Elizabeth and Michel Become Blown Glass Artisans

We are on "Spring Break" at work this week, and while the students don't officially have class, we set up some opportunities to keep them involved.  One opportunity was a field trip to Ignite Studios, a really amazing glass blowing gallery and studio in the West Loop of Chicago.  On Thursday, about 15 students, 2 other staff members, Michel, and I rode the Pink Line out to the studio and had our own private group lesson in glass blowing.

 Part of the gallery

 The studio!

I think glass blowing is one of the coolest things ever, and I was beyond excited to try my hand at it.  Our main instructor was Pearl, a talented and highly experienced glass blower who was great with the students.  She started off with an explanation of the art and history of glass blowing, followed by a demonstration of how glass can be formed into art.  She was assisted by Brett and Joe, both experienced and talented as well. 

 Where the poles are heated and the glass is melted.

 Joe demonstrated what happens when you just let molten glass do it's thing.

 (It's orange because it's so hot!)

 And Bret demonstrates what happens when glass is actually blown.

 (It becomes clear as it cools.)

We were able to make either a double-walled bowl or a paper weight, though some students got creative with their paperweight shapes.  One students made a slice of cheese pizza instead.  Michel and I both chose bowls; mine was blue, his was green.

 It's very hot close to the ovens, but we had protective glasses and friends holding boards soaked in water as heat shields if needed.  

 Shaping the glass with wooden bowl constantly soaked in water.

 Joe is creating the separation line where the bowl will detach from the pole.

 My bowl!  

Joe and me with my finished bowl!

Joe was great and really patient.  He also let me do most of the work except for creating the separation line.  Michel worked with Brett who also let him do most of the work.  However, instead of blowing the glass for his bowl, Michel did more of the shaping with the tools, including creating the separation line.  We each got to help other students with their pieces, too.

 Putting on the color--you roll the molten glass in a tray filled with tiny shards of colored glass.  You then put the glass blob back in the oven to let the shards melt, fusing the color to the glass blob.

 Michel's bowl!

Melting the rough edges at the separation point away.

It was such an awesome experience!  I've always admired glass art, and now I can say I've actually made some glass art myself!  That or super awesome ice cream bowls.  Our bowls do hold food and are dishwasher safe!  I highly, highly recommend this experience, and I'm hoping we'll get to do it again sometime. 

Michel and Elizabeth Eat Ice Cream and Explore the Alleys of Andersonville

Memorial Day weekend was busy for us.  Besides our adventures in karaoke, the other thing of note was our afternoon in Andersonville for ice cream on Saturday.  We decided to go because we had another date (through How About We) set up, this one for an ice cream sundae flight at George's Ice Cream and Sweets.

George's Ice Cream opened in 2009 in honor of George Stotis, a local Andersonville legend and proprietor of Chicago Recycle Shop, a vintage furniture and clothing shop that was a favorite hangout for locals.  George was known for his love of conversation, and his dream was to open a coffee shop or restaurant where he could hang out and converse with his friends and customers.  In 2009, his family was able to realize his dream, and George's Ice Cream and Sweets was born.

Michel:  We don't have specific data on this, but George's is probably the biggest ice cream shop in the world.  Nay, the universe.  It takes the generally festive atmosphere of Andersonville and combines it with delicious ice cream.  Wonderful.

Note: Objects may appear larger than they are.

Elizabeth:  We were allowed to pick one sundae from the menu for our first selection.  We chose the Cookie Monster which featured cookie dough ice cream, Oreos, pecans, hot fudge, sprinkles, whipped cream and a cherry on top.  The second one was a special off-menu sundae chosen for us: zanzibar chocolate ice cream with a pretzel cone, caramel sauce, pecans, whipped cream, and a cherry on top.  And the third we built ourselves: peanut butter ice cream with a caramel ribbon and chocolate covered pretzels in it, topped with chocolate sauce, Reese's peanut butter cups, pecans, whipped cream, and...of course, a cherry on top.

Since it was a flight, the individual servings were pretty small, but together they made a perfect afternoon ice cream treat!

And they were delicious.

Michel:  We ate on the back patio, which led us to find what I imagine is Aslan's favorite comic book shop: Alley Cat Comics.  It is accessible only through this patio that feels like a secret world.  I suspect if one tried to find this comic book shop on purpose, it would be a massively frustrating experience.  However, finding it by accident was delightful.

