Sonya's Blog - Day 24 - We Experience Kinky Boots in Chicago

Sonya’s Blog - Day 24 - July 16 - More Chicago

We were up bright and early to get breakfast and lunch made so we could get Kizmet to dog care and get into Chicago. It is quite the commute in. It was rainy this morning, but still quite warm (18) so we ventured out. We had arranged to have Kizmet stay overnight so that we could see a theatre show, now we just have to get some tickets. There was a new dog at the dog care place, bringing the total up to 4. Becky watches an 8 month old Great Dane (Diesel) twice per week and he was there today. He was huge and very gentle, we all loved him immediately. Kizmet wasn’t scared of him because he was so gentle. It started to rain again while we were there so we dropped her off after some love and we got on the road.

We managed to find the Rosemont Station today after a lot of goofing around (a detour through O’Hare airport). You cannot get there directly from the I-90, even though it is not too far off of it. Not sure if that is due to all the construction, who knows, but we did manage to find it. We successfully made it onto the train and were on our way. Before we left the parking lot we had to protect Sterling with this awesome sunshade that was given to Blake before we left. It was a gift from the Sunrise Team, thanks everyone, we LOVE it!

Sterling Masquerading as the Millennium Falcon:

We decided to get off at Lake and Clark to see what that station looks like because we couldn’t find it the night before. It turns out you come out in a building, it is not a street entrance. Mystery solved, it’s like we are sleuths, but really bad ones. This station turns out to be really close to the Cadillac Palace Theatre which is playing Cyndi Lauper’s Kinky Boots and that is the Broadway production we wanted to try and see. Blake managed to find discount tickets, which was a huge bonus as they were less than 1/2 the price of the tickets I had found yesterday for pretty decent seats. While he was doing this we were walking around Chicago, trying to find a hop on hop off bus stop so we could continue on our tour (our tickets are good for 2 days). We were heading for the Wilson Building, which as it turns out is the Sears Building (renamed) and where the Chicago Skydeck it. Our 4 pass thingy we bought includes the skydeck so we went up. It is a very tall building and held the title of tallest building until this other building was built in Taiwan. I am short on the details as, well, they are tall buildings and not my hugest interest. It did have great views of Chicago and a plexi-glass ledge overlooking the city. Here is our picture:

While we were up there Blake managed to secure our tickets for the theatre for 7:30 that night, it’s going to be a long day!

Isaac was shocked to learn that if we went back up to the Skydeck at night we would have to pay again. He thought if we paid once we should get unlimited rides up and down and he wanted to see the city at night. Wow was he ever disappointed to learn that little fact and I guess that is stupid Skydeck people.

The bus stop was right outside the Skydeck and we only had to wait a few minutes. We were entertained by picketing United Workers outside of the Wilson Building while we were waiting. I told Isaac it was a protest and he didn’t believe me, that kid loves to argue. He thought they were advertising for something. Blake took him over so he could read the signs and hear what they were shouting and came back and announced that I was indeed right, it was a protest and that was a picket line. Well thanks Isaac for confirming as I was doubting my initial analysis of the situation.

The bus came and we hopped on. We didn’t go very far as we decided to hop off at the Art Institute and check out Millenium Park. This was a great place to stop at it is also the street where the start of Route 66 is so we got a picture with that sign:

Route 66 Begins:

Millenium Park was commission to be built for the Millenium, but ended up opening 4 years late and $300 million over budget! It was a nice park with two huge towers that spilled water for a splash park, there was a lot of kids in that screaming and running around. The towers had faces displayed on them once in awhile and when the face opened it’s mouth water squirted out of it’s mouth. There was also huge sculptures, a thing that looked like a bean, but was evidently a silver cloud (called the Cloud Gate) and an outside amphitheatre where the have free outdoor concerts. There is a bridge beside the amphitheatre which was designed as a sound barrier so that the traffic sounds could not be heard if you are enjoying a concert. We had our lunch there and got some cool pictures with the Cloud Gate:

We received a text and picture from Becky while we were having lunch. Kizmet was enjoying have a younger playmate today. Sometimes Diesel would just stand still and watch Kizmet run circles around him!

