In the meantime we decided to rent a car and snoop around a little. Our first day with wheels we found a little restaurant called The Shanty (http://www.theshantyrestaurant.com/) which had been featured on the Food Channel's "Diner's, Drive In's, and Dive's" a couple years ago.
We started out with the whiskey shrimp appetizer followed by a great burger.
Not the kind of place that requires a jacket and tie it is truly a little slice of Americana at it's best.
Continuing our big outing, we drove down to Gurnee and the Gurnee Mills Mall. The mall in my estimation was a disappointment being largely an outlet style mall with all kinds of goods that didn't sell the first time around. The bright spot for even Pam was the Bass Pro Shop store located at one end of the complex. Unfortunately I wasn't able to convince her to buy any cammo undergarments. She did find a pair of shoes though! Who'd a thunk it?
We did have a bit of excitement when I discovered a screw sticking out of the front tire on our rental. A call to Enterprise and they directed us to one of their facilities a mile away which just happened to be next to a tire repair shop. A half hour later we were back in business and on our way to Wally World for supplies.
On our drive back to the marina we stopped again at the Shanty. Not to eat, but to buy some fresh fish at the fish market next door. By now both places were busy with people waiting in line. We arrived back at the marina and fought the wind as we pushed our two full dock carts 32 slips out to Tourist.
Thursday and the wind is still howling. Once again we jump into our rental and head to Chicago. First stop is the Wendella Boat dock on the Chicago River. We bought tickets for the 1:30 cruise and found seats on the top deck remembering to be careful to keep an eye up for Dave Matthew's Bus as we go under bridges.
Some years back I was able to bring our own boat right through downtown Chicago. Unfortunately Tourist is a few inches too tall to fit under some of the bridges which will require us to take an alternate route further south. The Wendella cruise was a nice substitute.
The boat cruise finished just before it started to rain. Good timing! We found our car and headed north to find nephew Michael's apartment just above Wrigley Field. A new experience for a small town guy he seems to be right at home in the city. After seeing and hearing about his new life and surrounding we took off for dinner. Back downtown to Sullivan's Steak House (http://www.sullivansteakhouse.com/). We arrived early but were able to be seated. The food and service were excellent. Michael devoured his fillet like it was his first real meal in two weeks. Come to think of it, it probably was!
We enjoyed spending time with Michael and witness his excitement about this chapter of his life. All too soon we were dropping him off and heading back to Tourist. We arrived back in time to watch the Packers hold on to beat the Saints! Go Pack!
I'll close with these words of wisdom I stumbled across the other day. "Never Take a sleeping pill and a laxative at the same time!"
Truer words were never spoken.
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