Lovely Ladies Visit The Windy City

Greetings friends & family- yes it's true, yet another blog is being created by the well known team of Cindy and Tony Winston.

Cindy, Chris, Colleen, & Anne will be venturing forth on an exciting trip to Chicago on Sunday July 5 (the day after the Palisades 4th of July festivities!) where we will spend (4) fun-filled days exploring the city and surrounding areas including; Winnetka to visit our friend Vicki, and then the highlight of the trip - Oak Park & River Forest to visit the Frank Lloyd Wright Home & Studio... but more importantly the high school and neighborhoods where Cindy & Chris grew up!!! We will try and keep our reminiscing to under 8 hours...

With over 2.8 million people, Chicago is the third most populous city in the U.S., with O'Hare Airport the second busiest in the country. Chicago's nicknames include: "Windy City", "Chi-Town", "Second City", and "City of Big Shoulders" - refering to the many skyscrapers. The name "Chicago" is the French rendering of the Indian name shikaakwa, which means 'striped skunk'. I don't know - it just seemed worth mentioning.

More news to follow as this trip approaches...stay tuned!!!

Day #1 MONDAY in Chicago

Hello friends & family - Back to blogging, I am in my element! Before our ladies trip began, I could not help myself, and typed up what is now referred to as "The Binder", an itinerary and many many pages of Chicago info for the ladies to read on their flight, so that upon hitting Chicago they would be somewhat "up to speed" on what this great city is all about. Duly noted, from this point on, if anyone sounds surprised or impressed about some tid-bit of Chicago lore that a tour guide has spoken, I am known to lean over and say those words they have learned to DREAD "Hello!!! Didn't you read that in THE BINDER?"

SOOOO according to THE BINDER, we were scheduled to depart from LAX on Sunday (the day after July 4) on a 9:00am flight. That morning, American Airlines called us with the cheery news that our 9am flight would actually be taking off at 6pm! Bob Sacks set to work...THIS would not do for us ladies...and together with the AA representative, we were put on a 2:20pm flight. Upon hearing this news, Colleen demanded to know, "Why wasn't this flight change in THE BINDER?"

Upon arriving at O'Hare (remodeled and quite lovely since Cindy's been here), we jumped into a taxi and went straight to the The Drake Hotel, a magnificient classic Chicago icon, which opened way back on December 31, 1920. At the time, a single room was $5.00/day WITH a bath. Photos of dignitaries and famous folks adorn the walls of the beautiful lobby. (Unless I was dreaming, I received a phone call last night from the concierge asking for a photo of the Huntington Honeys to be displayed next to Princess Di).

We ate dinner at a fun outdoor restaurant on Rush Street, which on Sunday night was hopping!!! We had asked to be seated outside but the waitress informed us that we had just missed the "after 11:00pm no one can eat outside" city ordinance, so no worries we sat just inside in the open air bar area. Then it was back to The Drake for bed, as we
had a big day ahead of us.

Monday brought sunshine & breezy weather...perfect for what Official Tour Guide Chris had planned for us. Off we set on foot from The Drake, down Chicago's Magnificient Mile (Michigan Avenue) where we stopped every few feet to admire over how beautiful the city is with it's clean avenues, flowers and plants EVERYWHERE, sparkling stores (closed...but we would be returning soon), and incredible buildings. I am sure Chicago must have grafitti, but so far we have not seen ANY. We boarded The First Lady, the Chicago Architectual Foundation River Cruise, for a 90 minute tour of the city's diverse and striking architecture...suffice it to say it was a WOW experience! Every building was more impressive and OMG than the next.

Then we headed further down Michigan Avenue to Millennium Park, a 24.5 acre park in the middle of downtown Chicago. Built in a run down, train track section of the city in 2004, this park is fantastic! Upon entering, you see the Jay Pritzker Pavillion, designed by our very own Frank Gehry, then the Kapoor Sculpture, better known as The Bean. People young & old are seated on the grass reading or playing with their kids...everyone outside enjoying their city! Our next stop was right next door, the beautiful Chicago Art Institute, where we entered through the brand new Modern Art wing (this after Anne had her Hot Dog for the day...she gets a little cranky if she doesn't eat on a regular schedule). A world class museum, you could spend many days and still not see everything it offers.

