Cousins Reunion

My dad was the youngest of 8 kids who grew up in NJ.  He joined the military,  which meant that our family moved from base to base around the US and in Europe throughout our lives. While most of Dad's family stayed in the NJ area, his sister Catherine (my Aunt "Cass") married, moved to Chicago and raised her family there with my Uncle Bill. Our family typically traveled back to NJ on vacations and between assignments,  so I never got to know my Chicago cousins very well. I can remember one trip through Chicago when I was about 16 and seeing one or more of the cousins at various family gatherings over the years, though not very often.

Back: Mary, Bill and Cate
Front: Tish and me

My cousin Mary and I reconnected on Facebook awhile back so I was happy to know that she planned to get some of her siblings together to meet with us while we were in Chicago.  Mary and her husband John live about an hour or so out of the city so Rich and I took a nice walk to the train station and rode the Metra to Lake Forest.  Mary and her sister Cate met us at the train station (in a cool little convertible!) and took us back to Mary and John's lovely home, where we were joined by Cate's guy Howard, my cousin Tish, my cousin Bill and his wife Patt.

Cate and Tish helping in the kitchen

 Howard and John enjoying the nice evening outside

Bill and Patt

It was super great to spend the evening chatting and catching up on many years' worth of news.  We figured out that I probably had not seen Bill in 40 years!  We also had lots of fabulous food prepared by several family members and awesome desserts made by Mary, who's a pastry chef.

Howard and yummy pastries

Rich got in on the barbecuing

Bill, John and Rich

Bill and Patt drove us back to the city since it was (sorta) on their way.  I learned more about the McMahon branch of the family on the ride--I always thought that my Aunt Cass had married a Chicago guy and that's why the family lived there but Bill said his dad was actually from Philly and went to Chicago for his job in the printing business.

I was completely thrilled to have this time with my cousins.  It's funny how family is family, no matter what, and even though we never knew each other well, we chatted the night away, shared stories, laughed about some of our family characters, and tried to keep track of marriages, kids, grandkids, careers and adventures.  What a fun night!  Thanks so much to my cousins for coming out to see us, and especially to Mary and John for hosting all of us.  I'm still smiling about the great time we had.

See you next year in Jersey!

Out and About in Chicago

Here are a few shots of the Blackstone Renaissance--we thought it was a very cool hotel!

We took a ride on the "L" and walked around Bucktown/Wicker Park

Street musician

 Need some eyeglasses?

 Or a monkey....or a hi-five?

 Great buildings

I always love street art   ("Rise all freedom fighters, rise, and take your stance once again"--Bob Marley)

Some of my favorite guys

And quite a roll call of activists

 Lovely houses

Waiting for the train back.  I think I really am a city girl at heart!

Chicago, Chicago, that toddlin' town

Up and at 'em at 5:30 AM to catch a cab to the Seattle airport--not my favorite thing but I survived.  :)  We had an uneventful flight to Chicago, arriving at 2:30 PM with the time change.  Checked into our hotel, the Blackstone Renaissance downtown, and had a late lunch/early supper at Mercat a la Planxa, the on site restaurant with food by Jose Garces.  He's been on Iron Chef and some other shows.  We had a bunch of tapas and let me tell you, they were fabulous!  I think he's my new favorite guy.  I'd like to say that we had a full and fun day but by the time we ate, we were exhausted and really did not do anything but chill out on the first night.

Day Two we hit the streets and walked for miles and miles and miles and miles.  The sun was out and I was happy just to be out in the warm weather!

We had lunch at Rick Bayless' Frontera Grill--Mexican small plates which were also quite delicious but I think I have to say that I like Jose Garces' better.

Frontera Grill

Then we walked all the way to the Navy Pier and wandered around.

Rode the ferris wheel

A couple of view from the ferris wheel

A tall ship

Navy Pier

I had a little bit of therapy with Bob Newhart, aka Dr. Bob Hartley

Walking along the river

A little bit of performance art

I've been having trouble with my phone on this trip--sometimes I can get calls, sometimes I can get texts, sometimes I can get neither.  It's pretty annoying since I got this phone from Alaska Wireless so I could use it at home and while traveling.  I am feeling like I should have just kept my cheap little tracfone which at least worked everywhere BUT Unalaska.  I don't really need it in Unalaska anyway.  Ugh.  I have cousins in the Chicago area so we've been trying to communicate about getting together on Sunday and it's been a hassle getting through to each other. I've also been trying to plan a trip to the federal prison in Terre Haute, IN so I can visit two of my former clients but cannot seem to get in touch with the staff person I need to reach.  I've left my number but I am afraid he can't get through if he calls back.  So it's been a bit frustrating all the way around.

Otherwise, we are having lots of fun in the windy city!  The third day was a little more chilly but still nice enough to get out and walk around.  I will continue with that in the next post!

PS Anyone know why the song calls Chicago "that toddlin' town"?  I looked it up and there are a couple of different explanations!  

On the Road Again

Well, not really the road.  More like many airplane rides!

