Summertime ‘22: Chicago (& Michigan City)
Earlier this year Emily and I had to make a decision about our summer travel plans. On one hand, several countries in Asia were finally opening up. We could finally travel around the region like we had planned when we first moved to Thailand. Another promising plan was to go back to North America and spend the majority of Emily’s summer break in Mexico to visit my family. We had originally bought tickets to visit Mexico the summer of 2020 but we all know how that went down.
Considering that my grandparents were going to celebrate their 60th marriage anniversary, and Covid wasn’t a strong influence on travel restrictions, we decided to take a trip to North America for the summer. We knew that in celebration of the anniversary party, a migration of my family from all parts of Mexico and the U.S. would gather in Aguascalientes, the city where my family is from. On top of that, through all the years of dating, Em has never been able to visit Mexico.
Not only did we decide to visit my extended family in Mexico, we also scheduled time with our immediate families and a few close friends in and near Chicago. Then we planned to stop by L.A. on our way out of North America and fly back to Bangkok.
This trip will be broken up to multiple posts starting with Chicago and Michigan City.
Our summer adventure began with the very long journey from Thailand to Chicago. We landed in Chicago in the early evening. I was awake for a total of 36 hours because I am unfortunately incapable of sleeping on airplanes. When we arrived, Chicago was experiencing a record-setting heat wave (aka the norm back in Bangkok). Because of this, traffic, the public transportation, and the frenzied residents were a bit unpredictable.
Case in point, the wires that the South Shore train and the L are connected to apparently do not like heat, so what should have taken an hour almost took three hours. They were slow and very much behind schedule.
After a quick pit stop at Chicago’s finest pizzeria, Sbarro, we had our friends, Cassie and Ross, come pick us up and take us the rest of the way to their house, since we didn’t want to spend several more hours at the train station.
Meet Belle.
We are thankful that Cassie and Ross live close by to Chicago and opened their home to us as our home base for the next week in Michigan City. We decided to meet up with my dad’s family and Emily’s immediate family near Michigan City to keep the additional travel to a minimum.
Also, visiting with Cassie and Ross was a wonderful bonus. We spent the nights catching up and sharing stories. They showed us around Michigan City and took us to some of their favorite local restaurants. Cassie was kind enough to take me to one of my longed for restaurants, Popeye’s.
Best meal of the whole trip.
Emily’s family was up first. We met up with her parents and sister after dinner and then headed to our campsite where we would camp for the next couple of days at the Indiana Dunes National Park. Thankfully her parents had extra camping equipment they provided us and Emily’s sister, Carrie.
We spent the next two days going on short hikes, resting in the hammock, laying on the beach, making homemade meals like shish kabobs and monkey bread over the fire. We enjoyed having some time in nature and a peaceful few days after our long travel to get to this part of the world.
It was great to catch up with them while hanging out in nature.
After our visit with Emily’s family, we were on to the next stop, my dad and his family. We were grateful they were able to come to New Buffalo for a visit. We made our way to the New Buffalo Beach and enjoyed the tiny bit of shade we could find. Midwesterners have a pretty different relationship to the sun and heat compared to Thai people.
Can you find me?
After a nice and relaxing time on the beach, we spent the evening at a brewery and then the following day they took us to get some Mexican food in Michigan City.
Our visits with both our families were shorter than we would have wanted, but we knew we had many more stops along our journey. We were thankful they were able to come see us even for such a short period. We also appreciated Cassie and Ross for letting us stay at their place during this leg of the trip.
After lunch with my dad, they dropped us off at the Southshore station and we headed to Chicago to stay with our friends, Lauren and Alex.
I have been friends with Lauren since grade school and it is always a treat to spend time with her.
Emily and I both grew up only three hours away from Chicago and while we have been there several times, we haven’t had much experience visiting as adults. Especially not recently since I have become excited to explore new cuisine and seek out food. With this in mind we were looking forward to enjoying some exploration in the Windy City.
Because of the heat wave and traffic being completely unpredictable, Lauren decided to pick us up from Millennium Station and take us the rest of the way to her home in Logan Square.
Lauren and Alex had concert tickets for that night so once they gave us the house tour and keys. Soon after, they went out to party while Em and I walked around Logan Square to check out the scene, collect our vices for the week, and enjoy an easy evening at Lauren’s with their two cats and almost one year old dog.
