Robie House, River Cruise and the Blues

 

Night sky view from the living room. The Sears tower (Willis Tower) is the one that looks like it has horns. It is the tallest building in Chicago.

We had planned to head out at 9 am but were all up and ready sooner so we decided to check out the rooftop patio area of our building.  

Barbeque area

The pool

Lots of areas for sitting around. 

It will likely be too chilly while we are here to enjoy the rooftop.

We walked to the Starbucks Reserve Roastery.  This is a 5 story building that is all about coffee.  There was a long line to order breakfast on level 2.  Jeanne and I split a fruit bowl, a cinnamon roll and an egg frittata.  It was very good but because it took longer to get our food and eat, we did not have much time to look around.  

Fruit Bowl

The frittata with avocado  on the left 

Pretty impressive place.

Cool mural near the elevator

We caught a cab to go to the Frank Lloyd Wright Robie House.  We had an 11 am tour.  

Our guide, Donald

The only curve in the building.  

Surround shower

It was very interesting, but it was not a very comfortable, livable design for a house.  Lots of gorgeous stained glass, beveled windows and doors, lots of large rooms and big fireplaces (the hearth is the heart of the home).  The front door was not immediately obvious. Not an open, welcoming place.

The Robie house is situated right next to the University of Chicago.  After the tour of the house we had an audio guided tour for some of the buildings around the house. 

This was not a good area to get a cab so I arranged for a Lyft.  Our driver had a red Kia Niro, though it was all electric.  She was not happy with the vehicle.  It would not be a good car for her type of driving.  Mostly, because the time she has to take to charge it, is time when she could be doing rides.

We went to the Riverwalk Wine Garden by City Winery for lunch and a sit-down break. We could relax until our river cruise at 3 pm. 

Jeanne and I split a sandwich.  

Kris and Sharon shared a cheese plate.  I got in on the photo of their cheese plate.

Jeanne and Kris waiting for the cruise

This is what our boat will look like.

Our boat

We went on Chicago's First Lady Architecture River Cruise.  It was amazing and also interesting. One story was about when they changed the direction of the flow of the river. Now it flows from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River. This is very significant for many reasons but one being the connection now from New York to New Orleans by boat. Also the attitude changed of the locals about being by the river. Now it is prime real estate.

Our guide, Tom

The St Regis was my favorite building with its curvy lines.  It is the 3rd tallest building in Chicago.

We caught a cab to take us to Buddy Guy's Legend to listen to some blues.  We only stayed for the opening act. Gerry Hundt was a one man band playing the acoustic guitar, harmonica, foot drum, and he sang.  Very impressive.

We had wine and shared an order of chicken tenders and fries.  Gerry was very versatile.  We left at 7:30 pm when his act was over.  We got a cab to our dinner location.  We had an 8 pm reservation at Bar Avec for Mediterranean small plates with a view.  

We shared a nice bottle of Sancerre. All the pictures look red.  I am thinking that this was because of the heat lamps that were on. 

Chilled shrimp with green garlic bagna cauda (whatever that is) and lemon aioli.

Garlic crostini with slow roasted tomatoes and fresh ricotta 

Little gem lettuce with blueberries, ubriacone cheese, lavender almonds and roasted shallot vinaigrette (Sharon took a picture with a flash.  The food certainly looks better)

Crispy artichokes with Caesar aioli, pecorino cheese, and salted pepper berries.

Cucumber salad with radish, pickled banana peppers, whipped feta and greek oregano. (This was my least favorite dish, plus it was the least attractive)

Creme brulee tart with roasted plums.

What a meal!  It was very delicious meal but it was not relaxing.  It was very noisy and the tables were so tiny there was hardly room for any of the food.  It felt sort of rushed.

This was a cool pictures that changes as you walk by.  I should have done a video of it. 

After dinner we walked home. We did not stay up very long after we got home.