Chicago, Day 5: Lil Dy in The City

Since Dy was sick on Sunday, this was her only day in Chicago.

We first went to Sears Tower. They make you watch a movie about the history of it, which was okay, but we pretty much wanted to see the view and then split. The elevator takes you to the 103rd floor extremely quickly; I’m kind of glad it wasn’t a transparent elevator.

The middle of America is completely flat and boring.

We tried to visit the Board of Trade (see, we’re recreating Ferris Beuller’s Day Off?) but they don’t let you do that anymore. We found out later in the week that a cousin actually works there… so next time we have an “in.”

Diane got a speed tour of the Art Institute. We took a quick gander at American Gothic and a speed review of the collection highlights, including some Monet waterlillies. Dy doesn’t do real well with museums so we ran through in like a couple hours and then split.


Next up was the haunted post office – the Post Office in Engelwood on 63rd that is built on the site of the “murder castle” of H H Holmes. I recommend the excellent Rick Geary book on this… There were some bad vibes there, but nothing real noticeable.

Something that was noticeable was the complete lack of white people, or even of non-black people. It was like being in the Twilight Zone; it was the most completely segregated place I have ever seen.

We took a train to Little Italy, the stretch of Taylor east of the Polk station. We of course had to get our cannoli fix… we stopped in at several places for “dessert,” but no one had cannoli! Outrageous! It made us appreciate North Beach in SF a little more. We finally found the Scafuri Bakery, run by an awesomely cranky old Italian lady–

CUSTOMER: Uno cannolo, por favore!
LADY: Three?
CUSTOMER: One!
LADY: Three.
CUSTOMER: No, One!!!
LADY: (makes face; who would order only one cannoli?!)

She hand-fills them when you order; it can’t be beat. We ended up taking our canoli to Conte Di Savoia for an espresso to go with it.

We took a bus to Italian Village back in the Loop; it’s a restaurant that has been there for 80 years and was a hang-out for Al Capone. The food was decent.

Chicago Resources:

Stuff we didn’t get to in Chicago:

  • Russian Tea Room in the Loop
  • Sweden shop – 3304 W Foster Ave, Spaulding Ave
  • Delillah’s on Lincoln and Diversey (Lincoln Park)
  • MUSIC BOX in Wrigleyville. It’s an independent movie theatre; Crispin Glover was there a week ago
  • a good vegetarian cafe/bar visit KUMA’s Humboldt Park/Logan Square
  • Great Costa Rican place called “Irazu”
  • KINZIE Chop house: Downtown “The Loop” (South Loop)
  • Rockabilly venue: try “California Clipper” on Augusta and CAlifornia
  • L’Appetito, 30 E Huron (Chicago/State Red)
  • The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir was playing while we were there (missed it!)

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