I decided to take advantage of Southwest Airlines' cheap fares and empty middle seats policy and take a trip to Chicago to visit Courtney. I booked the trip about 3 weeks ago, but I couldn't have been luckier on the weather. Who would ever expect it to be 70 degrees in Chicago in October???
I had an early flight, so I met Courtney downtown for breakfast, did a little sketching along the Chicago Riverfront, and then walked to Courtney's condo. It took about 15,000 steps, but being such a glorious day, it felt good to be out. Chicago is still under fairly heavy COVID restrictions, especially in regards to indoor restaurant service. In my neighborhood, restaurants have set up tables on the sidewalks to give diners a socially-distanced dining experience, but Chicago has taken it to a another level by taking over entire streets. Many of them have invested in space heaters and fire pits, but I'm not sure how much longer they're going to be able to keep that up. It's one thing to sip hot cider outside a ski lodge in Aspen. I can't imagine wanting to eat out bad enough to sit in the snow in Chicago. Guess we'll see.
Courtney took a day off work, so we could spend the day sketching. But one of the problems with COVID restrictions is that there are very few public restrooms anymore. But we hit on the idea of going to the Lincoln Park Zoo. They limit how many people can enter each hour, so we made sure we were one of the first ones there. I think we were the only people not pushing a stroller.
The zoo was decorated up for Halloween. I tried to take a selfie of us in front of one of the Halloween displays. I think it's appropriate, because I look a little ominous wearing a mask, hat, and sunglasses. I should have made a mask with a pumpkin smiley face on it for the season.
We found a bench to do some sketching near the emus (a bird that looks like an ostrich with a bad hair day). One emu was so funny, because it kept peaking over the fence looking at us. Maybe it was smelling the granola bar in my backpack. The only bad thing about the zoo's entrance policy is that they limit at what time you can come in (you have to go online and get a timed-ticket sent to your phone), but they don't say anything about how long you can stay. Being such a nice day, the zoo filled up fast with visitors.
So we left and went out near the fountains to sketch... or in Courtney's case, to take a nap in the sun.
For lunch, we walked over to Velvet Taco, my favorite restaurant in Chicago. Their tacos flavors are somewhat quirky, but extremely tasty. We each got a pulled pork and a shrimp & grits taco. Yum!
Traveling is not quite the same as it used to be. Wearing a mask doesn't seem to be that big a deal any more, but seeing how many businesses have shut down is a bit depressing. My favorite Chicago tea shop, Argo Tea, has closed almost all their stores. The Broadway and movie theaters are still closed (supposedly you can stream some Broadway shows on the Disney+ channel). And the entire downtown area is like a ghost town, since so many people are still working from home. Here's hoping things are closer to normal by the time I head back for another visit in the spring.
