Chicago, day three

I started my third day in Chicago with a bike ride.  The day began much cooler than Monday, with a breeze coming in off Lake Michigan and with fog shrouding parts of the downtown area where we are staying.  I rented a bike from the Bike Chicago stand on the Riverwalk by our hotel and, with the help of a map of biking routes supplied by the rental agent, proceeded to bike north on the bike path along Lake Shore Drive toward the Navy Pier.  Crossing the river was an adventure, with bikers, walkers, and runners all vying for space on a fairly narrow path on the bridge across.  But I made it with no incidents to report, and soon found myself in the touristy wonderland of the Pier.  I hopped off the bike, dutifully locked it in place in a bike rack at the entrance, and proceeded to walk down the pier and back.  Not much to say about it.  It reminded me of the Circle at Atlantic Beach back in NC...  just a bunch of touristy shops and junk food places, with touristy types taking boat tours and wandering up and down, like me, taking pictures of the fog and the gulls.  It wasn't long before I became bored with the scene and hopped back on the bike to head north.

An interesting ride along the lakefront north of the pier.  Lots of folks out walking and biking on the lakefront trail, which is an amazing thing which I believe Charleston needs.  I passed nice beaches packed with people trying to keep cool in Chicago's record heat.  But the fog was still around, and the breeze from the lake was refreshing.  I saw what appeared to be an endurance swim event, but may have just been regular Chicagoans doing some distance swimming in the lake, parallelling the bikeway.  By the time I got to Oak Street Beach and took a water break, I figured it was time to head back south...  my map ended there, with pointers north to Northwestern University. 

So I retraced my path back past the Navy Pier and headed south toward the museums that I had visited the day before.  It was a nice ride, and when I got to the Field Museum, I decided to continue on.  What the hell... I had the bike til 2, and it was only 11:30 or so.  So I went further south along the lakefront, past the Shedd Aquarium and Soldier Field, and kept going down to the Hyde Park area.  I needed to stop for a toilet break, and at that point the old legs were starting to feel it, so I turned around and headed back.  Nothing worth mentioning happened on either leg of this round trip, except that I really enjoyed the ride.  By the time I returned to the Riverwalk, it was only 12:30 or so, but my rear end and my legs told me it was time to turn the bike in. 

I met Susan in the room for a bit.  She had brought me up a sandwich from the conference lunch, so after I cooled off and she returned to work, I had lunch and relaxed for a while.  Then Susan came back to finish up her presentation for Wednesday, and we both stayed in the room until time to get ready for dinner.

As I said, we were excited about going to Frontera Grill.  We had watched Rick Balyess on some of his PBS cooking shows, and his food always appealed to us.  So after dressing up, we headed out for the walk down to North Clark Street.  There was a big line at the door, but we had reservations and, after having to worm our way in to the front desk, we were checked in and seated promptly.  We ordered a bottle of wine, and I chose to have a Mexican mojito with tequila instead of rum.  Nice tasty cocktail, and the wine was a good one.  It was fairly dark where we were seated, and there was a fan right above us, so Susan was chilly most of the evening and wrapped her scarf around her to stay warm.

So It came time to order our dinner.  We opted for guacamole and chips as an appetizer.

It was good, as were the chips and the hot and mild salsa.  Our appeties were whetted for more.  Susan, on the recommendation of our server, chose Camarones a la Mexicana, listed in the menu as garlicky grilled fresh Florida shrimp, seared summer tomato salsa, roasted poblano rajas, black beans, peashoots, lime. (Photo from the menu)

I chose, on the recommendation of the diners beside us, Tacos al Carbon, wood-grilled pork sliced & served with roasted pepper rajas, two salsas, frijoles charros, guacamole & homemade tortillas. 

