Tuesday and our "tour" ends.

We got all packed up to leave our home away home.  

Watching the "L" brown line go by.  We had plenty of opportunities to see and hear it go by.

Once we were all packed up we headed down to the coffee shop in the apartment building for a little breakfast.

We went back upstairs to do our final check-out procedure.  We called a Lyft XL to get us to the airport. 

Darn, I didn't get a picture of Kris and Sharon heading off through TSA Pre check. Jeanne and I went down to the baggage claim level to get a taxi to take us to Margie & Don's place where Jeanne had left her car.  We got to the car and headed out.  

Don (Jay's brother) & Margie's home

One home near Don & Margie's 

We headed off towards Oregon (WI). We stopped for lunch at Beloit Family Restaurant.

We split a tuna melt.

Summit Madison Clinic is a Covid testing place in the East Towne Mall in Oregon.  It was a walk-in place.  I wanted an official test.  Jeanne had the test done as well.  

Then we drove on to Laura (Jeanne's daughter) and Wilhelm's place 

Their house

When we got there Laura was busy in the kitchen making a blueberry pie with the wild blueberries they had picked up in Ely.  Wilhelm was working on bikes in the basement.  That is his job.

Laura getting ready for coffee time.  Jeanne and I had a chance to go on a short neighborhood walk.  We had our pie outside.  Darn, I did not get a close-up of the pie.  It was very pretty to look at but even more delicious to eat.  They usually have coffee time when the kids get home from school.  Though they do not always have homemade pie.

Night Furry

Fawkes

Laura made a delicious spaghetti dinner with a cucumber salad and garlic bread. Jeanne is helping.

Sharon and Kris arrived safely in Portland.

Laura has just had Covid so I did not need to worry about my mask except when the kids were present.  That was nice.  I felt better today but my runny nose was worse.

They have a gorgeous view from the family room.  

What a feast.  I, sort of, isolated myself by sitting on the couch away from the table.  But I could still be part of the group.  

Fun climbing ladder for the cats. The family room has a very high ceiling.

After the kids were all ready for bed I taught them how to play Swoop.  I think that they liked it.  We needed 3 decks of cards.  Wilhelm had other things to work on.  

We had to cancel our food tour for tomorrow.  We had several conversations with the owners of the food tour about our choices.  They gave us a full refund and they were quick about it.  We each have already received our refunds. 

Jeanne was still negative.

Jeanne, Laura and I had a chance to visit a bit in the evening.  Tomorrow I will switch to my travels blog: http://barbarastravels.blogspot.com/ 

A Downtown Day - Art, State Street and a Brownie

 I woke up feeling a little under the weather.  So I decided to take a home Covid test. Argh!!  Positive!!  So we had to re-think some of our plans.  Luckily, we were not signed up for any official tours.  I just planned to wear my mask when we did anything indoors.  I felt like I just had a mild cold.

We walked to the Wildberry Cafe for breakfast.  It was listed as having outdoor seating but that was incorrect.  

Wow. What a delicious breakfast. After breakfast we walked the Magnificent Mile towards Millennium Park.

The Chicago Tribune building.   

On one wall they have actual pieces from places around the world.

We went into the Fannie May store to buy some chocolates

We went into the Cultural Art Center to find the largest Tiffany glass dome

We thought that this was it, but no, there was another dome.

This was the Tiffany glass dome.

We have heard about the Chicago fire at every tour.  This made it more visual.

We got to Millennium Park

 

The Cloud Gate (the Bean) was fun, 

Crown Fountain, there are 2 of these structures, facing each other.  The faces change and periodically they "spit" at each other. We sat and watched this for a while.  

We went to the Art Institute.  They would not let us in because we had bags of food (our sealed  Fannie May purchases) , so Jeanne and I took them home while Kris and Sharon got a head start in the Art Institute. 

Side entrance of the Art Institute

Monet

Van Gogh

Seurat

Georgia O'Keeffe

In the gift shop checking out a lexon mino - tiny speaker with a remote clicker for the phone camera.  The salesperson was good!! Jeanne bought one

The front entrance of the Art Institute

Close up of the sign we saw  before.

It was time for a sit-down break.  We went to the Palmer House, which is a Hilton Hotel, to the Lockwood Express Grab and Go to get our brownie.

Bertha's brownies are famous.  They were delicious.

Gorgeous lobby

We got a better look at the Calder Flamingo

Floating stairs designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the Rookery Building

Cool Fountain

This 70 foot mosaic mural wraps around on all sides of this wall.

We walked up State Street

We walked on home.

Our "last" sunset.

We relaxed a while.  When we were ready for dinner we decided to eat in the apartment.  Al's #1 Italian Beef was close.  We placed an order for a couple of sandwiches.  Jeanne and I walked there to get those.  Sharon and Kris walked to Whole Foods to get a salad and more wine. 

Delicious.  Half of a sandwich and salad.  

Our final day was kind of a downtown review.  We got to see some things close up instead of from a van or boat.  It was a lot of walking and outdoor stuff.  I wore my mask any time we went indoors. 

So, I was careful, but I guess it was not what you would call isolating myself.  22,044 steps!!

What a wonderful trip this was.  So much to see and too little time.  There were some things we did not get to.  We never did ride the "L".  We did not go to Bang, Bang Pie. I guess we will just have to come back some day.  Our apartment was very comfortable and not too far from downtown.  They had a lot of "green" products, including the facial tissues.

Made with bamboo and sugar cane!! They did not go to any effort to make it soft.

The weather cooperated. It would have been better if I had not gotten sick.   Hopefully, the others won't get sick.  I just feel like I have a minor cold.  Everyone else tested this morning and they are all Covid Free.