Culture Overload

Yesterday I decided to take the kid to the Field Museum.  She'd never been there and I can get us both in for free with my work ID.  We took the train into the city.  Our plan was to do the museum and then try a new restaurant in Greektown.  I've never been to Greektown other than driving through it when I lived on the South side in a past life.

First, let me just say, going to the Field Museum is my idea of hell.  Okay, well going to any museum is pretty much my idea of hell.  I've never enjoyed them.  I don't know why, I just find them boring and creepy and wierd....boring being the big one.  I went to the Field Museum last year or the year before with a friend and that fulfilled me for at least the next 10 years.  But then I'm plagued by the guilty side to parenting that wants to give the kid every opportunity possible and do cool things with her, and it was free...so how could that not be a good idea?  IT WAS TORTURE!!! (for me!)  We spent FIVE AND A HALF HOURS in the museum!!! 

I thought it would be fun for the kid to take an extra camera I have and let her take her own pictures of the city, the museum, etc.  In the museum she literally took a picture of EVERYTHING.  I'm not kidding, she has pictures of dead squirrels, ducks beaks, eggs, mummies, statues, every bone in the place, etc.  I haven't looked at her memory card yet, but there has to be AT LEAST 500 photos on it, hence the reason why we were there for so long.  And she seemed to have suddenly turned photographer because she'd look at the photo afterward and go, "Oh, I didn't get it all right."  And then reposition herself to take another one.  I'm telling you, this could very well be a good way to torture prisoners!!!!

All in all though, the kid thought this was the most awesome place in the world.  She was funny, we were looking at a beaver and she goes, "Sweet chuckles, he's huge!"  Where does she come up with these sayings???  I'm glad she had a really fun time and did enjoy it.  I'm hoping this experience lasts her at least 10 more years and her curiosity isn't peaked to go back any time soon.  Lord knows she has enough pictures to remember the museum.


Next we hopped on some city buses to go to Greektown.  I knew the general vicinity of Greektown, like I said I had driven through it years ago.  Well, I either didn't realize then how run down and um, nasty the place was back then or it has just become that way. 

We ate at this restaurant called The Parthenon.  It was in a magazine I read listed as one of the two places that serves Saganaki.  They pour Brandy over this cheese and then light in on fire right at your table and yell "Opa!"  The kid got the biggest kick out of this.  We ordered three appetizers, the Saganaki, Pan Fried Zucchini with a mashed potato/garlic spread (mostly garlic) and Feta Cheese with a tomato and vegetable sauce.  Since the kid got such a kick out of "Opa!" everytime a new appetizer was served she'd say, "Opa!"  and make these jazz hands.  Everything was very good except for the feta cheese dish.  The cheese was excellent but neither of us cared for the sauce.  It had olives in it and we both detest olives.  It also tasted like it may have had anchovie in it (Yuck!).  I took it home though and ate it for breakfast this morning and it tasted a little bit better.  I also scraped the sauce off the cheese, so no wonder.  The saganaki was very good.  It had a distinct flavor, I think it may have been the brandy.  The zucchini was very lightly breaded and pan fried.  They came out piping hot and the spread was very good.  I wasn't sure what it was except that it was very garlicky.  I asked the waitor what it was and he explained to me that it was mashed potatoes and garlic mixed together.  The Greeks eat this with vegetables and fish.  The spread is served cold and it's not the same texture as our type mashed potatoes.  It was sort of a more grainy but smooth texture.  I would have never guessed it was mashed potatoes.

I really wanted to take a picture of the food and the cheese when they lit it on fire, however this restaurant was a bit more upscale than I thought it would be, so it wouldn't have really been appropriate to whip out the camera like a big, fat, obvious tourist.  

After eating we decided to make our way to Michigan Avenue before heading home.  We were on a postcard hunt for some Chicago postcards for postcrossing.  We had to head North to catch the right bus to get back to the El.  Whoops, that was a little bit of a not so good area.  We walked around the corner and there is this drunk guy and he goes, "Hey baby.  You want some of this, come here hot stuff!"  And the kid looks at me and says, "What does he want by 'some of this'?"  Uh.....I just told her to ignore him because he was drunk.  The guy had two bottles of whiskey he was chugging from.  We ended up standing right in front of a store window just in case he decided to do something.  I figured we would be able to duck into the store. 

Then the bus came.  Boy, was that interesting.  The kid and I ended up being the only white people on the bus until we got to the city center.  Everyone kind of just stared at us when we got on, but oh well.  They probably just figured we were dumb tourists.  (I may not be the brightest when we travel places.  If I want to go somewhere or do something I go, I don't care if we are the only one of a color or culture there.  I just want to see things and experience everything.  You should have seen me in South America or even NYC last year.)  Anyway, the bus was packed, but we managed to get two seats across the aisle from each other.  Then the girl I was sitting next to starts having a seizure on the bus!!!!  Freaked me right the heck out.  All I could think of was, "Am I supposed to grab her tongue so she doesn't choke?"  All of her things flew to the floor and she's jerking around.  Then she came out of it and starts screaming, "I'm okay, I'm okay."  I had picked up her bags for her and gave them to her.  I didn't know what else to do at that point, but I was really anxious to get off the bus! 


We passed Garrett's popcorn.  The place that is supposed to be famous and have the best popcorn.  The kid is a popcorn addict and wanted to go inside to look.  I'm a sucker too because I let her get a small popcorn.  She chose Cheese.  OMG!  I see why it is famous.  It was absolutly delicious!!!  I really have never tasted popcorn like that.  Maybe it was worth the $3.95 I shelled out?  At least we can now say we've experienced Garrett's and it made us both happy.

After Garrett's we made our way down Michigan Ave. for postcard shopping.  We both ended up with 5 each.  What happened to postcards being 10 for $1 or at least 4 for $1.00?  The cheapest we found were $0.40 each. 

Finally we began our trek home on the train.  We actually did not open our front door until 9:00pm!  (Did I mention we left our house at 8:30 am yesterday!?!?!)

The kid was begging on our way home just to be able to go to bed and shower in the morning, but needless to say, the minute the front door cracked open she got her second wind.  All because....

I received another postcard.  This time from Croatia. I also checked and finally the postcard I sent to China arrived after 25 days travelling. Did the postman swim across the ocean to deliver it? Maybe the boat it was on was highjacked off the coast of Somalia and the pirates decided my mail wasn't all that interesting and released it?

Anyway, we both got on the internet and decided to send out two more postcards each for postcrossing.  Of course, we had to use our new Chicago postcards instead of the Marvel ones I have.  She sent one to Canada and England.  I sent one to San Jose, CA and Lithuania.  It's like we're now addicts.  Hi, My name is XXX and this is my kid.  We are postcrossing addicts.  It has become our drug.  We get a high when we check the mail...

We both finally made it to bed then at 10:30.  What a day!

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Today we're going to go glow-in-the-dark mini-golfing and head to the post office.  I've got to get more stamps for the postcards.  I hope we get some more in the mail today!  Or at least I really hope the kid gets one. 

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Today I am grateful for the time I have with my daughter, vacation time, and sleeping in.