Unfortunately, the shrimp were especially spicy, and Susan didn't enjoy them to their fullest.  I sampled 3 or 4 of them, and they were indeed spicy hot.  My tacos were very good, enhanced by the bottle of Bayless's own hot sauce on the table.  The hot freshly made tortillas (in the little red dish above) were probably the best taste of the night.  You could smell and taste the masa, and I could just imagine the little old Mexican woman in the back patting them out by hand and cooking them on a hot rock by the fire.

So all in all, I was a bit disappointed.  We had a much better time eating at Publican.  That is a newer, edgier restaurant, more like the food we've grown to love from our association with our daughter-chef Maya.  Frontera offered good, solid Mexican fare in a well-established, old-style restaurant.  The food was good, but not all that remarkable, save the tortillas, which were, as our neighbors at the next table told us, "to die for".  But now we can say that we ate at Frontera in Chicago.  Kinda like saying you've eaten at Tony's Sanitary Fish Market and Restaurant in Morehead City, NC.  If you're a visitor, it's something you do.  But let me say this...  I am NOT trying to dis Frontera... the food at Frontera was good, and if we hadn't had such a great night at Pelican the night before, I probably would have been more satisfied with Frontera.  At any rate, Frontera's food is highly superior to what I remember of the food at the Sanitary!

After dinner, Susan and I walked back to the hotel and tried to get into the Big Bar for an after-dinner drink.  It was jammed, so we just got a couple glasses of wine and headed back up to the room to find something to watch on TV.  That turned out to be a bust, as there was nothing on that we cared to see. We ended up watching Joye Bahar and Nancy Grace discussing Casey Anthony.  And the irony is that it was the best thing on!

So... next is a night of heavy hors d'oeuvres at the Shedd Aquarium.  It's the reception for Susan's conference.  Then we fly out of Chicago and return home on Thursday. 

All in all, it has been a fun visit to Chicago so far.

Night Two, Chicago

Well,  Susan and I arrived in the Windy City yesterday morning after an uneventful flight from Charleston via Charlotte.  And we've been eating, of course!  We are staying at the Hyatt Regency downtown, and we are right across the street from the Chicago River.  So yesterday after check-in we decided to explore the Riverwalk.  We walked out to the marina just off Lake Michigan, and let me tell you, it was HOT!  So after investigating the lake and taking a few photos, we came back along the Riverwalk and stopped at a little outdoor restaurant, Cyrano's Wine Bar.  Decent place to eat, and the atmosphere was wonderful...  right on the river, with folks traveling by on their boats and with the water taxis and river tour boats crusing by.  Susan had a vegetarian omelet and I had a burger.  The food was good, and we were able to relax a little bit.  So a bit later we went exploring and ran across the new statue of Marilyn Monroe outside the Chicago Tribune building. 

And then we discovered a place called The Purple Pig and decided to have dinner there.  I just can't remember everything we got, but the food and wine were excellent.  I had chicken thigh kabobs with fried smashed potatoes and tzatziki sauce.  Excellent.

So today, while Susan was in meetings all day, I walked down the lakefront to the Field Museum of Natural History and spent most of the day there going through the exhibits.  It's a huge place, and well worth a visit if you're in the area.  After walking back to the Riverwalk, I hit Cyrano's again, this time for a Chicago-style hot dog. 

Tasty, but nothing spectacular.  The service on Monday wasn't nearly as good, and that kinda ruined the lunch for me.

So, after Susan got out of her meetings, we decided to hike over to the Fulton Market area, a walk of about a mile and a half, to check out Publican.  Daughter Maya had said we should try Blackbird in Fulton Market, but that was beyond our budget.  Publican is Blackbird's sister restaurant, and we were pleased with the offerings.  The plates are meant to be shared, so we decided to have two vegetable plates and two fish plates, along with a bottle of Picras Negras, an organic Torrontes from Argentina.Very nice wine.   

We started the meal with a Market Salad. 

Nice selection of greens with pecorino cheese, faro, quinoa, and raspberries.  Very tasty.  We then sampled the fried walleye with arugula, fried onions, fried cauliflower, and believe it or not, fried lemon!  All on a coarse mustard sauce.  Wonderful blend of tastes.

