Cafes and walking around in Ukrainian Village, Bucktown, Wicker Park and East Village

Today we spent a lot of time in a few of Chicago's neighborhoods.  First we went to Cafe Ballou and my owner worked for a bit - he also read from Alias Grace for a bit too.  The bathroom there is crazy - there is an actual bath in there.  I took a few minutes to get to know the TP there too, of course.  Embarrassingly, there are pictures.  Then we walked around and you can see some pictures from that (including a squirrel that I thought might jump at me).  We ended up at Filter, a diner/cafe where we had more coffee (we got pretty wired that day) and had a chicken salad sandwich.  The dude next to us smelled a bit and the outlet didn't work for the laptop.  Then we went back to Ukrainian Village where my owner met his friend.  I got put in the car not too long after that, so that's the end of my day.

Overall it was a good day!

Cafe Ballou

Getting to know the help.  Also, want to bathe?

See, it's a public restroom

Cafe Ballou

Killer Squirrel!

Wicker Park / Bucktown

McDonald's casts quite a shadow...

Filter

Coffee in a Chicken Soup mug

Filter

Filter

Chicken Salad

Parking Garage in Rosemont looking at ORD

I decided to break this one and the previous entry into two separate entries.  Partially because we spent time here on what is technically the next day.  And partially because it was a pretty good experience on its own, deserving of its own entry.

The parking lot in Rosemont looks across the Tri-State Tollway right at O'Hare International Airport (ORD).  If you meander up to the top level (that's 7) you can watch planes land right over your head.  It was pretty late at night, so we only saw one (and right as we were getting there, so we couldn't snap a pic).  But it sets up a pretty nice atmosphere.

We had parked on level 6 and took the elevator up to 7

Moon

That's ORD (across the Tri-State)

...and that's me hovering over ORD!

Muvico - Rosemont

Another new cinema, and this time a new company - Muvico.  Tonight we saw American Reunion.  My owner tells me this is a sequel, eh, whatever, I enjoyed it.  Oddly enough, I've seen more R rated films than any other rating, so far (this is my sixth R rated film).  We had to sit in the second row, so we were pretty much looking straight up at the screen.

Movie #8 for Ollie!

Do you like it better without the flash...

...or with it?

So. Close. To the screen.

Maxwell's Hot Dogs - West Dundee

Mmmm, another hot dog.  They're good.  Maxwell's is named after the Maxwell Street Market.  Seeing this is a travel blog and not a history blog, I'll just link you to the Wikipedia page - in case you're interested. (on another note, given the right circumstances I will delve into history on this blog - but seeing I was not actually at Maxwell St., but rather just a place named after it... well, you get it)

Do you see the moon?

A mini-hot dog cart

Maxwell's web site

Wikipedia about Maxwell Street

Starbucks - Northbrook at Skokie & Dundee

This time we brought a sandwich (which we had made at home) and ate it at the table while we drank our coffee.  This particular location had not-so-great parking - at least while we were there.  Thankfully we did snag the last open parking spot.

Starbucks #16 for Ollie - the second one in Northbrook, too.

Do I fit in here?

Starbucks - West Dundee, IL

Starbucks #15 for Ollie!

There were some guys talking about working out - something to do with their job, marketing working out or fitness or something.  There was a family of brothers and sisters, it seemed like it was a special day for one of them.  Not much else to speak of.  Oh it is April Fool's Day - though I didn't get to see any pranks while here.

AMC South Barrington 30

Wow, this cinema has 30 screens.  It also still has some that play 35mm film - my owner liked this, I had never seen anything 35mm before, so it didn't really matter to me.  We saw Casa de mi Padre, which was in Spanish, for the most part.  This is the first time I've seen a movie in the same auditorium number as I'd seen a previous movie (the last movie I saw, 21 Jump Street, was in auditorium 9 as well)

Movie #7 for Ollie!