A little arts & crafts shopping followed (no fear, if AMEX calls you hubbys just ignore them. They don't know what they are talking about, and must be mistaking one of us for someone else...). Exausted from making that perfect decision of what to buy as a sovenier, we took a taxi back to The Drake and walked across the street to visit Chris's fabulous mom, better known as "Mother", but you can call her Marie. Marie lives in the same building as Oprah, indeed only 4 floors below her on the 52nd floor, and has been known to run into her with her doggies & bodyguard from time to time in the elevator. Marie's beautiful apartment has spectacular views of the city enhanced by her floor to ceiling windows. A highlight of our visit was seeing Marie's very special collection of evening bags, especially her small petit-point needlepointed purses. Colleen was especially admiring of her tiny pink one...note to Chris - check with Mother to see if it is still in the display case... hmmm...

Then we went back to the hotel for some R&R before heading out to dinner
at Oprah's favorite restaurant TABLE 52, for a delicious meal. Tomorrow we head off to "memory lane" - the suburbs of Oak Park and River Forest, where Chris and Cindy will regal the ladies with "Here's where I got married...Here's where I went to elementary school...Here's the Burger King where all well mannered and appropriate teenagers met at 1:00am..."
Stay tuned!!

Day #2 TUESDAY on the WEST side ...

Hello Friends & Family: I am entering this blog tonight instead of tomorrow morning, since we ladies have agreed to meet in the lobby at 7:30am Wednesday to walk along the Oak Street Beach...right outside the door of The Drake Hotel. We had another beautiful day today - perfect weather for sightseeing. After breakfast we picked up our Hertz rental, and off we went (with Chris at the helm) onto the Eisenhower Expressway heading WEST for 20 minutes of no traffic to Oak Park. As soon as we exited, the ladies were curious about seeing the house in South Oak Park where Cindy grew up...as we pulled up in front of the now PINK/SALMON colored house (which other than the color looks virtually unchanged!) Chris jumped out of the car and said "Oh we have to ring the doorbell and go inside!" I was
way to nervous to take this action, so Chris marched right up the stairs and after a few knocks on the door a lovely young blond answered and said "Sure - this is my mom's house and she's out of town. But I live here too, so come on in!" It was really a walk down memory lane - it had been nearly 35 years since I'd been in that house!

Afterwards we drove to the Frank Lloyd Wright Home & Studio, a place people from all over the world come to experience. Anne and Chris had read finished the book "Loving Frank", so they were especially curious about seeing the home where he had worked, and raised his 6 children (before leaving them all for another life/wife!).

We took a fascinating walking tour first. Oak Park has the largest collection of FLW homes in the world, and the homeowners take great pride in keeping them in excellent condition for the many visitors and students of architecture to appreciate and enjoy. Then we all went on a tour of the inside of his home, and the attached studio. You will see a photo of Cindy, Colleen, and Anne posing with an older gentleman - this fellow was our delightful 90 year old tour guide who a few of us thought resembled in attire one of the Huntington Honey's husbands...hmmm I'll leave it at that. A few other notable tid bits on Oak Park is that it was the home of Ernest Hemingway who described it as "a place of wide lawns and narrow minds", Kathy Griffin, Ludacris (yes that's the God's truth), Corey Maggette (formerly of the Clippers) and Bob Newhart & Betty White.

Next was a quick tour of nearby River Forest, the "sister village" to Oak Park. While Oak Park has a population of 52,000 River Forest is much smaller at 11,600, and we share a high school. Chris showed us her BEAUTIFUL childhood home which we all oooooed and ahhhhed at...and then true to form, Chris went up to the door and the current homeowner let us in for a look-see around! Down the street from Chris we saw the gangster Tony Accardo's huge home (the Chicago mafia boss from 1940s - 1990s), then Paul Harvey's home "Good Day!".

After all this sightseeing we were starving so we went to a GREAT Italian beef spot in nearby Melrose Park, Johnnies...Chris instructed us to ask for "beef - wet - with sweet peppers" ...it was served steaming hot on a long crusty bun...I will never forget how DELICIOUS it was. We had it with a side of french fries and a huge cup of frozen lemonade - HEAVEN! Then we hit upon Harrison Street in Oak Park which is a street full of small artisan shops ... one a knitting store, one a glass making gallery, one a bead shop...