Next plate out was soft-shelled crab from Maryland. 

Not the best... there was a bit too much flour taste in on the crab.  The English pea puree was very tasty, and the sauteed onion added a nice zest to the dish.

The last plate we sampled was a salad of trumpet mushrooms from California and summer squash. 

The 'shrooms and veggies were served in thin slices with a vinaigrette which had a little too much freshly ground pepper.  But the blend of flavors was superb, and the fungi were extremely tender and very, very good. 

We were taking pictures all through the meal.  The place was very energetic, and the sound level was sometimes near deafening. 

dining area

kitchen

However, the food was well worth the hike in the record Chicago heat.  Our sever, Matt, comped us with a couple after-dinner "digestifs"...  Susan received a creamy limoncello, and I got something I can only describe as highly complex, delicious, and extremely alcoholic!

Tomorrow night we're off on another hike to Rick Bayless's Frontera Grill.  Can't wait!!

Jeez, I love good food.  And I love sharing it with my favorite dining partner and my partner in life, Susan.  We have such great fun together!

Santi's in Charleston

Just got in from dinner at Santi's Restaurante Mexicano in Charleston.  Had cactus and pork...  very spicy, but good stuff.  Sweated out the two Dos Equis I had. A bit cooler now that I'm home.  I love Charleston....  great places to eat!

Genealogy, Spoleto, and Way Too Hot!

Hope all is well with everyone.  It has been a hot, hot, hot week in the SC Lowcountry.  Temps have consistently reached the mid-90s all week, and there was less than a quarter inch of rain in Charleston during the month of May.  Officially the second driest May on record in Charleston.  We're struggling to keep the garden going, and it is costing us a fortune in water bills.  But we also have three extra residents now.  Both daughters are with us now, as is Susan's mother and her dog.  So we have a full house, bursting at the seams with miscellaneous stuff from 4 different households, all trying to find a place to settle.  We're continuing to battle the Town of James Island, which has turned down our request for a zoning variance to build Susan's mom a private cottage in our back yard.  We can attach anything to our house, but we cannot build any free-standing second dwelling.  It really sucks, because the first time we approached them (with a different administration, of course) they told us there was no problem with our request.  Things change when a new mayor and his new folks come into power.  Our builder has a meeting this morning with the town powers to see exactly what we can and cannot do.  We'll see how it all turns out....

I'll be hitting the road around lunchtime today to head up to NC to visit with my mom tomorrow.  Its a 4-hour-or-so drive.  Should be uneventful.

We've been immersed in the annual Spoleto Arts Festival for the past week.  The festival is 17 days of culture all over Charleston, with events happening throughout the day and night encompassing visual art, drama, music, opera, dance, and on and on.  It has been wonderful so far.  We've attended 3 of the major events, and a couple of the events for Piccolo Spoleto, a smaller and cheaper version of the biggie.  Last night we went to see a "newgrass" musician, Sarah Jarosz, a 20-year old kid from Texas who is a wizard with stringed instruments and with her voice.  She just released her second CD.  The music was wonderful!  And we've seen a production by KneeHigh Theater out of the UK, "The Red Shoes", which is a very dark macabre re-telling of a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale about a girl who becomes obsessed with a pair of red shoes, leading to her eventual refusal of heaven in favor of the shoes.  Just a wonderful production by a great cast.

