Chicago Short Tour Finale

sit in a boat tour

I'd always intended to go on an architecture boat tour, since just about every account of things to do in the city includes this somewhere on the list. My initial plan was to do this as soon as possible to give me some context about the city I could use for the rest of the trip. But I made the mistake of not studying the weather forecast before my visit, so I didn't take into account the 90+ degree cloudless sunny weather of the first two days. Once I experienced that, I wasn't too keen on putting myself on the exposed deck of a boat for 90 minutes!

Thankfully the third day provided the first bit of cloud cover I'd seen, so I booked a spot on a 10:00am boat tour. The confirmation email asks you to arrive 30 minutes early to get on the boat, but I figured no one would actually be that punctual. Lo and behold, I found the tour at 9:45am and was one of the last people to show up! Since I was traveling alone, this wasn't really a problem, but most of the consecutive seats on the deck were taken, leaving only a few isolated chairs.

view of the famous corn cobs

Armed with some iced lemonade, the hour and a half passed by surprisingly quickly. Almost as if they'd planned it, the boat drove at a perfect pace that let our guide cover each building we passed with a few sentences. Overall it was a very informative and interesting boat ride, and I'll echo everyone else and say it's worth it! (fyi: the ticket is about $40) Still, I'm glad I picked a cloudier day to go.

I will note that I was surprised by how few people take out their phones to take pictures. Not sure if that's typical or just unique to the group that morning, but there were so few that I even felt a bit out of place recording little segments. Yes, phone-shy people in 2021!

lunch walk

One perk I made extensive use of this trip was the transit card discount that's going on this summer. Until Labor Day, unlimited one-day passes only cost $5, and you can buy them from the machine at any "L" station. These passes work on all the buses and subways! One more small tip: the passes are active for 24 hours, so even though I took transit on 5 separate calendar days, I only used 4 days worth of transit cards.

My destination for lunch was Mogadishu Restaurant, another spot taken from Dining on a Dime. Clearly, Lucas is the most effective advertisement a restaurant can get. I keep falling for his recs!

To get there, I rode the bus from the riverside and then walked a few blocks, taking a little detour to admire the greenery in an urban park.

Washington Square Park (not to be confused with Washington Park)

Even though the Anjera is part of the breakfast menu, I was able to get my hands on it for lunch. The pancake did not disappoint at all; at the risk of not doing it justice, I'd describe the taste as similar to a French crepe, but with a much spongier and springier texture. Pouring tea on top felt strange, but it imparted a spicy fragrance that absorbed into the pancake and pleased my tongue!

food tastes better when you eat with your hands

Aside: A little more explanation on the caption, since the link goes to a page that emphasizes how touching food strengthens your connection to it. But I have my own theory on why hand food tastes better, and it's that metallic or wooden utensils actually detract from the food with their own flavor and texture. The shiny-sweet effect of metal is definitely the stronger offender, but wood also has its own barky-bitter note. Not to mention that they're both about as hard as a rock, which probably clashes with your food! Compared to these, your hands will taste and feel much closer to what you're eating. Oils from your meal naturally infuse into your skin, and that makes every bite (of the food, not your hand) taste even better.

Disclaimer: I'm no food scientist and this is from my own experience, maybe my fingers are just more delicious than average???

houses and gardens

Continuing the architecture theme from the morning, my next stop was Terra Cotta Row in the Belmont neighborhood, another idea taken from Atlas Obscura. While I did enjoy looking at the historical row of houses, what stole the show for me was a little garden filled with bees and butterflies.

they are cute and hard-working!

Before leaving the neighborhood, I spent some time in a nice little coffee shop by the station, watching people and drinking a cayenne pepper latte. Seemingly a weird combo, but it was actually very good, with just a touch of pepper that didn't overpower the coffee. Chef John would be pleased.

Garfield Park Conservatory was next up, a series of greenhouses inhabited by an immense variety of (warm-weather) plants around the world. Admission's free, but they run on donations, so I came in with $10. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip, even though it was very warm. The inside feels much bigger than the outside would suggest, letting you walk through tropical forests, deserts, and even an interesting pre-Carboniferous area filled with ferns and shrubs that showcased how the world might have looked before trees even existed.

I was a bit amused that the desert exhibit's windows were all open, so I guess they didn't even need to control the climate against the ambient Chicago weather.

a turtle seems a bit anachronistic for the era, but I won't complain!

behold the Welwitschia and other cacti big and small

There's also an outdoor area where the carnivorous plants feast on flies. Apparently they emit scents that mimic rotting fruit as bait for the bugs. Adaptations like this make me wonder at how evolution could be so innovative!

After this I took the Green line train back to the loop and called it a day. But the train ride wasn't entirely uneventful: one of the passengers spent the whole time loudly freestyle rapping in the middle of the car. Everyone else pretended to ignore this... is this normal? Each time he seemed to be finished, he just caught his breath and started again, and this continued for more than 10 minutes. The lyrics loaded with gun and violence imagery were a somewhat uncomfortable reminder of the city's darker side.