Listing Through Life

We went here in on a date, about 10 months before we were married. We hadn’t been back since — until our July 1 trip to Chicago.

It’s just as we remembered it, a small dark room on the lower floor of an old brick building a block west of Lincoln Park. Thirty years ago we sat in one of those booths on the right.

The place doesn’t serve traditional pizza — they serve a pizza pot pie — think pizza stew in a bread bowl. And think delicious.

It’s baked in a bowl with the bread on top, then flipped over by the waiter at the table.

It was awesome — and I wish I’d ordered the one-pounder. My niece and nephew both said it was the highlight of their day.

After touring the zoo, we took a stroll through the Lincoln Park Conservatory. The greenhouse was built in 1895 to display exotic plants and to grow plants for the Chicago Park District.

My niece and nephew came up for a visit. On July 1, we headed to Chicago and spent a day in and around Lincoln Park. Of course, we did the zoo, and of course, it rained.

The animals put on a pretty good show.

And a good time was had by all.

We stopped at the Landmark Cafe, mostly because it looked cool and was built in 1899. My daughter stood in line for 20 minutes to buy Dippin’ Dots.

My niece and nephew came to town for a 10-day visit. On the last Saturday in June, my daughter and I took them to Crystal Lake to see the 25th America’s Cardboard Cup Regatta. Maybe 50 boats were entered in various design and racing categories — all constructed with cardboard and duct tape. The course ran along the shore from one end of the public beach to the other.

It was hot and muggy. We spent most of the time in a sliver of shade along a building where we had a pretty good view of the crowd and the races. When the shade disappeared, we left, even though the regatta wasn’t over.

This “boat” was designed like the house in the Pixar movie, Up. It won second place for design and first place for “most spectacular sinking.” We saw that moment. Seconds after the race began, the entire house blew off the base.