Jeff Billimek’s Journal

We woke up around 8:30am. Jen urged me to hurry along because we want to get an early start today. We took a shower and packed up.

After getting everything together, we checked out of the hotel and left our bags with the bell desk to retrieve later.

Jen and I took a taxi into downtown to a place called Lou Mitchell’s. It’s a popular breakfast place that Jen wanted to go to. I was worried that there might be a long line given that it’s a holiday weekend. Usually it’s very busy on a Saturday morning. We managed to get seated right away.

As we were shown our table, an employee came by with a basket f doughnut holes and offered me one. I had two. They were very good.

(Jen at breakfast)

I had the Belgium waffles for breakfast while Jen had an omelet with some great tasting potatoes. She shared the potatoes with me.

After breakfast, as we were paying, we decided to buy a large cookie to have later today.

It was nice to spend this time together today. We walked about ten blocks down to the Art Institute of Chicago. Jen bought tickets and I had to check my backpack.

We went through the museum at a very fast-pace. I was looking forward to seeing the Seurat exhibit (specifically the one from ‘Ferris Bueler’s Day Off‘).

When we went to the impressionists exhibit, I got to see one of my favorite Renoir paintings:

(Two Girls on the Terrace)

One of the other memorable parts of the museum was the weapons & armor exhibits as well as the miniatures exhibits. Jen and I saw a two-handed sword. I never realized those were so large. It was about ten-feet long and the crossbars on the hilt were about 3.5 feet long. It was such a huge weapon!

The miniatures exhibit was cool because a few dozen ‘models’ were represented. Every model was of a different ‘room’ inside different buildings from different periods of time. Some of them were grand halls from France while others were places like kitchens in early America. It was pretty cool to see all of the intricate detail.

In total, we spent about three of four hours at the museum. Afterwards we walked a few blocks down the street to a pizza place where Scott and Katie planned on meeting us for lunch.

(Jen in front of the museum)

It was mostly empty when they seated us. We ordered some water and an appetizer while we waited. Scott and Katie arrived after a short while. We talked and ate the appetizer.

For lunch we ordered a Chicago-style stuffed pizza. It took a long time to get but once we had it, the wait was well worth it. The pizza is made like a real pie with the sauce on top instead of cheese. It was really good.

When we left, Scott and Katie offered to give Jen and I a lift back to the hotel. They parked nearby in the underground parking lot area. Apparently in downtown Chicago the underground area is filled with parking garages instead of subways. It’s pretty cool.

They dropped us off in the ghetto at the hotel and we got our bags and went to the car. It cost $23 to park there since last night. Chicago is expensive.

We followed Jen’s directions and drove into the suburbs to her cousin’s (Heather) house in Carole Stream. Jen’s Dad’s side of the family is having a Fourth of July gathering.

In total, there were about twenty people in the large house. It was nice to meet everyone and I’m terrible with names so the only person whose name I remember was someone else named Jeff.

They convinced Scott to do a kung fu demonstration for the kids in the back yard. I think he was a bit embarrassed to do that. Heather’s husband (who was also hosting the party) had some special ‘overproof’ Rum which he got as a gift from Jamaica. He challenged anyone to have a shot because it’s so potent. A few people had shots and it was pretty funny to see their reactions.

Jen and I left the house around 7pm. Scott and Katie followed us in their car. We followed Jen’s directions to go to Sycamore, IL which is deep in the farm country. Scott and Katie somehow got lost following us. Jen talked them through the rest of the directions.

Our hotel was a budget-looking place called AmeriHost. They messed up Jen’s reservations but we got everything straightened out. The room was freezing cold because the air conditioner had been set to the coldest temp, so we fixed that.

We were planning on going out with Scott and Katie to see Spider Man 2. I was pretty excited about this. However, Jen’s cousin Kevin called us up and dissuaded us from seeing the movie. Instead we were going to go out with him and others to a bar.

He came by the hotel in a large van and picked us up. He took us into ‘downtown’ Sycamore to a biker bar with lots of motorcycles out front.

Inside was country music playing and NASCAR on all of the TV’s. It was an interesting experience. We all made our way to the back and had some drinks. Jen and I were pretty tired so we didn’t have such a great time but we were stuck there.

We finally left around 1am and went straight to bed.