Morning In Oak Park, Illinois

Elaine And Her Daughter, Kianna

Dad And Kianna

It's morning in Oak Park and I was up at 5:30 which is pretty good since it would have been 6:30 EST.  It's overcast outside and it must have rained overnight.  It's a chilly 42º out.  I hope it warms up because we are going on an architectural tour of Chicago by boat at 11:00 this morning,

Yesterday, we were on our way from our Hampton Inn at 9:00 in the fog, of course, for the first half hour.  We thought it would take about four hours, depending on traffic. We had an easy drive until we hit the Gary area, where construction slowed us down to a standstill for maybe 15 minutes.  Once we got on the Chicago Skyway, things got busy, especially when we got near downtown before taking the Eisenhower out to the Western suburbs.  We moved but at a 15-20 mile pace throughout this area until we got off at the Oak Park exit.  We thought we would get to Evie's sister Elaine's house around 3:00 when everyone was home.  So I looked up Jewish deli in Oak Park and found the Onion Roll was recommended,  I am not sure by who but it was a mediocre matzo bowl soup and corned beef sandwich, nothing like a real Jewish deli.  It may have been the place to go but not anymore.

Scoville Park

After lunch, we parked in downtown Oak Park, next to Scoville Park, a memorial to the WW I veterans and walked around the city for an hour on a beautiful sunny afternoon.  Just before leaving for Elaine's, we stopped for a coffee and blueberry muffin at the Courageous Bakery And Cafe, across the street from the library and near Frank Lloyd Wright's famous Unitarian Church (the doors closed, unfortunately).  By the way, driving in Oak Park is a pleasure because of the interesting houses, the architecture, the yards.

Afternoon In Oak Park

The Closed Doors To The Unitarian Church In Oak Park

We arrived at Evie's sister's house around 3:15.  Both Elaine and Jim were now home as well as Evie's stepmother Dorthoy, in from Arizona as is all the family for the two-day celebration of our nephew David's wedding which took place in Africa a couple of months ago.  The celebration involves the boat tour this morning, a party at the Chicago Athletic Club this evening, and a Cubs game tomorrow night on the roof of Murphy's bar above center field that should be fun.

Kianna And Aunt Evie

Our niece, Kianna, a sophomore in high school arrived home just after us. So we were able to catch up on all her school news, her trips this summer to Switzerland and Spain with the girl scouts, all the exciting things in her life.  We had not seen Elaine's family in a couple of years so it was fun to prep dinner and stand around the kitchen and talk.  Evie had made a baked ziti a few weeks ago, froze it, so that was going to be the main course.

Mom's Sous Chef

Elaine made the salad, Kianna the garlic bread, and Jim roasted asparagus so we had a great dinner.  We had Dorothy's famous potica for dessert, a Slovenian nut roll she brought with her from Arizona.

After dinner, we sat around talking while Kianna made a lemon coffee cake for our breakfast.  We were both tired from our drive so we had an early night as did everyone, going up to bed by 10:15.  It was a busy but fun day.