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!!!