Art Deco Swimming Pool

Each time I come to Chicago it seems like half of where I go is to places I've never been before and half of where I go is to places I've been every previous time I've visited.

Food choices often fall into the familiar category. Brunch with friends or relatives will bring me back to some favorite local neighborhood standby. Over my days with Aunt Kathy we inevitably wind up at the Onion Roll where she orders a patty melt and chocolate phosphate. Mom's Cafe in River Forest is always good for their "2 x 2 x 2 x 2": grits, pancackes, bacon and eggs. Then, whenever I call on Megan across town she and I will at some point eat a similar traditional American breakfast at the Cozy Corner on Milwaukee Avenue just down the block from her apartment.

Outside the Onion Roll

I do try to seek out somewhere new to see as well each time I pass through. The places I've visited around Chicago that I hadn't been to before this trip include the most ornately decorated swimming pool I've ever seen. Going on Professor Gwen's recommendation (who had just discovered the place herself on her last pass through town) I visited the 14th floor of an old hotel on North Michigan Avenue which has a beautiful swimming pool that was built at the height of the Art Deco movement. I hadn't brought swimming trunks, myself, but was content. There was a comfortable terraced viewing area furnished with lounge chairs built up back when swimming was considered more of a spectator sport. I was sufficiently happy to sit somewhere warm, beautiful, and out of the rain watching a sole swimmer in the far lane doing laps from one end to the other again and again.

Jia-yi (on right) and Mother at Stan's Donuts

No matter how many times I come back I always find some part of Chicago, such as this skyscraper swimming pool, that is well worth visiting and has been here forever--yet is a place I'd never previously known about.

Offering a menu new to me, at a venue new to me, with somebody new to meet was one final rendezvous with Jia-yi. We started our evening at Stan's Donuts on E. Erie where I met her mother for the first time. She too was visiting from out of town. If such traits are passed along genetically from parent to child I now know where Jia-yi gets her energetic, spirited nature. My Chinese is rusty but was enough to carry on conversation over doughnuts and tea. I gave up and switched to English by the time we went out for dinner. The three of us finished the evening over sushi alongside which Jia-yi's mother insisted we share a round of sake. It was fun and different, somehow... I don't believe I've spent any evening out on the town going out for doughnuts and sake with a friend and her mother, before.

Stan's Donuts with Jia-yi

As it's been grey and soggy these past days I'd expected to see far fewer people dressed up and out for Hallowe'en last night than there actually were. Tenants of brick apartments stood outside the main building doors bearing big bowls for trick-or-treaters to pull a sweet out from. In Megan's neighborhood of Logan Square most children and adults walking the streets in the early evening were dressed up in costume. Many chose ghoulish standards often adorned with copious amounts of fake blood. Though, the choice of younger girls was often a bright, colorful princess outfit.

The most cleverly constructed costume I saw while walking down the street was worn by a boy riding atop a Back-To-The-Future-II style skateboard that hovered a foot above the ground with nothing between. "Huh? How?" I contemplated physics and gravity for a split-second until realizing that the feet and legs riding the hovering skateboard were all part of the costume: his real legs were cloaked behind them in dark shoes and trousers. I wish I'd come up with something clever like that which made people look twice when I dressed up for Hallowe'en as a kid.

Megan and David in Hallowe'en Costume

Megan hosted a Hallowe'en Party. Despite that she was playing hostess and despite that I'd delayed my departure specifically to attend her party neither of us went to great lengths to dress up elaborately. I'm just passing through town so didn't have much on-hand to turn into a costume. Megan has been busy flying off to work in several cities other than Chicago over this past month. So, the two of us just dressed up in what we could cobble together from around her house. With a bit of makeup and a creepy, high-collared, old-fashioned shirt she transformed herself into a character from the Addams Family TV series. I assembled random articles she had in her house including a red toy cowboy hat, a cape, a bushy mustache, and long-tipped Spock ears to be--if not any particular creature--at least in the spirit of fancy dress for the holiday.

Most of Megan's guests had put forth much greater effort to craft their costumes. There was a dead-ringer for the Morton Salt Girl with yellow skirt and umbrella. A Raven Queen with long beak and carved, ebony walking stick was accompanied by her Mad Hatter consort. Megan's closest friend from high school days came, all irony intended, dressed as Megan herself, mask and all.

Chicago Arrival from Madison

For background ambience Megan's boyfriend brought a cherished DVD from his collection appropriate to the occasion. "Blacula", was a deliberately schlocky film made in the early 1970's whose premise was a vampire of old returning as a black man in New York City. Somehow we managed to watch the movie through to the end credits. Megan melted up caramel to dip apples into, brewed some sort of intensely strong punch, and provided far too much candy. It was a good way to spend my final night in town. Thanks for hosting, Megan! It's always quirky fun with you and your friends whenever I come through Chicago.

Next stop: Bloomington, IN