Day Twenty-two

Another great day off; I LOVE Wheaton, Illinois. It’s a great little city that’s got it all. A lovely park, a great library, lots of stores (Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods) and the train goes right through it that will take you to Chicago. I also love Jerry and Mary (Chuck’s brother and sister-in-law). They were so kind to us and I wish we could have spent more time with them. They have a beautiful house too, as I mentioned before.

In the morning, Chuck and I went looking for an internet café. We stopped at Starbucks, but couldn’t use their wifi because I hadn’t registered my card. So there was a funky little coffee shop across the street with free wifi, so we headed over there. I got a French roast and a bagel with tomato, and Chuck got a mocha coffee with a blueberry scone. I had trouble getting on the internet, but eventually did. We hung out there for a while, and then went back to the house. Mary and Jerry were up, and Mary and I made some rhubarb muffins with fresh rhubarb from her garden. It felt really good to be baking again! The baking muffins perfumed the house with a wonderful aroma, and when they were done, we all settled down to a meal (brunch, I guess it would be?) of hot, fresh muffins, coffee and melon.

Chuck and I went to the library to make some copies of maps, and then went back to the house. I didn’t realize how late it had gotten, and we were trying to catch the 1:50 train, so we rushed into town, but missed the train. We headed over to Sears to do some business there, and then barely made it back to the train station in time for the next train. The trains to Chicago are very nice, double deckers, clean and looked fairly new. The ride to Chicago took 50 minutes. It’s a nice city, but honestly, I prefer Cleveland. The architecture of the skyscrapers was cool and there were lots of people rushing around, doing their business. They all looked like they were on a mission. We stopped at a little Italian place called “Trattoria No. 10” but they weren’t serving food yet, and we didn’t really want a drink with no food. We apologized and headed out to the streets again. We went past a really ritzy looking hotel, and I happen to know that ritzy hotels usually have cool bars, so we asked the doorman. He said, “Sure, just go in and take a left.” It was just beautiful inside; a very historic building that had been beautifully maintained. We seated ourselves at the bar and asked for a menu. The bartender was nice, but he never seemed to quite warm up to us as much as people usually do. I ordered a Sidecar, which was excellent, and Chuck got a glass of Malbec. We ordered the “spinach and artichoke” which turned out to be artichoke mousse with some spinachy-type crackers (which were very salty). The dish really didn’t thrill me. It was better when we ran out of the crackers and they gave us some foccacia.

We decided to walk around a little before going back to the trattoria. We had heard that a storm was coming, so we tried to walk fast, but we ended up getting caught in it. And it was a DOOZY! Lots of lightning and pouring rain like you wouldn’t believe. We just let ourselves get drenched since there was no point in fighting it. We met some interesting people in that rainstorm in Chicago. One young man introduced himself to us and said that Steve Miller was playing in July at the stadium we had just passed. He mentioned that his last name was Miller, and I said Chuck’s name was Miller too, and he shook Chuck’s hand and said “MILLER POWER, DUDE”. We ran into him later on, too. Weird.

We made it back to the trattoria by cab, since it was raining so hard. I asked if Chicago had a “Cash Cab” but no such luck. The driver was very nice and we chatted while he drove. The restaurant was having a 12 dollar “bar buffet”. The owner had told us we could share one (unusual, I know), so we double checked with the bartender and she said that was fine. Sadly, they had just completely run out of shrimp as I walked up to the buffet. I was able to make a pretty good looking plate though, and the rigatoni alfredo was excellent. We had a nice time, and headed back to the train. It was 7:10 but the train we boarded was the 6:10, still sitting there since all the trains were delayed due to the storm. We stood there on that train (there were no seats available) for so long, I thought we would never get off it. We got back to Wheaton at around 10:00. The power was out at Mary and Jerry’s and Mary was so sweet, she was waiting up for us. She gave us some candles and flashlights and we turned in for the night, to the sound of the neighbor’s generator.