We drove back into Chicago feeling the need for a snack, and what did we find on State Street ("That Great Street") but a Garretts Popcorn. Now anyone who loves popcorn, or anyone who doesn't...all will agree this is the BEST popcorn anywhere anytime! We got the MIXXED bag which is 1/3 buttered popcorn, 1/3 cheese popcorn (the cheese is warm to the touch), and 1/3 carmel popcorn (dripping!). By the time we reached the hotel we all felt we had totally overindulged ourselves, and needed some quiet time (zzzz...)

Chris planned another terrific evening where we had dinner at a delicious little Italian restaurant Vinci and walked right over to Steppenwolf Theatre for a production of a new drama called UP. The award-winning playwright is Bridget Carpenter, a friend and contemporary of Lisa Geller's (Bridget also writes for the TV show Friday Night Lights). The play centered around a married man who cannot grasp the concept of being responsible and contributing financially to support his family...he is the ultimate quirky dreamer whose reality is not grounded in the "real world". I would describe the play as thought provoking and poignant, and we all agreed we were sure glad THAT guy was not OUR husband!!!

We returned to The Drake feeling like we had another A+ day in Chicago. Tomorrow we head up NORTH along Lake Shore Drive which winds into Sheridan Road, taking us through Northwestern University and past the beautiful Baha'i Temple into Winnetka, where we will meet up with Vicki Apatoff who will take over as tour guide for the afternoon! Stay tuned!!!

Day #3 WEDNESDAY...to the North Shore

Hello friends & family:
Today we woke up to overcast skies and a little drizzle, but nothing to stop us from doing exactly what we had planned - drive up to visit our good friend and former Palisadian Vicki Apatoff who now lives in Winnetka. Beginning the day we had a walk along Oak Street Beach to get rid of any extra annoying pounds due to yesterday's excessive munching of the Garrett's popcorn (rumor had it that a few of us ladies even ate some before AND after breakfast today...). Feeling fit & refreshed, we set out on a drive up Michigan Avenue through The Gold Coast where we admired the top real estate in Chicago - gorgeous high rise apartments facing Lake Michigan - what a view! As we rounded the bend into neighboring Wilmette, there appeared before us the massive and utterly "there are no words to describe how beautiful" Baha'i Temple. One of only 7 Baha'i temples in the world, this unique structure symbolizes unity and invites prayer to God. This temple (like the others) is circular in shape, has nine sides, and is surrounded by exquisite gardens and fountains. Really quite a sight to see - I'd like to include a tour of this in a future visit.

After viewing the Temple, and contemplating our good fortune, we drove a short distance to meet Vicki at the nearby Plaza del Lago shopping area to dispense of a bit of that fortune (while trying to ignore the fact that Chicago's sales tax is 10% ...yes 10% - higher than LA and NYC!). Vicki became our tour guide for the day, welcoming us into her car with a complete cooler in the trunk of soft drinks, water, chilled apples and grapes, and chocolate covered almonds. We partook of all, as Vicki gave us a quick tour of the grand and beautiful homes in Winnetka and neighboring towns, including a drive down the center of town where the Home Alone movies were filmed (and the house too!)

Soon it was time for lunch, and we went to a most delightful sandwich & soup spot, where every 2 seconds someone walked in and said "HI VICKI ! ! !" Truly there is not a person in Winnetka who does not count Vicki Apatoff as her good friend! Colleen called a childhood friend who now lives in Winnetka (who knows Vicki natch!) and she also joined us. The photo you see of all us ladies was taken in the back yard of another friend of Vicki's - this home faces Lake Michigan and is worthy of the cover of Architectual Digest. Needing a rest, we made a short stop at Vicki's wonderful & inviting home and watched the DVD of her 50th birthday - which included a section we Palisades ladies had taped! Then it was off to more shops, and then a few more shops, and booo hooo then it was time to head on back to Chicago. It was GREAT to visit with Vicki - news on her family front include Rob's new job as CEO of FTD Flowers (resulting in lots of beautiful flowers adorning every room of their home!), oldest daughter Alexandra has graduated from Northwestern and has a great job as a writer in NYC for US magazine, and if you don't think THAT is exciting enough then note that Claire's summer job is working on the city committee to get the 2016 Olympics to come to Chicago (in October, Chicago will find out if they win the bid!!!).