Elizabeth:  The patio itself was accessible only by a door inside George's and the alley on the other side of the store.  It was pretty cool, like something out of Harry Potter.

 The door to George's; the other side is red.

 The alley!

Elizabeth:  We really enjoyed wandering around Andersonville that day.  It had a street festival atmosphere with everyone out enjoying the warm, sunny weather.  Honestly, though, it was hard to beat eating delicious ice cream on a secret patio!

Michel and Elizabeth Sing Some Karaoke

First, I want to welcome Michel back to the blog!  He has been on hiatus while finishing up his semester.

Last weekend was packed full of stuff, and it started off in a most delightfully strange way.  We had been invited to our friend, Brendan's birthday party at a local karaoke bar called Lincoln Karaoke.  Seeing that it wasn't that far from us (on the map, at least) we decided to meet him and the other guests at the karaoke bar for some birthday celebrations.

Let me pause here to note that karaoke appears to be a thing here in Chicago.  Like people have specific karaoke bars that they like to go to.  When I mentioned to my co-workers that I was going karaoke-ing last weekend, many were eager to find out where and share their bar preference with me.  I had no idea that it was such a big thing.  The last karaoke party I went to was in middle school.

Brendan had warned us that the outside of the bar looked like a bail bonds offices, and sure enough we soon found ourselves in front of a rather seedy looking building with glass doors leading into a bare, white hallway.  There was no one inside the doors, no front desk, no reservations agent, nothing.  Only two doors that led to opposite sides of the building.  We chose the door on the right and found ourselves in another bare, white hallway filled with numbered doors.  At the far end appeared to be the actual bar with a few people milling about.  We checked in at the bar, discovered we were the first ones to arrive, and were led to Room 8, where the lady wished us a good time and closed the door behind her. 

Room 8, like all of the rooms, contained plain white walls, each with its own TV showing Korean pop videos.  A long, vinyl couch lined two of the walls, and a coffee table sat in the middle of the room.  Other than that, there wasn't much, except for the handheld microphones, light-up tambourines, and Korean pop music that was clearly not the same as the videos being shown.  It certainly was not what we were expecting.

Michel:  It would take only minor changes to the setup for Lincoln Karaoke to become Lincoln Sex Parlor.  The couches are even vinyl for easy clean up.

 

Elizabeth:  Even the songbooks were in Korean.  It was at this point that we officially figured out that we were at a Korean karaoke bar, distinct from its American counterpart due to it's focus on private rooms for small karaoke parties rather than a stage at the front of a crowded and often already loud bar.  Finally, an older gentleman came to tell us that the rest of our group was actually in Room 2.  We found them joking with the owner (they are all regulars) and selecting their songs. 

Michel:  In addition to Korean, there were song catalogs written in Russian, Mongolian, Spanish, and probably Esperanto (unconfirmed).  By the time we found one in English, we had figured out how to search for songs electronically via the world's largest remote control.

 Brendan serenading us

 Michel singing back-up for Matt

 Us with the birthday boy!

Elizabeth:  Despite all of the weirdness coming in, once everyone was settled in the room and we started singing, it was actually really fun!  And Michel, Brendan, and I did a particularly spectacular three-part version of Queen's Somebody to Love.  It was amazing.

Michel:  While I still feel a certain amount of disdain for the very idea of karaoke, I did have a good time.  One of the most amusing elements of the evening was the fact that the footage on the video monitors did not in any way reflect the songs being sung.  Primarily, the footage consisted of scenic mountain vistas  and sherpas going about their daily business.  However, while we sang the BeeGees classic, Stayin' Alive, the screens featured a naked woman pouring honey all over herself.  It was profoundly strange.\

Elizabeth:  After that we left for the night.  It was certainly a new and unique experience for us, one for the books.  While I don't think we will become regulars, we ended up having a ton of fun.  So if you are in the market for a pretty unique musical experience, we have just the place to take you!

Elizabeth, Michel, Kathleen, and Mark Hunt for Cool Things in Lincoln Park

Though we have not been posting recently, we certainly have been busy.  Michel finished up a very successful semester, I've been really busy at work, and both of our younger siblings graduated from college, meaning a trip home to Texas!  However, we've also continued our stream of visitors with my dear friend and college roommate, Kathleen, and her fiance, Mark, visiting from sunny Phoenix!  We had a wonderful, if quick trip with them, visiting some favorite restaurants, having a delicious dinner at home of Kahlua pork lettuce wraps with jasmine rice and avocado and mango salsa, along with my first ever attempt at fried plantains (pretty good!) and cupcakes for dessert, and hanging out in Lincoln Square.  Plus Kathleen and I got pedicures while Michel and Mark visited Half Acre.  A pretty great 36 hours!

