Thursday, August 22, 2013
Awoke early. Breakfast at home: one sliced red plum, granola with unsweetened soy milk. Uber to SFO. SFO to ORD via Virgin America. On the flight a flight attendant announced that someone on the plane had an allergy to nuts and requested that everyone not eat anything that contained nuts. I thought the request was unnecessary, but I complied. I had complimentary tomato juice with ice and watched Star Trek (2009) on my MacBook Air via iTunes purchase. During the flight I considered having a turkey wrap ($8) and had added it to my cart but did not purchase it. After the flight at ORD I had lots of unpleasant transit experience trying to buy a CTA train ticket: many machines out of order, many with very specific restrictions (e.g., cash only, credit only, 3-day or 7-day pass only, etc.), instructions unclear (e.g., do I need a 7-day pass or a 7-day pass with Pace? what is Pace?), only two humans to help what was at the moment about 30 travelers. CTA blue line to Monroe: $5. (Summary: To travel from ORD to the Loop load a CTA pass with $5. Insert the pass into the turnstile, remove it, then enter the turnstile.) At Monroe it was unclear how to exit the station with a large suitcase without climbing a huge staircase. I asked a CTA employee who directed me to exit via Chase Bank, which was a suitable, unintuitive solution. I found myself next to a large water fountain in Exelon Plaza: beautiful. The air was muggy and a rain shower had recently passed. The weather felt tropical to me, and I'm accustomed to experiencing this kind of weather in something other than a forest of skyscrapers, so this is a new experience for me. Matt left his nearby work location for a few minutes to welcome me to Chicago. He had had a dental emergency earlier today, so we discussed the change of plans that resulted. I needed a meal, and Matt recommended the cafe at The Berghoff, so I walked there while he returned to work for another hour. The cafe was not open, so I entered the restaurant which was open but ate in the bar which was livelier. Battered cod, shoestring fries, very small side salad, iced tea, $23 after tax and tip. Pricey, but the batter on the cod was heavenly and the meal was exactly what I needed within the timeframe I needed it. The shoestring fries surprised me; they were more like finely grated potatoes rather than julienned potatoes. (Wikipedia does not clearly explain the difference, and it appears that shoestring fries popularly refers to both of these kinds.) The decor is mostly semi-luxurious dark wood with large paint portraits of presumably the Berghoff family. Staff was pleasant with one server appearing to be brand new and very inexperienced. The host kindly held my suitcase while I ate. After I finished, I met Matt at his work building. We walked about 12 minutes to a train station and missed a train by a minute, so we bought tickets from a machine which were cheaper than if we had purchased them on the train. We boarded the next train, then rode to Park Ridge where Matt arrived about 30 minutes late for his emergency appointment and quickly had an issue resolved. While waiting I sat in the courtyard at Park Ridge Public Library where I observed a man brushing his teeth, then later I observed a wild baby rabbit eating grass in the garden. We rode bus 81 to his and Jaime's apartment in Lincoln Square. Said hello to Jaime, rested, planned dinner. Matt drove us to Andersonville where we ate dinner at Hopleaf then ate ice cream and cake at George's. Jaime had a chocolate cupcake, Matt had strawberry swirl and oreo frozen yogurt, I had #yousalty?! (salted caramel ice cream with sea salt fudge ripple and salted cashews). Ice cream very tasty, Jaime was not that pleased with his cake. Back to their apartment. To bed late, around midnight. I have never walked so much with a suitcase before. It exhausted me. My first impression of Chicago: I have never been in a city quite like this, and so far I'm impressed with its character.