Day 16: Chicago

We'd had periods of rain on this trip. That was to be expected. They'd been brief and didn't affect our plans. They came and went did we. I had no idea that the National Weather Service would issue flash flood warning for downtown Chicago while we were there. That just doesn't happen. And when you have a bunch of outdoor activities planned you're screwed.

Adler's planetarium

Someone got scared when the wave crashed

For months Adler has heard about the Willis Tower. That stop was now out of the question and he was not amused. Not only was it a miserable rainy day but the city was engulfed with fog. You couldn't see the buildings. This meant that even if went up to the 106th floor we would only see grey nothing.

We'd planned on taking a ride in the Cetennial Wheel at Navy Pier. For some inexplicable reason they were doing a software update and it was closed. Wouldn't it be better to schedule maintenance projects like that in the winter when fewer visitors are around?

So I let Adler sleep in since there wasn't a huge rush to get anywhere. I coaxed him out of bed at 9 am for breakfast and more foosball. Then we took a Lyft to the Adler Planetarium. As the car got closer it was evident that a LOT of other families had the same idea of doing something inside on a rainy summer day. The line extended out of the building down the stairs. I quickly went to the website, bought two tickets on my phone and skipped the line and got us into shelter.

Crown Fountain spitting water

If Space Center in Houston was a dud then Adler Planetarium was the exact opposite. They tackled the same content but did so in a far better fashion. All of the exhibits were hands on. Adler and I spent several hours exploring, touching and doing. He was really happy. They had a craft section where kids could select materials to build a "hovercraft" that you placed into an air tube and watched it would fly. He loved it. The only regret was that in my haste of buying tickets I bought seats for the film without knowing that they have a flat screen theater in addition to the curved ceiling. He still enjoyed the movie. We had lunch (Adler ate sushi) inside since it was still raining and then bought him a hat with his name on it. This will probably be the only gift shop that he will ever go that has something with his name on it. We then walked along Lake Michigan as the light rain finally stopped and took in some of the Millennium Park sites like the Buckingham Fountain, Cloud Gate, and Crown Fountain.

Look closely and you may see a fountain amidst all the grey

We went back to our Airbnb for a quick change and then met Mark, another Flavor Studio customer, for dinner at a nearby restaurant called Fat Rice. This was the best meal of the trip so far. The three of  us shared chili roasted peanuts garnished with fried anchovies, bacalhau (salt cod spread) with a small loaf of warm bread, sardine escabeche that you wrapped with nori sheets, and the pork and ginger dumplings. Adler ate and loved everything. I think Mark was pretty impressed about how adventurous this young culinarian was. For an entree we ordered their namesake Arroz Gordo. Similar to paella this rice was topped with a creative fusion blend of protein: curried chicken thighs, char siu pork, linguiça sausage, whole head-on prawns, and a hard-boiled tea egg. The arroz gordo was served with a bottle of mushroom soy sauce and their own bottled ghost pepper sauce that they call Diabo. Mark and I both tried a couple of drops of the Diabo sauce, found it not too spicy and then applied it more liberally onto our plates. That's when the heat came through and I had to order another beer. Mark took us back to our house and we packed things up that night and got ready to make the next turn and start heading west. Next stop Minneapolis...