And I'm continuing my attempt to re-focus my research efforts as I was reminded to do at the NGS Conference a few weeks ago.  I was advised to break everything down into a series of questions to ask, and to attempt to answer each question before moving to the next, documenting the research every step of the way.  So my first question concerns Benjamin Lovelace of Rutherford Co., NC, son of Barton and Lucy Watson (are you really surprised???).  I've been trying track him in the early census records of Rutherford Co.  As many of you know, he's been listed as Lovis, Lawless, and Loveless in those early records.  However, he is absent from the 1820 census, and a fella named Ransom Loveless shows up, and he is not around either before or after 1820 in NC or any of the surrounding states (which is what I'm actually working on documenting).  I have a sneaking suspicion that the census we all see for 1820 has a copying error, and that Benjamin's name was actually mistakenly copied down as Ransom.  The R and B could easily be mistaken for each other, depending on handwriting, and with numerous n's and m's in the name, it is conceivable that the copying error occurred.  So it is my immediate goal to show that Benjamin and Ransom are actually the same person.

And with that, I'm off to the internet to try and take a look at things in the national archives. 

Hope you all have a great Friday!  Work on myour own personal questions, one at a time, and everything will be OK  :-)

Memorial Day, Spoleto in Charleston

Been a busy weekend here in the SC Lowcountry.  We've had a lot of fun with the annual Spoleto Arts Festival here in Charleston, but we started out last Thursday night by attending a non-Spoleto event, a taping of NPR's quiz show "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me", which was great fun.  Friday night we went to see Taylor Mac and his show "Comparison is Violence".  Saturday night was "The Red Shoes", a very macabre telling of the Hans Christian Anderson fairly tale.  Then yesterday we saw "The History of Charleston for Morons", a Piccolo Fringe Festival offering at Theater 99, the local comedy improv venue.  This was the third time I have seen it, and it was just as funny as before.  Next up is Thursday night, when we go to see Sarah Jarosz, and young "newgrass" artist who is playing at the College of Charleston.  Really looking forward to that!

We just got back from walking the Arthur Ravenel Bridge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Ravenel_Jr._Bridge) over the Cooper River from Mount Pleasant to Charleston and back.  Had a good walk, though it was pretty hot.  Mid 80s before 11am.

Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day.  It's back to work tomorrow  :-(

Busy, busy

Wow...  it has been a busy couple of weeks here in the SC Lowcountry.  Last week, the National Genealogical Society held its annual meeting here in Charleston...  well, actually in North Charleston, which is definitely a different place than Charleston!  Anway, I attended the conference and spent a whole week immersed in genealogy.  It was great!  Got to meet and talk to several of the big movers and shakers in the genealogical world, and I sat in on a whole slew of great lectures about methods and sources and ways to further my family history research.  Came home on Saturday evening and jumped right into work.  Unfortunately, though, reality set in on Sunday, with home chores to do, and then Monday it was back to work  :-p  Needless to say, I have not had a spare minute to do much of anything this week.  Genealogy research?  Nope...  no time.

Work has been a bear this week, too.  I have spent the week with an ear infection, complete with stopped up ear and excruciating pain.  Haven't had one so bad since I was in high school with swimmers ear.  And I've spent the week working on samples of human liver.  Bossman is putting in a new grant proposal, and he needed work done on liver samples.  So this week I have done more immunohistochemistry, looking for aldehydes in sections of liver tissue.  And today I took my first stab at running an ELISA assay (ELISA = Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay).  I think it worked, but I didn't have time this evening to plot out the results.  Gotta wait til tomorrow on that. 

So, wow...   I'm actually becoming a cell biologist in my old age!

Just finished watching the season finale of "The Big Bang Theory".  Nerds watching nerds acting nerdy....   go figger....

Have a good one!

Another thing I like is fine food and cooking and eating such!  Here's a grilled dinner I put together for tonight.  Red grouper, portobello mushrooms, fresh asparagus, and chopped red cabbage cole slaw.



One of my passions

I guess the best way to kick this thing off is by starting to expand on the initial post of a couple minutes ago.  I am an avid family historian.  I haven't had a chance to do a lot of research in the past few years, for a bunch of reasons, but I still try to keep my finger in the ol' genealogy pie.  For about 20 years now, I've been the list admin for the Lovelace listserv hosted by Rootsweb, and I have watched as this great group of people have tirelessly unraveled the tangles in the limbs of at least 4 genetically different Lovelace and Loveless families in the US, dating from colonial times to present day.  I used to write a daily morning message to the list, but time has been at a premium for several years now, and I only post these chatty messages once in a while.  One of my listers told me I was one of the original bloggers, since those daily notes were like a blog before blogging became so popular. 