We left Unalaska on May 7 and were in Anchorage till the 10th so that I could attend a work related conference.  While I was conferencing, Rich was relaxing at the hotel, reading, wandering the mall, AND he went to see a movie in a real theater.  :)  My conference was good--informative and interesting.  After hours I was able to meet with the woman in charge of the ESL/GED program I teach for and I enjoyed getting to chat with her. Rich and I also met our friend Paul for dinner one night and had a great time catching up with him.

On the 10th we flew to Seattle for a few days' stay.  We've had fun walking around the city, doing some shopping and eating out.  We made ourselves go to the hotel gym a couple of times and we have walked miles and miles every day so hopefully we are canceling out our eating.

Of course we had to go back to Pike's Place Market, which is one of our usual stops.  We bought some fruit and bread and snacks for the room so we would not have to eat out for every single meal.  However, on this trip we seem to be taking a tour of Chef Tom Douglas' restaurants.  He has a slew of them in Seattle and is probably the best known chef from this area of the country. On Mother's Day, we wanted to avoid the big crush of families at brunch and dinner so we went to Serious Pie, Douglas' gourmet pizza place, which was really good.  We've eaten at The Dahlia Lounge on a previous trip and this time we also added the restaurants Lola and Etta to the list.  

Pike's Place Market

Lola

Night view from our hotel

On Saturday night, we met Rich's old friend Cole for dinner at Andaluca. They hadn't seen each other in many years and I'd never met Cole. We had a great time talking and eating a number of delicious small plates--this was probably my favorite of the restaurants we tried (and not one of Tom Douglas')

Monday, my cousin Rob met us at our hotel, the Edgewater, and we had a great lunch in its restaurant.  They had lunch "bento boxes" which included a cup of soup, a half sandwich and a half salad of your choosing.  Plus homemade chips.  It was super.  And really nice to catch up with my cuz.

Rob and me

After Rob left, Rich set out to teach me how to play chess. I have never learned and had a bad experience years ago when my uncle tried to teach me and I ended up just feeling really inept and stupid because I couldn't grasp it.  I can't say I did a WHOLE lot better this time, but now I think I could at least tell you how each piece is supposed to move and a minor bit of strategy.  :)

Ugh, my brain hurts!

Tuesday, some friends came over from Sequim to hang out with us for a few hours. We met Linda and Ed on our Australian cruise and have stayed in touch on Facebook so we were pleased that they were willing to take the ferry to Seattle to see us.  We walked all over the place, chatting along the way, had some lunch, strolled through the market, walked some more and then saw them off to return home.  It was really fun to see them again.

Restaurant Etta

The price of Bering Sea king crab

Ed, Rich and Linda

We have not stayed anywhere with a laundromat for this whole trip.  I can never go for too terribly long without doing laundry so we've been searching for the right place and the right opportunity to get some washing done! Our hotel would do the laundry for us, but wants to charge $2.75 per piece of underwear and $5 or $6 per shirt or jeans so there was no way we wanted to pay that.  This evening we ended up taking a cab to a laundromat a good little distance away, wandered the streets while the wash was going, picked up some sandwiches at the deli next door to the laundromat and now we are in for the night.  We have to get up EARLY tomorrow to be picked up at 6:30 AM to go to the airport.  Off to Chicago!

Conflict Kitchen

Rich was reading one of his (many) cooking magazines the other night while I sat at the computer.  "Here's an article you'll like," he said as he handed it to me.  And did I ever!

The Conflict Kitchen in Pittsburgh is "a take-out restaurant that only serves cuisine from countries with which the United States is in conflict. The food is served out of a take-out style storefront that rotates identities every six months to highlight another country. Each iteration of the project is augmented by events, performances, and discussions that seek to expand the engagement the public has with the culture, politics, and issues at stake within the focus country. These events have included live international Skype dinner parties between citizens of Pittsburgh and young professionals in Tehran, Iran; documentary filmmakers in Kabul, Afghanistan; and community radio activists in Caracas, Venezuela." (from the Conflict Kitchen website)

I think this is the coolest idea I've heard in a long time.  Americans are notoriously uneducated about the rest of the world, and unfortunately, even less informed about countries with whom our government has conflicts. I have been so weary lately of all the negative, nasty,  and downright erroneous information that gets passed around,  and so frustrated by the judgmental people who can't seem to look past their own biases and evaluate a situation rationally. 

So I've been thinking--what if we did our own version of Conflict Kitchen right here?  We can't open a restaurant but we could hold a monthly potluck dinner at someone's home or at a public place, choose which country we want to highlight, research the food, the culture, the issues, and make an event of it.  Since we live in such an international community, odds are good we could even find some people from that country and invite them to come, to speak if they feel comfortable, to bring some items representative of their culture.

We're heading out on vacation on Tuesday but I am gonna let this idea percolate a little and maybe we can do something after we return.  What do you think?

Meanwhile, click HERE if you want to read more about the Conflict Kitchen.