Performer: Smashing
Pumpkins
Songwriter: Billy Corgan
Original
Release:
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Year: 1995
Definitive
Version:
None.
Debbie’s
most excellent 1995 birthday surprise of tickets to the Monet exhibit at the
Art Institute in Chicago went over as big as I’d hoped. The celebration at
BW-3, however, was short-lived, because we had to get up early the next day to
make our flight.
Naturally,
I took the cheapest route possible, so that meant Southwest. (It was $140 per
person round trip.) There’s nothing wrong with Southwest except that it flies
in and out of Midway exclusively. If you’ve never flown into Midway, it can be
a little harrowing. The runways are short, and it seems to have been built where the wind swirls ferociously.
On
this particular November Saturday, the hawk was flying, and we arrived to find
Chicago covered in a nice sheen of ice—at least the airport runway was. The
plane was real quiet as the pilots wrestled the plane to the ground, skidded
along the runway with a bit of a bounce and finally brought it to a stop.
When
they did, one of the flight attendants gave a big “WHEW!” over the pa, which broke
the tension in the cabin. Everyone laughed and then cheered. It ended up being
a good start to our windsprint weekend in Chicago.
Even
though our first trip to Chicago was barely a year before—our first vacation
together over Labor Day weekend—Debbie’s birthday was already our third trip to
my favorite city on the planet. That meant a return to The Allerton, becoming our
home away from home, with rooms still less than $100 per night on the Mag Mile.
Yup, rooms still closet-size, too, I see.
And
because it was our third time in Chicago in the past 15 months, we could keep
to a narrow agenda. We didn’t have to run all over town just to cram in Ann
Sathers or Gino’s East or Too Much Light.
After
checking in at The Allerton, we went to the exhibit at the Art Institute,
which, appropriately enough, took up the entire day. The Art Institute, of
course, has an impressive enough collection of Monet’s works, but the exhibit
was overwhelming.
Our
favorite painting was titled The Ice Floes, although if you Google it, the one
we saw wasn’t the one that comes up in the search. Monet, of course, produced
many versions of different scenes, and I haven’t been able to find the one we
saw. The Ice Floes we saw had a lot of pink and purple in the water and sky. We
loved it and were somewhat disappointed that the gift shop didn’t have a print
we could take home to add to our faux collection. Oh well.
After
that, it was time to clean up and head to dinner. Debbie was a little
disappointed that we wouldn’t make a Penny’s run, but I had a slightly
different plan in mind for her birthday dinner. Instead, I took her to a place
I had heard mentioned in passing many years before on the Steve and Garry show.
I checked it out online, and it seemed good—and expensive. The name of the
place was Avenzare, and it’s long gone now.
But
for a while, it was one of my favorite meals. It was located just off the Mag
Mile, a short walk from where we were staying. I had scallops that were the
best I’d had until G Michael’s came along years later in Columbus. I also had
the biggest restaurant check I’d ever paid by a mile. It was $250, including tip.
That record stood until another birthday celebration years later.
It
was worth every penny, as had been the plane tickets, hotel and—certainly—the
Monet exhibit. I had enough points in the bank to keep me out of trouble for months after—even
if I were to, say, make a “scouting trip” to Windsor’s dance establishments to
prepare for Scott’s upcoming nuptials …
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