After a restful night, Lauren started the next day by taking us to the neighborhood farmer’s market. It made us miss our time in Seattle tremendously. We stopped at a local carniceria to pick up meat to make lunch with. With US prices, restaurants were hella expensive and we appreciated that Lauren wanted to cook at home whenever we wanted.
After making carnitas tacos and sides, Lauren and Alex wanted to take us to a dope spot called Emporium. It's a barcade with great drinks and loads of arcade games. Bonus: pretty much all the games worked! (Suck it, Add-A-Ball) We went during the day so it wasn’t too busy and we did not have to wait in line to play games. It was a very cool spot.
To finish the night they took us to a local dive bar, Small Bar to get our carb-fix.
With only a handful of days in Chicago, we wanted to make sure they were filled with some of our favorite things - walking around the city, eating, exploring, and enjoying the beauty of the Chicago summer.
We started off the day on the recently renovated Riverwalk. It was a nice day and since it was along the water and mostly covered, it made for great walking weather. Everyone was out enjoying the day and we periodically sat along the path to people watch.
We took a quick trip to another can’t-miss pizza spot in Chicago, 7-11. Two slices for a dollar from 1-6pm! The pizza was freshly made and to be honest, it wasn’t bad. Chicago pizza: 2-0. :P
This was followed by a disappointing quick food trip to Chinatown, and then we found ourselves in Wicker Park. This neighborhood seemed similar to Logan Square but a bit older. There was still plenty to see, eat, and do. We stopped at Ragstop for some new threads, Artemio Bakery for some pan dulce, and Jeni’s for some dank ice cream.
Finished our day with another home cooked meal with chef Lauren.
Our last full day was a special one. Em and I rented bikes and rode along the newly made 606 bike trail. It was cool to have such a smooth path to ride around and get a bird’s eye view of the city. The path went through various parks and nature-y spots, which was lovely too.
After our bike ride, we took the L to meet up with our friends, Ann and Jason. They just moved back to Chicago after teaching abroad for several years. Emily taught with them both at RIS and we became great friends over the past two years. We were excited to meet up with them state-side and catch up with the updates of their move. Unfortunately, this past summer was a doozy for people like them who needed to make big purchases like cars, furniture, or renovation materials.
We met them near their neighborhood, Irving Park where we ate at one of their favorite BBQ spots, Smoque. It was quite delicious.
Considering they had only been back for a week or two, we were thankful they welcomed us to their home and neighborhood to spend the day visiting.
We got a tour of their house which was huge and on a quaint street. They had purchased it many years ago and have rented it out while being abroad. It was great to see all the art and deco they have collected over the years. Their neighborhood was beautiful and had a great park we walked through on our tour.
It was lovely to catch up with Ann and Jason even though we used to see them all the time when they lived in Bangkok. We savored our time together because it will likely be a while before we see them again.
The day ended with us trying another great Chicago pizza spot called Piece Brewery. I saw they had New Haven style pizza which I’ve always wanted to try. It was thin, crispy and delicious.
For dessert we got churros at Xhurro Factory and brought enough back to share.
The last day in Chicago was a mellow one. We decided to stay within Logan Square. Emily went out and did some last minute shopping while I chilled with the dog. We bought a Kikagaku Moyo vinyl record for Lauren as a thank you for letting us stay at her place.
We spent several hours trying to catch up on the latest season of RuPaul and our last meal was a special one. It was our first time trying… Portillos. I had never had an Italian beef sandwich before, let alone a dipped sandwich. It was quite tasty and a perfect way to end our time in Chicago after visiting family and friends. With the main event only a flight away, we were giddy with anticipation and I was excited to finally be back to Mexico after a several year absence. I was nervous and delighted for Emily to see where my family is from and to meet more family than she ever thought one could have.
Michigan City Food Spots (homemade meals not included):
Mucho Burrito
Asparagus
Shoreline Brewery
Popeyes
El Bracero
Chicago Food Spots (homemade meals not included):
Sbarro
NoodleBird by Fat Rice
Small Bar
7-11
Qing Xiang Yuan Dumplings
Artemio Bakery
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams
Smoque
Piece Brewery
Xhurro Factory
Portillos
