(Photo above is tentatively titled "Three Knuckleheads.")
Where were we...oh yes! We had just checked out of the Hotel Monaco in downtown Chicago, and were waiting for Grandpa Jim to come pick us up and take us back to Peoria, about 170 miles. As agreed, Grandpa had shown up around 4:30 in his brand new 2014 Ford Fusion (just off the lot and completely decked out with Sirius XM radio, GPS, the works). I figured we'd be home by around 7:30. Isaac was starting to get cranky as we loaded the bags into the car. "Hey," Jim said, "How do you install this car seat?" Twenty minutes later, we were off!
Into Chicago rush hour traffic.
An hour later as we were creeping through the southern suburbs, Jim says, "Hey. You guys wanna stop for dinner at Baker's Square?" "Not really," I replied. After ten minutes of debating whether or not he'd be coming this far north when he dropped us back off at Theresa's house in Lockport, as well as the merits of the different flavors of Baker's Square pies, we decided to stop for a bite to eat. After ogling the pies in the window, we sat down and had dinner. When the waiter came around for dessert orders, Jim declined. He also decided against getting a cherry pie to go.
By this time it was 9:00. We were tired. Isaac was cranky. Dad didn't eat any of the much-talked about pie. And as Adam succintly put it, "That pie gave me the s**ts." We ended up touring every gas station and rest stop from Dwight to Bloomington. Did you know some of those rest stops have gaming machines? Every time we took an exit to hit up the next rest stop, the woman's voice on the GPS came on, instructing us in that scolding tone, "Make a legal U-turn." Around 11:00 we straggled into Peoria.
The next day I was supposed to be working from home, which was a little more difficult than anticipated. Dad insisted on taking us out for breakfast at a place called Wild Berries, just off War Memorial near I-74. It was one of those buildings by the highway that has had several iterations over its lifetime. I couldn't remember what it had been back when I lived in Peoria, and as I was musing aloud over what it was in my day, Adam piped in, "I think it was a strip club called Wild Berries."
Dad gave Isaac a taste of his orange juice, Ike's first ever, and he almost polished off the entire glass. It was one of those restaurants frequented by elderly women with separate checks where they serve cranberry compote and thirty-seven different kinds of smoothies. Pretty good too.
That afternoon, after my work was done, we were getting ready to visit my high school friend Marie, her husband, and 4-month-old baby Alex. I checked my e-mail again for her address, and saw that we needed to bring dessert. I notified Dad, and he volunteered to go out and get something. "What do you want?" he asked. "A cherry pie would be good," I suggested.
It was really great to see Marie and meet John, and Alex is the cutest little thing! I'm so glad we got a chance to meet up with them. We got some good pictures, included below.
Over the next few days, we also ate at Maid-Rite and the Ice Cream Shack, ordered in Monical's pizza, played on the playground at St. Phil's, toured the Peoria Riverfront, went shopping at Grand Prairie, and I also ran hills with (OK, after) Theresa at Forest Park Nature Center, and went through some of my boxes in the attic. Did I mention that Theresa and Brady came down to spend some more time with us? Ike just got a kick out of hanging out with his cousin, and Brady kept slapping his cheeks like on Home Alone and exclaiming, "IIIIIIke!"
On Friday we drove leisurely back north to Theresa's house in Lockport, where we were to spend the night before heading east to South Bend for the Notre Dame-Oklahoma game the next day. On the way to Lockport, we stopped at Tanner's Apple Orchard, or as Adam calls it, my "Mecca." We had apples, apple cider, apple donuts, apple pie, apple butter, apple salsa.... I'm starting to feel like Bubba on Forrest Gump. The little guys had a great time picking apples off the trees and petting the goats.
We headed up to Lockport and Dad headed back down to Peoria, only to drive straight back up that way to South Bend the next day for the game.
One more post after this about this trip!