Sometimes I build these huge, epic blog entries in my head that become so overwhelming that I never post them. Thus is the case with the summary of last week’s trip to Chicago. I suppose I should post something, so here it is — much shorter than the epic version I originally mentally composed.
Dad and I hit the road Monday morning, heading toward Kansas City. Our plan was to stay in a hotel at or near a Kansas City casino and then drive from Kansas City to Chicago Tuesday morning. Before we hit the road I reinstalled my GPS on my laptop, but unfortunately I didn’t test it very thoroughly and the major feature we needed (searching for things on the map) ended up not working. Without that, the GPS is essentually a very expensive and inconvenient map. Fortunately Kansas City isn’t that hard to find (go northeast) and we had no problems finding it.
About 50 miles south of Kansas City we stopped at a rest stop. It had been raining off and on, and off to the side was a guy who had parked his Harley and was waiting for the storms to pass. We talked to him for a few minutes and it turned out he was also from Oklahoma and heading to Kansas City! When we mentioned that we were looking for BBQ in Kansas City, the guy knew the names and addresses of several BBQ restaurants on our way. For ribs he recommended Zarda’s, and so that’s where we went. Dad said his ribs were a little tough, but my smoked turkey was great and dad said his coleslaw was some of the best he’s ever had.
Without access to the Internet or the GPS we blindly picked a hotel near the casinos. $54 a night for two beds, but $5 extra deposit if you wanted a television remote. There was also a deposit required to have the phone turned on (we both have cell phones and didn’t bother). They offered Internet access but if the TV remote was five bucks I’d hate to see what broadband cost.
Once we were settled in the room we headed off to Ameristar Casino, one of the big three we found in KC (along with Harrah’s and the Isle of Capri). Dad and I spent no time at all in finding virtual poker machines and losing money quickly. We were both surprised to discover that drinks are not free at the Ameristar ($3 long necks). I guess that’s either a thing of the past, or a fashion that never made it to KC. Dad found a real card table dealing Three Card Poker and had a good time learning and playing that game, while I spent a little time playing virtual blackjack and slots. Dad has only been to one other casino (a riverboat), so I think he was a bit overwhelmed at the size of the place — I thought it was on the magnitude of Tunica casinos, but not Vegas. That night we hit the Ameristar buffet, which, if you’ve ever been, appeared to be a scaled down version of the Rio buffet in Vegas. The buffet had five different false store fronts (Chinese, Italian, Mexican, Homestyle and BBQ) plus a salad bar, fruit bar and dessert bar. Fortunately the price was scaled down from Vegas as well — only $12 per person instead of the $26.95 (each) Susan and I paid last year at the Rio.
Tuesday morning we hopped in the truck and finished the drive to Chicago. We had pizza and rain waiting for us there. Usually we stay at Grandma’s house when we go, but this time we stayed with my dad’s cousin Pam (I’ve always called her Aunt Pam) which changed the dynamics of the entire visit. Pam has a large and beautiful home and right now is just living there with her son Kevin (her husband is away on business), so there was lots of room for Dad and I to crash. Staying in a different place this visit caused some minor scheduling issues, but the end result changed the visit up a bit which was good and also made us more conscious about spending time with everyone. I can’t remember the last time we did this many things with relatives, and we both had a really good visit with everyone. Every day our schedules were crammed: breakfast with one person, lunch with a different person, dinner with a third.
One of the highlights of the trip was getting to go eat sushi with my cousin Patty and her mom Mary. Patty is my little sushi buddy — I saw her eating it before I had ever tried it and thought it was disgusting. Now, two years later, I’m hooked! The last day of our trip I picked Patty up from school and then drove down by the train station to meet Mary and have dinner at Little Tokyo. Mary ordered half a dozen appetizers or so and they were all delicious! Then I learned that what I think of as sushi isn’t really sushi. What I consider sushi is really “rolls”, which are like pea-sized bits of raw fish rolled up in rice. Imagine my surprise when I got not only that, but also big huge chunks of raw tuna on my plate. I mean like, the size of a candy bar! They were actually quite good. I kind of felt retarded half the time, not knowing exactly what parts of what were edible and having to ask for a fork while everyone else use chopsticks, but in the end everyone was stuffed and all the appetizers, sushi and desserts were delicious. I can’t wait until next month when Patty comes to Oklahoma. I’m either taking her to Sushi Neko, Musashi’s, or Shiki. I’m sure the sushi is better at Sushi Neko, but I’m thinking if we go to Musashi’s then other people could go and find something to eat as well. Plus, the show there is great.
Everything else kind of ran together. I got to go by my aunt Peg’s work and check out their computer network and help troubleshoot a network problem (which of course got fixed 10 minutes after I gave up — figures!), have dinner with everybody over at Uncle Joe’s, and of course get stuffed at every single meal. It is amazing that I only put on one pound last week, but I continued walking while I was there and I think that helped mitigate the calories.
Saturday morning, we hit the road back to Oklahoma early in the morning. On the way out of town we stopped by Fleckenstein’s Bakery and had a couple of doughnuts, and then pushed through to St. Louis where we had lunch at White Castles.
Ah, traditions.