My kind of town

Things accomplished on today's tour of Chicago with our special guest, Mrs. Are:

Trip to and from Chicago on a Metra train, partially full of sailors and totally double-decker.

Several stops along the way to take photos of Chicago architecture or a guy who was inadvertently burning his shirt sleeve with his cigarette. Fascinating subject matter!

Visited millenium park, the site of an ice skating rink, giant reflecting ball thing and this really tall wall that projects the image of someone smiling and winking at you, which is creepy and probably hard for you all to visualize if you haven't seen it.

A "spiritual experience" (Mrs. Are's words) while touring the Art Institute of Chicago, where we witnessed in person artwork from the following masters:

Monet

Van Gogh

Seurat

Cezanne

Gauguin

Renoir

El Greco

Picasso

Matisse

Pollock

Dali

Rothko

Rodin

Man Ray

... and more

(mostly artists whose names we didn't recognize, but we're not really up on that stuff.)

Lunch at Pizano's, a pizza chain that serves deep-dish specialties baked in a real pie crust. But the fun doesn't end there -- when our server didn't show up, a 52-year-old single guy known as "Chach" offered to serve us instead. Apparently, this guy is a friend of the Pizanos themselves and works as a waiter for fun (and free) in his spare time. This guy was one-of-kind. He gave us advice on on when to have children, offered fun facts about Chicago history, flirted with Mrs. Are and served us a pizookie on the house. Plus, he invited us to hear him sing "a prayer" tomorrow at 9:45 a.m. at "THE Saint Patrick's Catholic church, THE only church to survive THE Chicago fire." So less like Chachi and more like the Fonz. Ay!!

Made a photo stop at the Chicago river, which they really do dye green each Saint Patrick's day. (See ... I told you so Mrs. Are.)

Shopped at a few places, many inside really old buildings. Seriously.

All in all, a great day.