My Second (Favorite) City, Part II: Tourists?

I just loved this Chicago Water Tower Building. I took this picture, since it was right near our hotel. Since I know embarrassingly little about Chicago, I didn't know it was famous. I just liked the old building. When I got home and Finn insisted on seeing my pictures, I showed him this one of this tower. He said "Mom, that's in the snow globe you brought me." Sure enough - there it was. Kids are way smarter than me, that's for sure.

Our other site seeing - if you can call it that - was Navy Pier, John Hancock Tower, and Oprah's neighborhood. That's it. I much prefer just walking around and/or going to restaurants/bars. Luckily, Caver and the rest of crew enjoy the same. Shopping was done - but not much at all for any of us. We were very good.

~Here are a few more places with some information about what we did there.~

Here's another tease for you from our Oprah Show experience - blog on October 14.
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This is the closest I got to the Chicago River (view from limo - limo explained later as well - I didn't even get out at the river):

Here was Navy Pier, where we had that yummy meal and looked around.

The city view from Navy Pier.




The rest of these are just photos I liked. There is one of several fishermen near the entrance to Navy Pier, right outside the Chicago Children's Museum (also below). I also put in a few of the ladies with whom I travelled. What a fun group.

My Second (Favorite) City, Part I

Everyone who knows me knows that New York City/Manhattan is my favorite place on earth. Now I have a second favorite.

Wow. Wow. Wow. And how I love the Second City. If you don't get the Second City reference, go here.

I was in Chicago this week. Caver surprised my mother and I about three weeks ago, by getting tickets to The Oprah Winfrey Show - the October 8th taping. The show will air October 14th. I'm sort of burned out telling the story of the actual Oprah experience, so I will post about that on the day the show airs...oooooh, a teaser...but for now, I will just tell you about our FABULOUS TRIP TO CHICAGO!! Or should I say eating our way through Chicago?!!

OUR HOTEL FAMILY.

Caver, myself, my mom (Elaine), Pam (Caver's mother-in-law) and Yvette went on the trip together. What a blast. God, we had fun. We stayed at the gorgeous, classy, unique, hip, friendly Hotel Affinia. That in itself was worth the trip. This place was PHENOMENAL. Pam put it best: they were like family. There are over 300 rooms there, yet each time we arrived or left, they addressed us by name. Christopher, the Concierge, and Victor, a Bellman, were incredible. There was one more bellman who I loved too, but can't remember his name. I'm telling you, if you go to Chicago, stay here! It was as nice as the W Hotel and any of the Westins (my favorite hotels - just classy), but they made you feel like family. I just about fell down the first morning after we arrived when they called me "Ms. Ordal". Anyway, here are my mom and Pam with Christopher, the cutest, sweetest man. When we left, he asked if we could put him in our suitcase. So sweet. Below that - our beautiful room and bathroom. Bathroom - look at that wallpaper. It was a thing-o-beauty.

FOOD, DRINKS, RESTAURANTS, TABLES, ALL WE DID WAS EAT!!!

At one point, Caver laughed saying: "Every picture we have of us in Chicago is around a table." It's so true. But, it was so FREAKING FUN!!! Anyone who knows the Ordals (and especially the Ordal women) know we love to eat and eat at good restaurants. We are the classic: sitting at one meal and planning the next...So, here is the extensive inventory of our eating extravaganza in Chicago. Really, if someone asks what I did in Chicago, more than going to Oprah, it was lounging or eating. Very little site seeing.

EXHIBIT #1 - c-bAR. arrival night. this is the bar in our hotel. we had a drink and a tasty lobster pomegranate butternut squash spicey soup. i know, sounds crazy. delicious.

(l to r - elaine, annie (childhood friend of sean's family, caver's husband), pam, caver, me, yvette...o.k. , don't caver and i look like twins!?!?! crazy.)

EXHIBIT #2 - top of the john hancock building - 100 stories tall - we were on the 96th floor. we just drank here, but it was something we had to do. it was worth the view. the picture of me is horrific...

the views were pretty when we first got there, but after only about an hour, the rain and overcast day took over and you could not see one single thing from up there.

below are pictures of the views from the 96th floor. the bathroom had one of the best views of the lake and also navy pier - the first picture was actually taken from the women's bathroom. there are two other views from the top of the building following that, of lake michigan. pretty cool.





EXHIBIT #3 - sushi samba - after our drink, we had dinner here. it was quite the place. my goodness. good food, not great, but the ambiance was wonderful - a little over the top, but in all the best ways. i loved the place more than the food. just completely grand. it was japanese brazilian peruvian fusion. we had fun. we tried interesting food. again, us sitting around a table. see a theme here? hmmm..

this is the FABULOUS dining area where we sat. i love the beaded hoop above here. notice our group in the way background of this picture.

this was the edamame presentation.

EXHIBIT #4 - bar louie - after the oprah taping...this little bar (which is apparently a chain restaurant), popped up after EVERYTHING we stopped by, literally, was closed. it had THE best sandwiches and food...really, really good..from the most unexpected place.

