Brigid had arranged to meet her cousin, Alexander Stonor-Saunders, for lunch, she was also determined to do some proper sight-seeing in Chicago. We duly arrived with a couple of hours to kill before lunch, and decided to visit the Oceanarium. Unfortunately, being the school holidays, the world and his wife had had the same idea. By the time we had parked the car, the queue for tickets was already stretching to the bottom of the steps.
It was baking hot in the sunshine, but at last we arrived at the Aquarium’s revolving door. By this time it was nearly midday. As we entered the building, we were shocked to find that the majority of the queue (rather like the base of an iceberg) had been hidden from view … inside.
At this point we admitted defeat, deciding instead to walk slowly to West Adams, taking in whatever sights might be along the route.
We had an excellent lunch with Alexander at the Berghoff Café, then said our goodbyes, and went in search of a new swimsuit for Brigid. (Doing nothing in Texas for 3 weeks had had a disastrous effect on both our waistlines, and Brigid’s original costume was now just a little too tight …)
Fred and Diane had left to open up the lake house in Paw Paw, MI, so we had planned to visit some ‘biker bars’ with Mark and Gina. Ree was set to come too, but (oddly enough) faced with the prospect of riding pillion, suddenly had a better invitation from Jonathan and Julie!
This worked well. Mark and Gina arrived with ‘Sergeant Bob’ (a serving police officer, with whom John struck up an instant rapport), and together we set off in search of some of Chicago’s less well advertised night spots.
A good time was had by all, but don’t expect us to find our way back to any of Mark’s haunts. Neither of us has the faintest recollection of where we went!