Ah, vacation.  It’s a short one, but hopefully we’ll have some fun and adventure.  To get things started, we headed out to breakfast at The Canteen in Barrington.  I keep seeing the place when we drive by and hear about the great breakfast they serve.  Of course, it doesn’t hurt when they appear to have a line out the door most of the time.  Time to find out.

It was raining pretty good on Thursday morning.  I was worried about standing in the rain just have eggs, bacon and toast.  We were lucky that there was no line waiting.  We were able to walk right in and grab a seat.  We tried to sit at a booth, but they had crammed this one in pretty tight.  We ended up at a table.  No one seemed to sit in that booth for some strange reason.

From the outside, the building appears very tiny.  Once inside, you see why.  It is an old Quonset hut from WWII era.  It was roomier inside than expected.  The sign over the U shaped counter in the back proudly proclaims their establishment in 1947.  I had read that it was Greek joint, but I wasn’t expecting the Greek family who were running and working the place.  They were a lot of fun.

We ordered up our breakfast.  I got the Chuck Wagon skillet with all the meats, gravy, potatoes with toast on the side.  Rich got a ham and cheese omlete with toast.  Turns out, they were right about it being a great breakfast.  I think the combination of environment, people, and food made it a great experience.

Back home, we finished our errands and packing.  It was time to catch the train going downtown.  We left Rich’s truck in the parking lot for Rick to pick up later.  Come to think of it, I don’t think he ever answered the text message or Facebook note about confirmation of doing that.  That boy!

Once in the city, we decided not to hoof the hundred of concrete canyon miles down to the hotel.  We grabbed and cab and took the scenic route.  We are staying at the Essex Inn right on Michigan Avenue right across the park.  It wasn’t a bad deal.  The Essex is one of the older hotels that have been redone.  Since everything is pushing more and more south along Michigan, most of the existing buildings are getting new lives.  At least we could walk to most things easily.  Just not the train station.

For dinner, we walked up Michigan to Adams.  Then we headed over to The Elephant and Castle.  It’s an English pub.  I’ve wanted to try it for a while, so this was my chance.  We grabbed a couple of beers and ordered up food.  Rich got the Steak and Ale Pie and I got the Beef Yorkshire pudding.  It all tasted wonderful.  I still say Rich makes the best Yorkshire pudding, which does he for every Christmas.

Back out on the sidewalk, we headed down to Millennium Park for the beginning of the musical festivities.  We stopped by Cloud Gate (better known as the Bean) and got our picture in the shiny surface and then over to Pritzker Pavilion for some entertainment.  We were able to score some seats, which was good since we left our chairs at the hotel.  The Blues Kids were on stage.  The schools have started programs to teach and promote the Blues among the younger generations.  These kids were from all over the country and here to practice their performances.  They were great.

Next up was Jamiah on Fire and the Red Machine.  Three very young guys came up out and set for their performance.  Turns out, Jamiah is only 18.  General Pork Chop on the drums is 14 while The Bassman on the bass was 12.  They put on quite a show.  Jamiah gets his nickname from his playing style, which he did in his signature closing song.  The group plays Jimi Hendrix’s Fire.  Jamiah can hold his own as he plays the guitar from every possible angle and the audience was giving up the love for his performance.

Now it’s time for the show I’m really here to see.  Shemekia Copeland took the stage at 8:00.  I’ve been listening to her sing on XM and hearing everyone talk about her.  She lives up to the hype.  Shemekia is worth the wait.  I love her voice and she can belt it out.  She proved it by stepping away from the mike and singing.  I could still hear, no matter faint it was.

Halfway through the show, a guy and a couple of girls sat down in front of us.  Of course, the girl with the tall hat that looked like a piece of old carpet sat in front of me.  I had to keep leaning right to see around that thing.  Then a very young guy asks to come into our row.  He sits down right next to me.  The entire rest of the row to my right was empty.  So I’m leaning out to see around the hat and trying not to touch the guy sitting next to me.  It was a little strange.

Shemekia’s band was excellent.  They have quite a unique sound.  She brought out a young man, Quinn Sullivan, for a couple of numbers.  She didn’t say, but I assume he will be a great addition to someone’s band soon.  After one encore, the night was done.  It was downtown Chicago on a Thursday night.  They had to shut down by 9:00.

We walked back to the hotel.  The temperature wasn’t that cold, but the wind was whistling by you.  I was frozen by the time we got back to our room.  I didn’t dress quite appropriately for the weather.  Silly me.  By the time I could warm up again, I was just too tired to head back out.  I’ll try to plan better for tomorrow night.  We’re only a block or so from Buddy Guy’s Legend.  I have to say I stepped inside there for a while on this trip.

My friend, Kim, wished us a good time on Facebook.  Her son, Chris, then tells us to have a TERRIBLE time.  She tells him to apologize.  If you know them, you would find it funny.  I had to write back this morning to let Chris know that I really tried to have a TERRIBLE time, but it didn’t work.  It was too much fun.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention that I’m having a great time with one of my pastime activities.  People watching has been the greatest.  I’ve seen and heard some of the most wonderful things.  I know, I should be careful.  I’m probably on someone else’s people watching list for some of the things I’ve done.  The only good thing about crowds are the things that people do around you.  More people watching tomorrow.

Now on to Day 2.