EXHIBIT #5 - the c-view rooftop bar. honestly, i just went up to see the view and take a couple of pictures. the rest of the gang hung out there for awhile.

EXHIBIT #6 - gino's east pizza. after the rooftop, yvette and i needed to partake in some chicago-style pizza. conveniently, the famous pizza place was next door to our hotel. honestly, it was good, but i didn't love it. it's apparently well-loved in chi, but the crust was crumbly corn bread. the garlic sticks (bread sticks drizzled with olive oil), though, were worth the trip. amazing. ironically, zach's pizza in berkeley is world's better chicago-style pizza.

i did like the traditional feel of a "real" chi pizza place. i loved the wall-writing and the cool hanging shown here, that tells you to write on the walls:

EXHIBIT #7 - our last day, thursday, was spent doing the tourist thing - finally. we went to navy pier and walked. we ate at the delicious - absolutely delicious - riva's. recommended by christopher and wonderful!! did i say it was delish?? :) surf and turf. fish is one of my faves - next to japanese - love the seafood. loved this place. pretty location on the lake at the pier, good company, winding down and thinking about going home to the kids...life is grand ain't it!?!!

next installment/blog - part II - the tourist in me that doesn't relate to eating. not much, but i'll share what we did.

My Music of the Moment

I'm leaving town for a few days and I haven't posted in a few days. Do you know what that means? Time for another music mix. I love doing these, and they're always something to post when I don't have a lot of other stuff going on. As usual, here's a list of songs with artist. The iMix is below for ease of sampling the songs.

This time, there is such a random mix of stuff - from La Bouche to Mother Love Bone to Ratatat to Led Zeppelin. I love the randomness of it all...it may baffle some of you, but this is how my brain thinks: from one minute to another, I'm totally all over the map.

(Again - as usual, iTunes doesn't have my versions of these songs - no "Fool in the Rain" from the box set, not this version of "Mr. Brown", or any LaBouche.)

Song	Band
Fool In The Rain	Led Zeppelin
Take Your Mama	Scissor Sisters
In My Room	Yaz
Lex	Ratatat
Staring At The Sun	TV On The Radio
Nineteen	Tegan and Sara
Bled White	Elliott Smith
Let This Rest	The Reputation
Fine Young Cannibals	Wolf Parade
Mr Brown	Bob Marley
Be My Lover	La Bouche
I Feel It All	Feist
Hometown Glory	Adele
Chloe Dancer / Crown of Thorns	Mother Love Bone
Teenage Dirtbag	Wheatus
The Difference Between Love and Hell	Sahara Hotnights
Lost Coastlines	Okkervil River
Mockingbirds	Grant Lee Buffalo

I've Been Looking So Long at These Pictures of You That I Almost Believe That They're Real

I can't say enough about this website. Finn and I had the best time creating these.

ASHE:







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FINN:






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ME:

Weird Coincidence

This article is called "Finn's Just-Right World". It seems to have appeared in a children's magazine. Finn's big brother in the story? You guessed it - Ash (different spelling). Isn't that just too weird a coincidence??!?!?

Finn's Just-Right World

I Know a Boy, a Boy Called Party.

Finn had a birthday party today. He had a tiny one on his birthday (9/25), with his cousins. Dennis had to work that night and it was Back to School night, so we had an actual birthday party this evening. It ended up being quite festive. It was just family and Lisa's family. We have a big trip coming up in November (shhhh...) so we aren't doing much as far as big celebrations and lots of gifts. Also, we're thinking every other year for "big" parties is plenty.

Finn wanted a dinosaur cake, so Helen's (Bernhard) made him the best cake. I hate cake and I even like Helen's cakes...It was a white cake with whipped cream frosting. I asked them to put a green dino (T. Rex) on it. That's all I said...well, my goodness, this kid got a whole dinosaur world!! He was so excited for this cake, so I'm glad they made it really cool for him. I had a grand plan of making one...yeah, right.

Caver was in Napa for the weekend, so she called and Sean picked her up during the party. I was so glad she could make it. It's uncanny. Her family often misses my kids' birthday parties, because they're always during either Spring Break or Oregon football game weekends. Caver and I joke that her family just never comes to my kids' birthdays...we sorta plan on it.

It was great to see Grandma Janet and Aunt Holly. The boys hadn't seen them in awhile. Some of the party, the kids were playing video games. Later, they went out and played some football. The best part of football was Caver, Ashe, and Cade vs. Sean, Dennis and Andy. Soooo funny. Ashe and Cade insisted on playing against the three dads, but finally, it was agony to watch them...so, the big guns (Aunt Caver) went in and helped them out. Dennis kicked the ball out - Caver caught it - then Cade and Ashe just stood there. Caver yelled "Block for me, you guys!!" They were no help, those little boys!! Anyway, the game ended when Dennis got injured - he got the hugest contusion on his knee - literally the size of an egg...He is quite athletic, but always seems to be getting injuries.

I think that's his last party this year. Two and a half parties for any one person is enough...and, actually fewer than usual. All done for a couple of months anyway. Cade and Tucker have birthdays in November.