So here's a note I sent out to the list just this morning, and it might give you an insight into some of the things happening in my life. 

Hi, cuzzins!

Hope all is well with you and yours, and that you had a great Mother's
Day weekend. I started off yesterday by cooking a big pancake breakfast
for my wife and my mother-in-law, then calling my Mom to talk to her for
a bit. Then I helped the girls get their surprises together... a trip
to Earth Fare to pick up sandwiches for a picnic lunch, and then a
20-mile drive to Kiawah Island, where we had hoped to get into the
county park and picnic on the beach at Kiawah, which is a gorgeous
undeveloped beachfront mostly reserved for the rich folk. But
Charleston County has a lease on a strip of it, and has a great county
park. Unfortunately for us yesterday, the park was full when we arrived
(then one car out and one car in), and the line was so long that we
opted to turn around and go picnic at a spot by the river. Turned out
to be a great place to lunch, and a great time was had by all.

Weather here in the SC Lowcountry has settled into summertime here in
early May. Humidity is up, and rainfall is down. We're set for the
mid-80s today, and a slight chance of showers through the whole week.
The azaleas have returned to their flower-less state, but they were
beautiful while they lasted. Garden is going full-blast, with peas,
carrots, leeks, lettuces, radishes, and beets. We're counting the days
to our hearing with the zoning board for a variance to allow my
mother-in-law to build a small house on the back part of our yard.
She's been living here with us and with both daughters, and I think
she's starting to go crazy without her own little place. So keep yyour
fingers crossed for us. The hearing is Thursday night.

And I'm really looking forward to the rest of this week. The National
Genealogical Society meeting is here, finally! I have a pre-conference
workshop tomorrow, with two sessions. The first deals with legal
research for genealogists, and deals with interpretation of the
real-life circumstances surrounding the creation of legal documents and
the reasons for their creation, as well as methods for locating the
documents needed in genealogical research. The second session deals
with more in-depth study of documents and how to discover and glean all
the genealogical info from them. Both sessions will offer hands-on
exercises with actual documents, and I think it's going to be a blast!
Then on Wednesday the lectures start, with nine different tracks ranging
from geeky GenTech stuff Immigration and Migration. I'm mostly
attending the Skill Building and Methodolgy & Research sessions. I want
to really get a handle on what it takes to become a professional at this
stuff we so dearly love. So it's going to be a week packed with fun
lectures!

BTW... wife Susan had knee surgery last Thursday morning.... She went
on a ski trip with her mother and sister last February and fell on one
of the runs. Turns out she tore the meniscus in her left knee, which
was revealed week before last by an MRI. So she had arthroscopic
surgery Thursday, and things seem to have worked out really well. She
returned to work today and is taking it easy, but the knee appears to be
healing very well, and she is able to put increasing weight on it
without using a crutch. Can't keep that woman down for long!

So I'll be thinking of everyone as I sit in on the lectures this week
and stroll through the exhibit hall. I know that Bob Velke, the CEO of
Wholly Genes, makers of The Master Genealogist, will be there, and I
hope to get to meet and chat with him at some point. Plus I'm sure
there will be a lot of stuff to look at there, too. Gonna be a blast!

Y'all have a good one :-)

Introduction of sorts

OK...  So this is a brand new step for me.  The question is a valid one, though, at this point in my life.  I'm going to try to share my musings as an ex-wannabe-professional musician, a retired-but-not-really retired-'cause-I-hafta-keep-working scientist, and an amateur family historian and wannabe-professional genealogist.  All in the context of being a family man in the early 21st century.  So stay tuned.  Could be good, could be not so good...but time will tell.