Strom Travel Diaries

Day 3 – Sunday, December 19, 2021

We woke up fairly early—around 6:45 or so. Breakfast was supposed to be served beginning about 6:30, so we went ahead and got dressed so we could head up to breakfast at about 7. We saw Carla on our way upstairs (yes! This was a two-story train!) and got our breakfast in the dining car while we sat looking out still-dark windows and watching things slowly get lighter. We wandered back downstairs to our room around 8 and Carla had already put up our bunks. We sat for a bit, just watching the scenery go by, before doing a little packing. The time must’ve changed at some point, but we really didn’t notice! As we neared Chicago, we were making more frequent stops in order to let freight traffic cross. I also began noticing the buildings and houses becoming more urbanized and very Chicago-like… We ended up being about two hours late getting in to Union Station, but it was still just a little after 10 a.m. We were able to collect our checked bag and get a Lyft to the hotel.

Dear reader, let me tell you. This hotel was fancy. We were staying at the Palmer House, yes, that same Palmer House that invented the brownie, and we were not prepared for how big and fabulous it would be! We finally found our way to the reception desk on the second floor, where we were quickly told that no rooms were ready (no surprise there, really) and to leave our bags with the bell desk. So we schlepped our stuff back down to the bell desk on the first floor, divested ourselves of everything except the bare necessities, and set out to the closest hop-on/hop-off stop, which was about two blocks away in Millennium Park (noting on the way that there was another Corner Bakery next to the hotel where we could use the coupon from our visit to the one in D.C.!).

We didn’t have to wait long for the Big Bus to appear (it was also two stories), and the driver let us on with just a quick glance at our voucher. Armed with our new earbuds, we decided to sit in the downstairs portion of the bus because the Windy City was living up to its name. We sat and watched as the Art Institute, Soldier Field, Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, Adler Planetarium, Grant Park, Navy Pier, Chicago River, Tribune Tower, Water Tower, and Pump House all went by. As we neared the food district stop, we decided to hop off and get a little lunch.

The decision was pretty easy as far as where to eat since the stop was just across the street from Portillo’s, where Mom could get a Chicago-style hot dog and I could get an Italian beef sandwich with extra gravy. Of course, we also got crinkly fries, because who are we to deny ourselves some crinkly fries? The restaurant was a two-story building, filled with all kinds of vintage (or at least vintage-looking) decorations, amongst which were many signed and unsigned photos of celebrities who had come to dine and met the owner. I was particularly amused by the “Mike and Molly” promo sheet that both Melissa McCarthy and Billy Gardell had signed. She loved the food, but he LOVED the food!

We left after about an hour and saw another bus pulling up just as we were crossing the street to the hop-on/hop-off stop. Lucky. We decided to make one more full loop, then a partial loop back to our original stop so we could finally go check in at the hotel. This particular bus company apparently has a policy to have everyone switch to a new bus at stop #1, so we were only on the second bus for a brief time before switching to a new bus for our full loop. This time I decided to brave the top deck in order to get some photos. The top deck on this bus had a protective cover over the front half, which was a great windbreak, but not so great for photos. So after a few minutes, I decided to move all the way to the back—no plastic barrier to blur my shots and I could scoot from one side to the other, depending on where the action was happening. It always seemed that as soon as my seat got a little warm, I’d have to scoot to the other side to get photos of something else! I also have to make a special mention of the absolutely terrible audio commentary. This company had hired three voice actors to give what was supposed to be a fun, informative tour, but most of the time ended up being eye-rollingly silly, if not downright facetious.

Once done with the full loop, we changed buses again at stop #1—I stayed up top long enough to get some photos of the Muddy Waters mural before hightailing it back downstairs—and stayed just long enough to get back to our stop at Millennium Park. Fortunately, this also got us an off-hand remark as to the best deep-dish place: Giordano’s. We walked back to the hotel, Mom still limping because she hadn’t had a chance to change her shoes yet, and went to check in. We very nearly didn’t get to check in, because despite our contacting the Amtrak rep the night before and being assured it would be taken care of, no one had called the hotel to inform them that we would be checking in a day late, so they had us down as no-shows. *insert massive eye-roll* Fortunately, the guy at reception was able to get us into a double room for the night. We went and collected our bags and got them up to the ninth floor. One of my favorite things about this hotel ended up being the photos on the walls between rooms. They had what seemed to be an endless collection of photos of different celebrities who had performed there in the halcyon days of old. So I would walk ahead and cover the name of the person and make Mom guess who it was. Some were easier than others! Frank Sinatra, Jerry Lewis, and Gordan MacRae were some of the “gimmes” while others gave her a bit of a pause or elicited a “That’s so-and-so?!”

We stayed in the room for a little while, but I knew that the pizza place would probably be crowded and we’d want to get there with enough time to spare for any wait for a table. I had checked the map and found two Giordano’s(es?) about equidistant from the hotel, but happened to notice that one of them wasn’t doing indoor dining. I chose the other. Since Mom had been able to change her shoes at this point, we figured the walk wouldn’t kill us. We got to the restaurant a little after 6 and there was already about a 20-minute wait for a table. We were able to go ahead and pre-order our pizza (a Chicago-style deep dish with pepperoni, onions, mushrooms, and green peppers) since it would take a while. We ended up being very glad we had done so since the wait for the pizza itself turned out to be 90 minutes, our stomachs only slightly appeased by the yummy salad we shared for a starter. I’d say it was worth the wait, though!

We walked back to the hotel to get on with the serious business of repacking our carry-ons with fresh clothes, etc. since the next train trip would be a two-nighter. And once again, we were both pretty pooped by about 10!