Today was a longish day, so we started early again. We had a 4.5 hour drive to Marblehead, OH, where Kendra wanted to stop and see some sights which had historical/family significance to her Uncle Andy. We stopped to see the lighthouse and then drove to see the house he summer’d at with his family, the park which was donated to the town by his family a long time ago, and stopped for a deli sandwich at Mutach’s, which has been in existence since the early 1900’s. Once back on the road we had an uneventful 4.5 hours to Chicago … until we reached Chicago. It was the first time on our trip when I wished GoogleMaps had an “avoid sketchy neighborhoods” option. I’m sure locals would have directed us differently, but we “just passing through” tourists had no choice but to blindly follow our only guide. By the time we reached the hotel my nerves were a wreck. Kendra didn’t make things any better when she asked if we could take a taxi to a restaurant more than 30 minutes from the hotel into the heart of the city for an “authentic” deep dish pizza. The conversation went something like this:
KENDRA: Can we go into the City for pizza?
ME: NO!
KENDRA [pouting and raising her eyebrows in that puppy dog way]: Please?
ME: We already did something you wanted to do today. Its my turn.
KENDRA: But I really was looking forward to having deep dish pizza tonight!
ME: There’s a TGIFriday’s right next door. They’re in Chicago. We’re in Chicago. I’m sure they have pizza. That’s close enough for me.
KENDRA: Please? I’ll drive!
ME: Isn’t there somewhere closer? Do we have to go all the way into the City?
It was at this point she looked up the place she wanted to have pizza (Lou Malnati’s) and found that they had a location not 15 minutes from the hotel. Whew! We compromised by getting the pizza and a salad takeout and grabbed a couple of beers to take to our room from the TGIFridays. We are enjoying them both and the end of our evening while watching little mindless TV (a/k/a MTV VMA).
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- Kendra on the phone with her Aunt M and Uncle A
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- You can see Seaworld Sandusky from the lighthouse park.
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- I think this is a fossil.
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- This lake is so vast. Other than the smell it could almost be mistaken for an ocean.
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- Waterfront view of Andy’s family’s former summer home.
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- Kendra snuck this picture through the bushes. Shhhhhh.
I know the term “sketchy” neighborhoods! I was lost in the Chicago area when Ray worked at Argonne Lab. I ended up in Cicero, an area one DOESN’T want to linger. I was much YOUNGER, no cell phone, no GPS. I finally asked directions and finally arrived at Elmhurst College where we were staying. Enjoy your trip across country.
That’s EXACTLY the neighborhood we drove through! Thank goodness we had more than enough daylight left to get us to the hotel. I can’t imagine how frightened and vulnerable you must have felt and how relieved when you got to your destination. I wish we didn’t have to feel unsafe in any part of our country.