I went to Chicago for the weekend to join the urban sketchers at the annual Open House. That's not a time when all the residential houses are for sale. Rather, the Chicago Architectural Center opens up 100 iconic buildings that are culturally, historically, or architecturally significant.
The weather was absolutely gorgeous, especially for late October in Chicago, so Courtney and I headed up to Evanston on the first day to paint the Baha'i Temple. Unfortunately the temple is right next to Northwestern, so the train was full of college students heading to the Homecoming festivities.
On the way back, we decided to try a new Venezuelan restaurant for dinner. I had empanadas and Courtney had an arepa - kind of a cross between a tortilla and a cornmeal pancake. They were both delicious (and gluten-free, since cornmeal supposedly doesn't have gluten).
As we were walking to Courtney's condo we passed a ton of Halloween decorations. Her neighbors in the next block had their whole courtyard decorated. They ought to charge an entry fee and give tours like all the farmers do with their pumpkin patches.
On Sunday, Courtney and I headed to the South Loop to paint the Clarke House. It's supposed to be the oldest building in Chicago, which is pretty significant since the Chicago fire of 1871 destroyed almost every single wooden structure (and many of the brick ones). It's now surrounded by high-rise hotels, warehouses, and office buildings. It's located right next to Soldier Field, so we heard the fireworks and bands go off every time the Bears made a touchdown (which unfortunately for the Bears wasn't very often... they were playing the Packers).
There were several other buildings on display in this neighborhood, so we toured a couple. The Wheeler Mansion, originally built in 1870 for a banker, has been turned into a boutique hotel. It was a nice renovation, but not necessarily that interesting, because almost all the rooms (parlors included) had been turned into en-suite guestrooms.
Sunday afternoon, we headed up to Chinatown for Dim Sum. We had a lot of fun trying out all the different kinds of dumplings they had on the menu, though I wish they'd just given me a fork instead of trying to eat those slippery things with chopsticks.
On Monday I had to head back to the airport. Like usual, Southwest had their gates all decorated for Halloween. It's crazy to say, but Midway airport was significantly calmer than the Denver airport. Bruce read that last month Denver was the 3rd busiest airport in the world. I certainly can believe it judging by all the people running for their flights.
