...Continued from yesterday: The purpose of our trip this time around was to spend some time with Miguel's awesome family, in town visiting from Arizona. Brisa, Lolita, Miguel, Victor, Jose Luis, Carlos,
The plan for Friday was that we'd meet up in the middle of the morning for a day of bopping and bus-hopping around the city, But first breakfast, of course, for which Tom and I headed to The Bongo Room, a popular breakfast spot a few blocks from our hostel. This place generally makes the best breakfasts; however, the chef on duty on this day evidently has problems negotiating a sunny-side up egg, as both of our meals arrived with a case of broken yolks. I believe in the case of mine, the cook tried to salvage my broken sunnyside-up egg by flipping it over and making it into a sort of mongrel over-easy egg. We didn't complain, though. We don't like to complain. And besides, even with the broken yolks, the eggs were tasty, and the toast and potatoes were perfection. After breakfast we walked back to the hostel. Soon as we got our day necessities together we headed back out again and began walking towards Logan Square, where Miguel and Claire live, by way of the 606, which is a retired elevated train route that has been turned into a walkway and biking path. After a few blocks on the 606 we met up with Carlos, Lolita, Claire, Brisa, and Dulce, who'd been walking in our direction from Claire's house. Planning to meet up later in the day with Miguel, Victor and Jose Luis, who were touring the Northwestern University campus, we headed for the bus stop, stopping along the way at the famous Wicker Park Walgreen's that used to be a gilded-age bank. We got off at Wrigleyville, from where we caught a second bus to our first destination of the day,
...the visitation of which had been on the bucket list of some of Miguel's baseball-loving family members.
...to Lincoln Park,
...the Lincoln Park Conservatory, ...and the zoo, where we stopped for a breath-takingly expensive lunch of hot dogs and French fries. They were really good dogs and fries, though. Or maybe it was that, as the saying goes, hunger is the best seasoning. We met up with Miguel, Victor and Jose Luis at the zoo, and after visiting the animals we strolled around Lincoln Park, where there were several wedding shoots in progress.
...and the beach along the shore of Lake Michigan. Some of us went for a swim in the lake and some of us, like non-swimmer me, just rolled up our cuffs and waded along the water's edge, which I for one found satisfactorily refreshing. After our swim we hopped another bus that left Tom and I off in Wicker Park close to our hostel, ...then continued on to Claire and Miguel's Logan Square neighborhood. We had one final destination for the day, and that was dinner at Pizano's, a Wicker Park pizzeria several blocks from our hostel, to which Tom and I walked while the others took the bus from Logan Square. When we arrived we were lucky enough to snag an outdoor table.
...one pepperoni, one Canadian bacon deluxe, and one pineapple and spinach. (To each his own, right?) Now, I've had many's the great slice in my over half a century of pizza-noshing on this planet, but I can unequivocally declare that there is no better pizza anywhere than Pizano's pizza.* The crust of this deep-dish pizza has a je ne sais quoi -ness that sets it apart from every other pizza under creation, and the sauce, the sauce, the sauce...how do I even begin to describe this sauce except to say that every time I take that first bite of a Pizano's slice my taste buds are electrified by 10,000 volts of deliciousness? Anyway, Pizano's makes one dang good pizza. After polishing off a goodly portion of our pizzas we gathered up our left-overs boxes and walked several blocks through the festive Friday night lights and crowds,
...and instead made our way back to The Crotch,
To be continued... *The second best pizza in the world can be found, surprisingly, at a little restaurant in Springfield, Ohio called the Hickory Inn.
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"Tropical Depression"
by Patti Liszkay Buy it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTPN7NYY "Equal And Opposite Reactions"
by Patti Liszkay Buy it on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa or from The Book Loft of German Village, Columbus, Ohio Or check it out at the Columbus Metropolitan Library
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November 2024
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