Friday we had a great breakfast at a local diner and then spent time wandering the city. Verena is currently working at DePaul, so we enjoyed touring the campus with her. Afterwards we made a trip to the botanical conservatory where we were in awe of the amazing orchid room. The room was full of colorful Lady's Slippers and stunning bromeliads. The late afternoon was spent walking the windy shores of Lake Michigan and chatting about our recent travels. Verena always has good stories to tell. We started our evening out very high class on the top floor of Trump Tower sipping cocktails. It is hard to believe the owner of such a fancy establishment has such dreadful hair. Aaron felt bad about not being dressed up enough, so I kept having to remind him of the combover. An unkempt ponytail, scruffy beard, torn jeans, and old flannel shirt combined are more presentable than Donald's hair. I think this made Aaron feel much better. Anyhow, dinner was at an authentic Mexican restaurant that served excellent food. Our final stop of the evening was a lovely jazz concert at The Green Mill.
Saturday morning got to a later start as we all needed some extra rest. Verena's friend Mike picked us up around eleven and took us to Chinatown for some delicious dim sum. This dim sum experience was very similar to the one we had in Hong Kong several years ago. We left the restaurant satisfied and ready to venture towards Oak Park to visit the Frank Lloyd Wright home. Oak Park is really a beautiful little suburb with amazing old homes. It is especially a nice place to be this time of year with the colorful leaves and cool weather. Before our late afternoon tour we stopped for a frozen treat at the historic Petersen's Ice Cream Shop, which has been around since 1919. My vanilla bean ice cream was the perfect pick-me-up!
Our tour through the FLW home was really quite good. Aaron and I visited Talieson during our contract in Wisconsin, and we really enjoyed the experience. Our guide in Oak Park was mediocre because she really struggled to answer questions throughout the tour. This was not terribly impressive, but just being able to walk through the house was very exciting. In fact, I was so thrilled that I might have gotten a bit tearful when we entered the front door. And Aaron was so embarrassed that he might have acted like he didn't know me. After our tour we walked back to the train station admiring the other FLW homes along the way. They really do stand out from the more traditional Victorian style houses that make up a large part of the neighborhood.
Back in the city we had a delicious dinner and then hit up a brewery to try some local beer. It was a fine evening. Aaron and Verena enjoyed a lively political discussion while I stayed silent and looked on in amusement. Luckily there was no shouting involved and their friendship survived even though it is quite clear they have very different opinions. So we enjoyed a couple of beers, and we even managed to keep the conversation away from politics the remainder of the night. Good times were had!
It was a fine weekend spent with Verena. She is just a lovely person, and we always have so much fun together. We're looking forward to seeing her in Germany next month and celebrating Christmas with her family!
Beautiful Oak Park
Frank Lloyd Wright House
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