We had a yummy dinner at Vermillion, an Indian restaurant off State Street that Nalini highly reccomended and for good reason. It was fantastic!

What to do tomorrow morning on our last day in Chicago? One option could be to visit the Sears Tower, the tallest building in the U.S. and the 8th tallest in the world. Built in 1973, this building has 110 floors and has an observation floor that has a brand new addition of a series of glass bays called THE LEDGE, that extend just more than 4 feet outward and lets you "look 1,353 feet straight down". Ekkkk! Since the Sears Tower Skydeck added this new attraction JUST last Thursday, it has drawn over 10,000 visitors a day!! People who don't seem to have any sense of danger have been said to sit on the glass or better yet lie down on it facedown! Many people on the other hand are too afraid to step out onto the glass enclosed ledge - I would be one of them!

There are many museums including the world famous Museum of Science & Industry, or the Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art we could visit, or the Shedd Acquarium, the Adler Planetarium, or Lincoln Park Zoo. Top on our list is also a stop at Ikram Goldman's Boutique on nearby Rush Street - this 4,000 square foot store is the fashion store of choice by First Lady Michelle Obama.

Day #4 THURSDAY...loving yet leaving Chicago

Hello friends & family - This is our last day in Chicago, indeed we leave right after lunch for Pacific Palisades, CA!! The morning started off with coffee & discussion on the latest important and breaking news in the executive lounge --topics discussed include "did you or did you not eat Garrett's popcorn last night after the Indian food?"..." Then it was off to a beautiful walk along Oak Street Beach where we found a fellow on a cell phone, and asked him ever so politely to hang up and take our photo. He did so, and turns out his daughter is an FBI Marshall in San Diego, and his brother-in-law a wallpaper hanger in Morepark. Saying our goodbyes, we ladies headed off to take in the sights of the residental neighborhoods surrounding the Drake Hotel in an area known as The Gold Coast. We soon came across the famous Ambassador Hotel, and since all week Chris has told us we MUST take a look inside, we decided pay a visit to The Pump Room, where everyone who is anyone has been photographed through the years having cocktails & dinner.

Immediately upon seeing us, the waitress insisted on taking our photo at Table #1, and I am sure they are right now printing it out and switching out Bob Hope or Lauren Bacall's photo on the huge display wall for ours. We are off now to
lunch at Giordano's- a must eat spot for Chicago's famous Deep Dish Pizza. This should make for a very comfortable flight on the way home (zzzzz....) Stay tuned - I'm sure I'll have more to report, but must sign off for now as we can't be late for our 11:30am reservation... xoxo

Breaking News...upon arriving home

Friends & Family: We had an uneventful flight home, except for Anne who was seated next to a man with long greasy hair, a bright pink scarf, and glasses hanging all over his open collared shirt... Colleen & I could not help ourselves and since we were seated directly in front of them, we kept leaning our ears (well, Colleen's good ear) into the crack between the seats so that we could hear any conversation that took place between the two of them to find out what the story was with this fellow. He said he lived in Mexico but used to live in the Palisades. hmmmm...Had he "escaped" to Mexico? Was he "deported" to Mexico? Was he in the witness protection program? He kept referring to the many "clients" he had in the Palisades...was he a kingpin in a drug cartel? For some STRANGE reason Anne did not ask him what his job was...in fact, later on she told us she figured maybe he was an accountant. WHAT? An accountant????? No way...

Gallant Griffy met us at LAX to drive us home. Upon arrival I opened up the back door, dragging in my luggage and all set for a peaceful evening of dinner and relaxation...only to find - - - well you can see the photo!!!! A surprise gift from the well known team of Billy & Griffy! Named already as Andy, he is only 3 months old and little as can be. My first reaction? It cannot be printed in a BLOG. A few reactions down the line "Oh what a little cutie!!!!"

So that wraps it up - stay tuned for the next vacation blog - wherever & whenever that may be, but the sooner the better!!!!
oxoxoxoxo Blogger Cindy