Choose your Side

In Chicago, folks are passionate about their teams and their choices of food…Cub vs White Sox’s, Bulls, Bears, wet vs. dunked (Italian Beef sandwich), best deep dish pizza cheese, sausage on top, no pepperoni, Vienna Beef hot dogs-mustard and toppings vs. ketchup (never), puffer jacket vs fleece vs leather…you name it— people have strong opinions about their choices and which one is better.  So it is with transportation.  Yes, you can take the “L”-Chicago’s elevated train service…Chicago is part fill and part swamp…kinda like Houston.  You can’t go underground, but you can go up…as is the case of Houston’s Choo of Death to almost no where…only this one goes everywhere…but without Eddie…not a fan.    Cabs vs Lyft vs Uber.  To hear the cabbie, it is a miscarriage of justice to allow Lyft and Uber to operate.  The Chicago Cabbies (along with 4 or 5 other cities cab systems) require the purchase of previously expensive medallions (read previously $500,000 and up-now only $15K) to operate, plus monthly inspections, camera, metered fares with a set rate…the list goes on and on.  Enter free market with Uber and Lyft,  loosely regulated, with supply and demand in play and app driven.    Certain hours, places and weather condition can make your fare go up and down.  Lyft seems to be the preferred brand…one of our taxi drivers explained the reasoning but it was only half in English, because he was so excited/mad/passionate (you pick) to share his knowledge that he would slip back into his native language. We used  some of both for our trips.  We wanted to compare and contrast the two.  There were always taxis lined up in front of the hotel.  So, departing the hotel, we normally took a taxi…medallion carrying, metered fare and a side order of heavily accented condemnation of the politics that allowed Lyft and Uber to side swipe their monopoly.  Returning we normally used Lyft…George was in charge of the app for that.  Eddie was in charge of asking every other minute, “How much longer?”  We all have our assignments.

On the evening of the Pro Palestinian Protest…we had reservations at a Michelin guide mentioned, but not starred (there is about $250 a head difference per star) restaurant at 5:00.  As there were a  number of post protest participants driving up and down Michigan Avenue hanging out of windows and roofs with horns honking and flags flying making traffic a little congested, Ed said let’s take a cab…Well, next up in the hotel queue was a subcompact.  We said “fine”, Eddie went to climb in the front..nope, nope, nope.  The driver had a pile of stuff, to include a prayer rug, on the front seat…gave Eddie a look that said he did not share.  So, the three of us squeezed, and I do mean squeezed, into the backseat.  Old Eddie, would have passed on this taxi and gone to the next, but this Eddie just climbed in.  Then we were told to fasten our seat belts in a pretty passive aggressive way….and we were on a dash camera…look for that video on You Tube….it was pretty comical.  Once fastened in, our taxi driver slipped on his blue lens racing sunglasses.  Did I mention it was overcast and sprinkling rain?  Racing sunglasses,  Call to Prayer music, and heavy muttering…yay!  The buildings and lights flashed before us…kinda like our lives…sometimes on two wheels.  George said it reminded him of a Six Flags ride when he shared a cart with Ed as a child.  He had permanent PTSD from that…so 35 years later, we used a Cab to do the same.  After that, we used Lyft exclusively.  

Sunday was Museum and Aquarium day.  The wonderful buildings that dot the parks and shoreline that were built for the 1933 World Fair.  They have been used for the last 90 years as the home to some of the best museums and exhibits in the country.  The buildings themselves are works of art.  90 years later I marvel at them… I have been able to travel a great number of places…I can only imagine what people thought in 1933 when their world was very small.  George is my resident museum and aquarium geek…when growing up, we would decided in early spring what our vaca would be for the summer.  Lauren would start the convo with “No Museums”…so there was lots of negotiations…she should have been a lawyer as she has the debate gene from her Dad.  It is actually why we started cruising, divide and conquer so both where happy.  Okay, Sunday represents Day 4…and those who read my blog all know what Day Four means…all together, “Eddie needs a Me Day”..day at sea, sick day, day to rest…call it what you will, he is good for three days of intensive walking, touring, shows, but come Day four, he will stay where he is..until cocktail hour and dinner time, then he is good to go.  So, George and I did the Shedd Aquarium and Museum of Science and Industry…The Shedd is this country’s 3rd largest…with the beluga whales the star attraction..yes, they are so cute. The various areas have some familiar aspects…after all there are only so many ways to showcase fish…our personal favorite is the center aquarium tank at the downtown Aquarium restaurant in Houston, or the shark tunnel at Atlantis in the Bahamas …there are some similar styled exhibits here.  Utilizing the property to its best use (read controlled access)  has taken the main entrance and the beautiful brass doors and entry foyer out of the mix.  I know progress is progress, but these century old details are what help makes the Shedd so different.  

The MSI (Museum of Science and Industry) is gig-normeous facility…again from the World’s Fair and 7 miles from the center of town…hello Lyft.  It was a STEM facility early on…and has been recreating itself every since.  The crown jewel is the WWII U boat and the story behind both the U-boat campaign and the Chicagoan Rear Admiral that captured the U Boat and brought it home as a prize.  There are only 4 intact U-boats in the world.  The Brits have one, MSI has one and the others are in Germany….so, it was on our must see list.  George has proved to be quite the WWII buff…funny how that kinda runs in the fam.  

I am putting the finishing touches on this from the comfort of my recliner.  While I love to travel, the comforts of home are sure nice.  Even better when I brought home the cool weather to share with my friends…Happy Halloween!