Chai Town to Wisconsin

After leaving Gary we headed towards the Windy City. In an attempt to bypass rush hour and spend more time with Annie (my college roommate) we drove straight north up to Lake Forest, Il. Despite being bombarded with "Kirk for Senate (R)" posters it was a nice drive and well worth it. Annie's house is so beautiful. It's a few blocks off of Lake Michigan and sits atop a small cliff overlooking a ravine. After the tour, I grabbed the Road Atlas, our highlighter, and mementos from our last stops and started updating the map book with our route and stops. Matt started blogging and then checking out grad schools. After a while of chatting and "working" we headed out to Gino's East to pick up some traditional Chicago Deep Dish Pizza. We had a great dinner with Annie and her parents and afterwards headed out for some ice cream. This was not your typical ice cream experience - we can't remember the name but they served Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream from Wisconsin and it was very very good. The man serving us, however, was pretty awful; we'll call him"Grumpy Pants" or GP for short. GP was the owner of the Ice Cream Shop, a middle aged man with a little pot belly and kind of thin long brown hair on the back of his head, the top was balding. I don't think I can aptly communicate all of his sarcasm and sour attitude here but as an example - after asking to taste a few flavors, Annie commented that one in particular was delicious. His first sarcastic response: "I find the ice cream sells better when it tastes good." Needless to say, we took the ice cream to go.

We had a great night in - being introduced to this years season of Dancing with the Stars, Weeds, and The Big C (Stringer Bell is in it!!!). Then we headed happily to bed. Their guest room was CRAZY nice mostly because the bed had a temperpedic top on it. :)

The next morning we did a short run out to the Lake Forest Beach on Lake Michigan had some bagels for breakfast - checked out the clip of Bill O'Reily on the View (scary) - showered, packed up and headed to Chicago.

In Chicago - our first stop was a tour around Pilsen, where Dennis (Matt's dad grew up). Then we walked around Grant and Millennium Park - saw the Modern Wing in the Art Museum and the Bean! and then walked over to the Museum of Contemporary Photography which I don't think many people know about but is a worthwhile stop. They had a wonderful exhibit up about the Arizona/Mexico border. It was a short but great visit in the city - we like Chicago a lot.

It was only about 2 and half hours from Chicago to Kettle Moraine State Forest where we set up camp for the night.