An expiring Groupon prompted us to play tourist yesterday, as we visited the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago’s lakeside museum complex. Our main motivation was to see an exhibit of jellyfish that is soon to conclude, and was worth every bit of the time (as you’ll see in the photos below).
But there were plenty of other cool things to see, and since we hadn’t been to any aquarium in many years and probably were last to the Shedd about 20 years ago, it was all good.
We segued from that to a visit to the Macy’s that long was the downtown Marshall Field’s, a glimmering reminder of the days in which department stores were magnificent, multi-story, marble-clad edifices. After some next-to-last-minute shopping, we enjoyed beer at the bar at the store’s Walnut Room, in the shadow of the truly magnificent Christmas tree display. Nothing like old school.
We wrapped up our pre-Christmas day on the town with dinner at the Frontera Grill, one of several Mexican restaurants run by chef Rick Bayless, where we used a gift card that one of Barb’s very kind colleagues gave her when she left her bookstore job in D.C. It is really popular and really packed, but the food justified the wait. Oh, and so did a couple of KICK-ASS margaritas.
Without further adieu, let me get out of the way of these cool photographs. I’ll wrap by catching up with the Cooler on the Lake Shore Chicago vs. D.C. Weather Smackdown.
Now, as for the Weather Smackdown… got four days behind… eesh….
According to Weather Underground…
On Monday, Chicago O’Hare reported a high of 50, a low of 39 and no rain. Washington Reagan National reported a high of 52, a low of 29 and no rain. Although that was a virtual tie, Chicago’s temperature was way above normal, so it gets the point.
On Tuesday, Chicago O’Hare reported a high of 39, a low of 37 and no rain. Washington Reagan National reported a high of 57, a low of 45 and no rain. More way unseasonably warm weather for D.C., but no arguing it didn’t carpe diem.
On Wednesday, Chicago O’Hare reported a high of 42, a low of 39 and no rain. Washington Reagan National reported a high of 61, a low of 47 and .12 of an inch of rain. Yeah, that’s like an early May day in D.C., but it rained. So I give that one to Chicago with my thumb firmly on the scale.
On Thursday, Chicago O’Hare reported a high of 39, a low of 33 and .04 of an inch of rain. Washington Reagan National reported a high of 62, a low of 46 and a soaking of .53 of an inch of rain. Although it was admittedly a raw day in Chicago, it gets the point based on the same ill logic as Wednesday.
That clearly debatable but non-reviewable 3-1 split for Chicago tweaks its lead back up to 72-69.