Saturday At The Swap-O-Rama

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Saturday At The Swap-O-Rama

...Continued from yesterday:

       On Saturday morning we walked over to the Bucktown neighborhood,

....to an awesome breakfast place called the Yolk Test Kitchen,

...where one orders and pays for one's food at the counter and shortly thereafter one's food arrives at one's table, beautifully plated and as delicious as it looks.

     Along with our breakfasts we also ordered French toast with fresh berries to share. It was a taste of heaven.

      Besides the wonderful food, the Yolk Test Kitchen also offers a pretty view of the 606 walking path (see yesterday's post).

     After breakfast we walked back to Claire and Miguel's.

      Claire wanted to go to the Swap-O-Rama, a Mexican flea market on the South Side of Chicago, to buy some more pieces for her Nacimiento,
     A Nacimiento is a traditional Mexican nativity scene which typically includes a variety of human and animal figurines set in a miniature environment that can include plants, structures, and bodies of imaginary or real water.   
       Every Christmas Claire and Miguel set up their Nacimiento in their window.

      I, too, was looking forward to returning to the Swap-O-Rama, as last time Claire and Miguel  took  me there during a visit to Chicago two years ago I had  a churro,

...which is a fried dough stick covered in sugar and stuffed with raspberry filling,

...kind of  like a tubular jelly doughnut,

...and I was looking forward to having another one.
     So Miguel drove us across town to the South Side,

...until we arrived at the Swap-O-Rama.

      The Swap-O-Rama is located inside a vast big-box structure,

...within which one can find all sorts of neat and useful things.

       However we were there to look for Nacimiento pieces, of which there was a great variety available,

...and Claire and Miguel were able to find several nice pieces to add to their Nacimiento.
   

      As for me, I bought a rosary for my mother,

...a super-warm hat for me,

...and one for Claire,

...and, of course, my yummy churros.

    After we'd made all our acquisitions we returned home,

...and hung out with the kitties,

...until we were hungry again.

      For dinner we walked back to Bucktown,

....to a Mexican restaurant called La Estrella Negra,

...the decor of which was Mexican Day of the Dead.

      The food was really good.

       The walls of La Estrella Negra are hung with art pieces for sale and one of these pieces, a print of a human heart upon which was drawn a map of the Chicago "L", or elevated train, caught the eyes of Miguel and Claire.

     Before we left I surreptitiously bought the " 'L' Corazon" print, which now looks lovely hanging on Claire and Miguel's bright green wall among their other maps (see post from 11/17/2018).
     The following morning, Sunday morning, Claire walked me back to the actual "L,"

...where I was soon taking in the Sunday morning cityscape from the platform,

...waiting for the train back to O'Hare.

...and from O'Hare,

...my plane back to "One of Us" Columbus.
(See posts from 4/29/2018 and 4/30/2018).