Relative Something

Public Art in Pioneer Court, God Bless America, Sculptor: J. Steward Johnson - Installed: Dec, 2008

Did I mention that I was going to Chicago for the weekend? Cyndie and I and our good friends, Bob & Kris and Mike & Barb, reunited for a January weekend in Chicago because someone spotted low airfare specials again. Our calculations revealed that the last time we did this was 3 years ago, in 2007, when we attended a performance of the play “Wicked” and watched a downtown 3D fireworks show over the river. The keynote event this year was a show at the Second City comedy theater. It was a gas! A bit tricky to discern if we were witnessing an early performance of someone who would someday show up on SNL or make it big in the movies, but the ensemble was very capable and highly entertaining and the skits were definitely funny. They finally got me laughing to tears, even though the topic of the cab driver explaining to the imaginary passengers (the audience) behind him, why the fares keep going up, wasn’t specifically that funny. It was his delivery. The timing he executed to deliver the repeated intro line for the next gag seemed to do the trick for me. Throughout the night they employed the craft of weaving independent skits, on-again, off-again, among other scenes, to squeeze extra laughs out of one idea, just by returning to it later to add one more comment or interaction. Very effective. Very funny. Highly entertaining!

My mauled open-face Reuben at Lou Mitchell's

We also visited Lou Mitchell’s Restaurant and Bakery at the start of Route 66, played $3000 guitars that are delivered upon request to the rooms of guests of the Hard Rock Hotel where we stayed, connected with our son, Julian, and other friends at the ESPN Zone to watch the NFL Vikings defeat Dallas, and followed a tip to a 1920’s speakeasy style cocktail bar, The Violet Hour, and then Francesca’s Forno in the Wicker Park neighborhood. We ate too much and tried to walk some of it off, but often took cabs or the CTA. For a person who doesn’t drink alcohol, I spent more time in bars over the weekend than I regularly visit in a couple of years. The Violet Hour, in particular, makes a seriously enticing ‘mocktail’.

Thank you, Southwest Airlines, for giving us these opportunities. They did a great job. And, once again, Chicago was a great host, even given the gray and somewhat chilly January climate. We are talking about considering altering our focus to start watching for cheap January airfare deals to warm destinations, but then, everybody does that. That’s the very reason it ends up being so cheap to go somewhere like Chicago.

The entrance to the Violet Hour. Seriously.