing you. I’ve got a pic of her latest tee, and you’re guaranteed to like it!

I’ve been posting albums on FB, you can go through them…I’ve not posted the Aquarium photos yet. Will get to it soon….Bobby-Booda has been rather fidgety the last couple of days, and it’s been difficult to get time on the laptop.

STL is warm and humid…and I’m hoping that we have a mild time of it….! I do hate the warm weather. DnA spent almost the entire night de-bugging the garage :( I spent the night awake fighting off mosquitoes…we’d left the front door open while we all went over to talk to Sandy and Michael next door (tomorrow they complete 42 years of marriage!)

Photos….

Art of Lust/Rust/Dust: Q was the letter we learnt to fear in Chicago! When we came back to the hotel, from our 11th floor room we saw an Indian wedding (baaraat) in progress at the Chicago Hilton next door: The Museum had this creature who is slightly older than I am: Architecture was beautiful everywhere: The gulls were bold and beautiful: Sculptures dotted the Millenium Park: Just like Forest Park, Millenium Park had a lot of Segways: Scraping the sky... The Memorial Day weekend fireworks from the Architecture Night Cruise were lovely to watch: Imagine, some designer busts his gut to design these buildings, only to have them dubbed the Corn on the Cob! Here's the Sears Tower: More beautiful, illumintated buildings: What are tourist attractions without junk items? the famous Ferris Wheel on the Navy Pier: The dancing fountains: Tiramisu and cappucino, a great combination at Capi's: Carousing on the Carousel: Exchanged looks,and vows, at a wedding in the Crystal Building: the Carousel and the Wave Slinger,from the Ferris Wheel: Two lines in Lake Michigan:

Let me end with this picture of happiness at the prospect of the “Ferrist Wheel ride!”

For more photos of the first day, see my FB albums,

here

here

and

here

Haven’t got around to the second and third days yet!