We hopped back on the bus and it took us over to Navy Pier so that Natasha could get her ride on the Ferris wheel. The sun had come out by this time so it was a good time to go and we were almost there. On the way to the pier Natasha broke the screen on her Ipad by sitting on it. Isaac and I didn’t want to ride the Ferris Wheel so we stood in line and got some famous Garrett Popcorn. It is a mixture of cheese and caramel popcorn, which was different, I can’t say it was my favourite mixture. We scarfed it down though, so it was good enough. The Ferris Wheel ride was everything Natasha hoped it would be and we continued on our way. Blake had found an Apple Store not far from one of the next stops so we hopped off at the Pumphouse off of Michigan Avenue and went to the Apple Store. We couldn’t get in until 5:15 for an appointment and it was 4:30 by this time. We wanted to be having supper by 5:30 so that we could make it to the Theatre without rushing too much. So we decided to hop back on the bus and try and get an appointment at an Apple Store closer to our campground (there is one that is 39 minutes away). Off we went on the next bus, which was really late due to the rush hour traffic. We asked the tour guide where a good place to eat would be that was near our theatre and he suggested Italian Village which had been around for about 100 years. We had seen this building yesterday while we were on our tour as it kind of sticks out because is an old building that is squished between 2 massive high rises. We forgot to get a picture of the outside as we were wanting to get in and have supper so we were not rushed for the Theatre. It was really cool inside. They have two restaurants, one upstairs and one downstairs. The one downstairs is more formal dining and upstairs is more casual dining, so we went upstairs as we were hardly dressed for formal dining. They were still pretty fancy upstairs and it was made to look like an italian street at night. They had phenomenal service an we were well taken care of. We all had very nice meals and were done by 7 which gave us lots of time to get to the theatre on time, pick up our tickets and get in our seats (it was only an 8 minute walk from the Italian Village).

Supper at the Italian Village:

When we got outside is was pouring rain, so it was going to be a very wet 8 minute walk. We ran/walked there and kept ducking under overhangs, but we were pretty wet by the time we got to the Cadillac Palace. It was a pretty spectacular theatre and we were very happy with our seats. Here is our picture with our Kinky Boots:

I had jacket on with a hood while we were running through the rain, but you can see how wet Natasha's sweatshirt and hair are in this picture. Funny stuff.

We had looked up reviews of this production prior to buying tickets to make sure it was going to be okay for our kids as it partially about a drag queen. The reviews were excellent and it was good for kids over 10 so we decided to that we would go as it looked really funny. The only thing I was worried about was that Isaac was looking pretty tired by this time and he makes quite the production with his yawning and carrying on when he is tired. Plus he likes to asks tons of questions and that is not really appropriate when there is an audience. The play was excellent and really funny. The guy that plays Lola/Simon was fantastic and what a voice! It is about a guy (Charlie) whose dad owns a shoe store in Northern England that is falling on hard times. Charlie doesn’t really want to go into the family business and moves to London with his girlfriend, but his dad dies and forces him into making decisions about the company. While in London he has a chance meeting with Lola and both of their futures are changed. Lola helps Charlie revive the family business by changing what they produce and finding a niche market (great boots with stiletto heals that can hold the weight of a man) and changing prejudices at his factory on the way. There are some really funny scenes with great performances and songs and it was a very enjoyable production. I would highly recommend it. When Lola first comes out with his “Angels” Blake leaned over and told Isaac they were all men and Isaac was shocked! I think it took Isaac awhile to believe it, they were very well done up! Natasha knew what it was about as she had read the playbill and watched a trailer of the production prior to getting to the theatre. She also got more of the jokes and had a few good laughs. Here is a picture of us in the theatre at the end:

It was pretty late by this time, but our train station was only a couple of blocks away and it wasn’t raining anymore. We found the train and got on without any mishaps and then back to our truck. Isaac fell asleep in the truck and was surprised at how fast we were back at the campground, when in reality it had been about 40 minutes or so. He was so tired, but we managed to get him into bed really quickly and he was instantly asleep again.

We are just hanging around the Union area tomorrow so we can all sleep in and have a relaxing day while we wait for Suz and family to arrive.

We love Chicago, but it keeps you busy!

Sonya