The Fourth of July and Chicago

Me and Trevor with my cousin Kristin and her husband Adel.

We thought that we were escaping the heat by coming up North.  We were wrong.  The 4th of July was hot. Hotter than any 4th of July I have ever spent in Indiana.  The scene was pretty much the same though.  There were hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill.  The exception was that there were veggie burgers on the grill this time.  There were potato chips, a taffy apple salad, marinated vegetables and a cheesecake.  When my family gets together it always happens that a few of the men end up in the living room watching Civil War documentaries and the result is usually my cousin Kristin breaking it to them that their shows are always going to have the same outcome.  They still watch intently. It never fails.  No matter how many times they watch and probably hear the same information it somehow remains interesting to them.  I find it kinda charming.  This time there was also entertainment.  At the request of my family, Trevor played a couple of tunes on the banjo.  The day was pleasant and was exactly what we needed after the long and hurried trip to get there.  We also got to go on a little joy ride in a super snazzy BMW convertible courtesy of my cousin Kristin and her husband Adel.  I am pretty sure that I have never been in a car that went so fast so quickly.  It felt especially fast since we have been traveling around in our little minivan.

After all of the festivities it was time to hop in the van again and make our way up to Crown Point, Indiana where we were staying for a few days with my Dad and his girlfriend Cindy.  The drive was so bizarre and incredibly entertaining.  The scene was surreal. The fireflies in this area and this time of year are thick in the corn and soybean.  It almost seems like Christmas lights in all the farm fields.  One of my favorite memories is coming up to Indiana for Summer camp and seeing more fireflies in the fields than I had ever seen anywhere else.  In addition to the glimmering lights in the farm fields were the fireworks stretching across the horizon.  We picked up a radio station coming out of Chicago that was playing a bunch of low-budget rap songs that were hilarious.  I am pretty sure we will be singing some of the lines out of the songs during the rest of the trip.  Our favorite line probably has to be "money money money money money money BAAAAAAAGGGGS!" Our throats were killing us after singing along to the song.

Roadie hates fireworks. I think more than she hates a big storm.  Unfortunately for her, it sounded like a war was going on in Crown Point.  As soon as we pulled into the driveway Trevor had to immediately grab her from the car, take her into the house and put her in the basement where she could hide.  I have never seen or heard so many fireworks in the middle of a neighborhood before. They were EVERYWHERE! And they were all huge!  You couldn't tell the professional firework shows from the home ones.  It was crazy! Right after the grand finale at the local fair grounds was the grand finale from the house about 4 houses down.  I have never seen anything like it and it didn't stop for hours.  Roadie hated every minute of it.

A trip up to see the family is not complete without a visit to see John Balch, my dad's longtime friend.  Going to see John is like going to a museum.  John has collected a lot of music throughout the years.  And a lot of guitars.  You can mention a band to John and he will go to one of his many shelves of cd's, records, or cassettes and pull the side projects of the members of the bands you have mentioned, which side projects the people from the side projects are in, etc.  You also are gifted with a few compilation albums that he creates especially for you.  Going to see John is often my favorite part of coming up to this area.  John, my Dad and Trevor played together for a little while.  Seeing my Dad play guitar these days is a rare treat and I am glad that I was able to see it on this trip.  Especially seeing him play with his future Son-in-law.  :)

Trevor in front of the famous Chicago Theatre

Waiting for the South Shore in East Chicago

Espresso at Intelligentsia

Waiting for the train back to Millennium Station

Yesterday was our big adventure into Chicago!  Unfortunately the day started off a little later than expected because our phones hadn't corrected themselves.  What was even more strange was that Trevor's phone put us in a time zone that we hadn't even been in.  We rushed to get ready and make it out of the door to catch the South Shore Commuter Rail out of East Chicago.  After not trusting our ol' trusty GPS and trying to go with our instincts we took a wrong turn, missed the train we were trying to catch, gave up and decided to eat some Lactaid and have donuts for breakfast.  Finally we made it to the next train and were on our way. We arrived at Millennium Station in downtown Chicago a little before noon and headed straight to Intelligentsia to grab some coffee.  I was so excited immediately when we walked in and saw about 5 different baristas behind the counter and one barista in charge of a pour over station.  It was a glorious sight after having had so many bad cups of coffee for the past few days.  We ordered a couple of espressos and then continued ordering from the menu of about 5 different brew methods.   After getting properly caffeinated, we headed out to walk around downtown.  Chicago is massive.  I had only spent times around the museum area.  I honestly had no idea how massive the city was.  We grabbed a public transit day pass, hit the train, caught the bus and ended up in Wicker Park.  At this point we were starving and grabbed a bite to eat at Handlebar.  We ordered a couple of PBRs and an appetizer.  After browsing the menu and being indecisive we finally decided on ordering the seitan biscuits and gravy and the buffalo 'chicken' wrap. Seitan biscuits and gravy!  Holy Crap!  The food was fantastic!  If you are ever in the area, definitely hit up that spot.  Thanks Drew for recommending it to us.  From there we made our way down N. Milwaukee Ave to The Wormhole.   I have to say that I wasn't as impressed as I was hoping to be but I was impressed with the Delorean and the old Nintendo games they have in the shop.  The atmosphere of the shop was great.  The area was great.  I loved Wicker Park.  Again, it was hot.  Super hot.  Apparently the 5th hottest day in Chicago history.  Why today!?!?!! We walked over to North Hoyne to The Map Room to have a couple beers and escape the heat.  I felt like I wasn't going to make it.  The heat was awful.  I thought that I was tough because I live with the heat in Texas but then again I am not usually surrounded by that much concrete. Not to mention I was really dumb and decided to wear a new pair of shoes to walk around Chicago all day.  Needless to say my feet were blistered almost immediately.  Luckily I was carrying Flipnotics stickers around with me and was able cut one in half and strap them around the back of my ankles.  We met up with our friend Marshall at The Map Room.  He has been up here pedicabbing the Cubs games in Wrigleyville.  It was awesome to see a familiar face.  Trevor and I were incredibly exhausted from the heat and walking around all day and decided that it was probably time to start making our way back to East Chicago.  We took the L Train back downtown and walked back over to Millennium Station where we sat for a good 15-20 minutes in an incredibly hot and packed platform with everyone who was waiting to go back home after a long day of working/shopping/touristing. It was miserable.  There was a little girl in front of me who looked like she was going to pass out from heat exhaustion.  We were soaked with our own sweat and ready to be back for a shower and air conditioning.  Finally we were on the South Shore and on our way back to East Chicago.  The South Shore takes you through South Chicago on the way to Indiana.  South Chicago is and incredibly impoverished neighborhood.  There are shootings on the news everyday in that neighborhood and the feeling you get when you ride through is a feeling of hopelessness.  What a contrast to be downtown having fancy cups of coffee, craft brews and watching everyone on the train with their bags from Nordstrom and having to leave Chicago with that being your last views of the city.  It almost makes you sick to your stomach.  These commuters do it everyday and seem to be numb to it.  The general feelings when you talk to people is "well, what do you do? It has always been this way." I never had a good answer.  I don't know if there is one.

We have so far spent most of today making our plans for where we are going next.  We were able to reach our old friends from our train trip from Chicago to Austin that live in the Upper Peninsula.  It is looking like we are going to Marinette, Wisconsin for a couple of days to meet up with Trevor's grandparents and then further north to meet up with the Swaty Family.  I am so excited!  They are always a lot of fun to see and I have never seen Lake Superior! It also looks like the temperature is going to cool down which is equally as exciting.  Well, that's the update so far.  We will probably post again while in Marquette, Michigan. 

xoxo - c