You've probably figured out by now that if you visit us, we will probably take you to Fountainhead, Marmalade, or both.  For those of you lucky enough to visit us between May 1 and whenever it gets cold, we will take you to Fountainhead's rooftop, which was our first stop upon their arrival!  Despite a super long wait (go early for a seat on the rooftop!), rose cava for Kathleen and me and cold beers for the guys started the trip off right!

 Roomies reunited!

After our delicious lunch, we headed off to Lincoln Park to start our scavenger hunt.  You may recall Michel's and my scavenger hunt in River North about a month ago.  We had a great time, and Kathleen and Mark thought a scavenger hunt in the gorgeous Lincoln Park neighborhood sounded like a great way to see a part of the city on such a short trip.  We started at the statue of Abraham Lincoln near the Chicago History Museum.

 We were instructed to pose holding our coats like Lincoln.

The first of many four-person selfies!

The tour took us through the park, past the baseball fields and the original shoreline of Lake Michigan to the Shakespeare garden and the pond on the south side of Lincoln Park Zoo.  

 Apparently the baseball fields are located on one of the first four cemeteries in the city of Chicago.  Michel and Mark were excited to find the marker after we made a wrong turn that sent us all the way around the fields.  Kathleen was sad that the marker was for a cemetery.

 Apparently the shore of Lake Michigan used to be 20 feet higher.  As amazing as that is, we almost missed the tiny marker!

 The Shakespeare garden was gorgeous and blooming and is filled with bits of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18.

 

We then headed to Michael's Landing, a beautiful dock on the pond.  Michel was concerned that they had misspelled his name.

After the park (and narrowly avoiding a small flock of Canadian geese roaming the path), we were directed into the neighborhood.  Much of what our clues pointed to were unusual architectural details on historic buildings, so we only took a few pictures.  But the feel of this part of Lincoln Park was quite distinct from other parts of the neighborhood I had been to.  It felt more Colonial than late 1800's, like so much of the city, and we really enjoyed seeing some of these more unique houses.

 Second four-person selfie!  We are not sure why we were directed to this blue door, but we got a good picture out of it!

 Mark enjoys soccer just like the kids in the window, a part of a historic building in a gorgeous, almost Colonial-style section of the neighborhood.

After a while, we were spit out into a more business-y part of the neighborhood.  It was filled with gorgeous little shops, including two floral shops, historic restaurants, and this adorable little Polish coffee shop, where we stopped for a snack.  I also introduced Kathleen to the Polish version of kolaches, a yummy but rather disappointing little cookie.  Her response: "Oh...that's cute..."  A cookie kolache simply doesn't cut it when you are expecting the wonderful sweet bread filled with fruit or sausage.  But the rest of the snacks did not disappoint!

 

After our snack, we headed into the last leg of our scavenger hunt, focused around the bustling intersection of North and Wells and heading into Old Town.  It was Kentucky Derby Day, and there were a ton of people enjoying the festivities in the many bars.  We, however, started at one of Chicago's most famous institutions, The Second City.  We did not go in for very long, focusing mainly of the "Hall of Fame" room, but seeing a show there is definitely on our Chicago to-do list!

 We were instructed to laugh at the hilarity happening around us.

 Next, we headed to the Old Town Aquarium, a super cool sea-life and aquarium store.  And, of course, everyone had to do fish faces.

On to The Fudge Pot, famous for delicious chocolate and once hosting Tom Cruise!

 Finally, our last stop in Old Town and of the day was The Spice House.  It is a beautiful, antique-looking spice shop, and we enjoyed learning about the history of saffron, even if they did mix up the dates.  That being said, our little spice shop in Lincoln Square, The Savory Spice Shop, is still the best!

It was a really fun afternoon, but we were happy to head back up to our neighborhood to pick up cupcakes and get ready for dinner.  Despite their luggage not arriving until the next day, we had a really wonderful time with dear friends, and we're looking forward to their fall wedding and a visit to Phoenix in the next year!