Category Archives: Chicago

Transportation options between Chicago and Traverse City

We were looking lat summer – with little success  – for mass transportation between Chicago and Traverse City, Michigan. And finally decided the best bet was to rent a car.

But there is another option a reader offered:  an Indian Trails bus (indiantrails.com). It is a fairly long trip (9 hours) compared to driving a car (5 hours), but the advance purchase cost is, we’re told, $50.

The other options: take the train from Chicago to Grand Rapids (which takes about 4.5 hours) and then somehow get to Traverse City. Word has it there’s a bus connection but it takes 12 hours.  (that’s crazy.)

 

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Urban Plains – “lifestyles of the flyover states”

For ideas of things to do and places to see and eat in the Midwest, check out Urban Plains, the new all-digital lifestyle magazine put out by Drake University’s senior magazine majors.It appears to be primarily about Chicago and the Twin Cities hotspots from what I can tell from a quick browse (not so much Drake’s hometown of Des Moines.)  You can find it at /www.urbanplainsmag-digital.com/urbanplains.

And here’s a commercial on YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baJwJ3E15AQ. (which to my surprise includes a shot of a well-known orthodox rabbi in Des Moines…)

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Filed under Chicago, Des Moines, Minnesota

Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood

Flattering story about Andersonville in the Chicago Tribune today http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/ct-ott-1203-neighborhood-watch-anders20101203,0,1959260.story…makes it truly seem like a small but not stifling town within a big city! Better yet,  Andersonville seems to have managed to produce a nice, not-always-easy mix of old-timers with their Swedish traditions and newcomers selling hip cutting-edge design, furniture and artwork….

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off-beat culinary bike tours – Chicago

Just read (in my son’s Northwestern alumni mag) about a fun way to experience Chicago – by bike, visiting various food outposts.  A Northwestern Alum  opened Fork and the Road, which offers these tours – after a test run with a giro del gelato (you guessed it – a bike tour that braked at five gelaterias in the Windy City). From the website (www.forkandtheroad.com) it looks like the tours are over for the year.  Here’s hoping they start up again next spring. The 2010 tours’ themes included dumplings, international BBQ, and Mediterranean Cruise. (Don’t see mention of the gelato tour…)

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Filed under Adventure travel, bike trails, Chicago, DINING

Northwestern University – around and about

We’ve been at Northwestern off and on this weekend to see our son during parents’ weekend and to, alas, watch Iowa lose, narrowly, to Northwestern’s football team. A few finds:

– Not bad sushi at the student union

– Very good hot chocolate and an enormous tuna melt sandwich at Clark’s – an unassuming good-value coffee shop on Clark street near campus. Great place to warm up after you’ve been sitting in the rain and cold watching two teams of young men bang into each other for hours while middle-aged men shout nasty words from the stands.

– We followed Northwestern’s instructions and didn’t bring our car – and were glad of it. The El took us directly, if not swiftly, to Evanston. Free shuttle buses (the buses were labeled “Positive Connections”)  arrived quickly to transport us from campus to the field which was so much smaller than Iowa’s (or Michigan’s) – really a treat. Our seats were in the 11th row so we could see the football game just yards away, up close and personal. It was like being at a high school game.

– Earlier in the trip, we went to Nightwood in the Pilsen neighborhood which alas was disappointing. My $15 hamburger – the least expensive thing on the menu – arrived medium rare (I ordered and was promised rare). I sent it back and the new one was about the same. (At which point, I split it with my brother – who didn’t eat most of his chicken because it was undercooked.) Too bad because there were good things about the place – a very attentive waiter, welcoming ambiance, some good entrees and hors d’oeuvres, tasty deserts (including a free one the waiter brought me as “a gift” because of the hamburger problem.)

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Filed under Chicago, DINING, Illinois

Return to Andersonville (Chicago)

We didn’t get a chance to explore Andersonville after dinner last night so we returned this afternoon and glad we did. Lots of interesting design stores – mostly furniture but also clothing and odd ball “repurposing” shops that take old typewriters and TV and do amazing new things with them. The store Transistor specializes in this and the guy working there was a good host, showing us how these crazy electronic instruments that some artist/musician made up work and make sometimes horrifying noises. Also liked to the Scout that restores old furniture and The White Attic, which does the same thing with furniture that is so familiar from my childhood but looks somehow new.

Wish we’d had more time to wander – really liked the Alamo Shoes there too. The space felt like the shoestore of my youth but with  a much better selection!

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Andersonville at last – Chicago

Finally made it to Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood last night- unexpectedly. The restaurant my sister had booked for a family gathering was there – didn’t realize this until we were trying to figure out what neighborhood we were in and lo  and behold, there were Andersonville signs on the lampposts. The restaurant was good – anteprima. My cousin S’s entree was my favorite  – the carbonara with wonderfully crisp, crunchy, salty bacon. Ymmm. Also very good was the chocolate mouse type dessert. Nice ambiance – rustic, low-key, lots of gay couples. Reasonable prices.

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Chicago Architecture Foundation/Aqua building

I’ve been recommending things to do/see in Chicago to friends and family and realize I neglected to blog about my visit last September to the Chicago Architecture Foundation, near the Art Institute on South Michigan Ave. Several interesting tours leave from the place – and it has one of the best gift shops I’ve come across anywhere, full of great stuff on architecture and design – especially clever architecture T-shirts. Also forgot to mention one of my new favorite buildings in chicago – the Aqua Tower by Jeanne Gang. I was mesmerized by it a few years ago when I spotted it during a Chicago Architecture Foundation boat tour. The New Yorker gave it a thumbs up too recently. see :
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/skyline/2010/02/01/100201crsk_skyline_goldberger

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Chicago’s Andersonville

Andersonville has been on my to-visit list for some time and now comes another nudge from the NYTimes Travel section which featured this Chicago neighborhood in its recent Surfacing column – so now I must get there. Highlights include Scout (a high-end flea market of sorts, 5221 North Clark); in fine spirits (wine shop/small plates wine bar, 5418 North Clark); Anteprima (a rustic Italian restaurant, 5316 North Clark); Transistor ( an art gallery/music store/book shop/performance space, 5045 – you guessed it – North Clark).

Clearly it’s all happening on North Clark.

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Filed under Chicago, DINING

Chicago design

Hardly a day seems to go by without a story about some ultra-stylish hotel, restaurant, or boutique in Chicago – and here’s another one from last week’s NYT sunday T magazine – about Ugo Alfano Casati’s two-story gallery in “Chicago’s trendy meatpacking district” – full of midcentury and contemporary pieces w/simple, elegant design. see casatigallery.com. Doubt much of it is in my price range judging from the $58,000 bookcase and $12,500 floor lamp.

The guy eats at a Mexican restaurant called Salpicon (salpicon.com) – maybe it’s not as expensive as the stuff he collects.

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