Renaissance Faire, 2008

On Sunday, we drove up to Bristol Wisconsin for the last weekend of the Reanaissance Festival. We had so much fun there last year, and both boys were talking about all the things they wanted to do again. That said, it was an entirely different experience and left me thinking about how much difference a year has made for us. Last year they were in major "dress up" mode, and we didn't leave the house without at least one costume in tow (and if we did, we often had to go home to get one). They took two costumes each last year, and they were alternately pirates and knights. This year, they were not interested in costumes at all. We went a different direction around the park, which also changed the experience so much. They were most interested in rides: riding on the camel, the ponies, and the various "thrill rides" to be had. So that's largely what we did.






When we were researching bullwhips earlier this summer, we came across several YouTube videos from Adam Crack, a bullwhip performer from Wisconsin, who just happens to do his show at the Renaissance Faire. We were very excited that he was actually there on the weekend we came, as we had been thinking of seeing him all summer. His show did not disappoint. Apparently, people often ask him how he got into whips (was his father a rancher, was his mother a dominatrix?). It turns out he saw a little movie when he was nine, where the lead character donned a hat and cracked a whip. It was a character we know well, and it was further evidence that our kids can potentially turn any passion into something that can sustain them, if they just take it as far as they can.


The thing the boys definitely did remember from last year and wanted to do again was to see the armor and hold the real swords. We stayed in that tent for a very long time, trying each one and then trying each one again. Max wanted to find the one that was most like Irina Spalko's. Otto preferred a smaller one, which he thought was most like what Mutt carries (both of these references are from the new Indiana Jones movie).




We watched the falconer's show again, which was really interesting, and since the boys are so into birds, it was really cool to have falcons flying overhead, but I think they might have gotten more out of the jousting, which we didn't actually see this year.

They did quite enjoy the pretzels, however.



And both boys really got into the challenge of climbing Jacob's Ladder. We paid for so many tries that the guy just let them play there for as long as they wanted, just trying to get to the top. They only made it when we assisted by holding it steady for them.






And then they took out some agression with some hay-filled sacks.



One of the things they liked best came from an entirely unexpected source: a little pile of rocks near a pottery store. It turns out the 8 year old daughter of the potter had amused herself that day by painting faces on all the rocks with a Sharpie. Max and Otto loved this and sat down to examine all the different expressions. The potter agreed that they could each choose one rock to take with them, and they really thought long and hard over the decision. Max asked if we could do that to rocks at our house, and frankly, I can't wait to have a pile of smiling rocks, so of course I said, "Yes!"


As we walked back to the entrance, we stopped at the ponies, which the boys had been looking forward to for the entire visit. (They had both decided they wanted to do it at the end, just like they did last year.)


It was so much nicer in the evening, as the sun was lower in the sky and the heat had tapered off. But of course, by that time, the park was almost closed, and we made our way out and back to our car for the drive home. We listened to the rest of "Looking for Bobowicz" and arrived home with a sleeping Otto. It was late by that time, which basically means it's the time when Max comes alive and is the happiest. That period from about 10 pm to midnight is his most creative and relaxed time of the day. It's when he will start the most interesting line of discussion, asking lots of questions and thinking things through very carefully, wanting to know about the layers of the earth or where he could mine for diamonds or what people mean when they say "blah blah blah." It's the time of day when he'll suddenly decide he needs to build a very complicated Lego construction so that it will be ready to play with in the morning. Or when he will feel the urge to run back and forth through the apartment, in the most contented but focused manner imaginable, acting out some scene that we are not privy to aside from what we see on the outside (which seems to barely explain the stuff that's going on in his head). We had a couple of hours just being with Max while Otto slept, which was really good for all of us.

Should We Eat Something?

We spent Saturday running around Lincoln Square. Martin had a haircut scheduled in the middle of the day, so we went for breakfast at the Pannenkoeken Cafe, where I had the veggie pancake,



and Martin had the bacon and mushroom pancake,



and everyone was happy with their choices (after Max got a second round of pancakes, that is, since the first blueberry pancakes came with the blueberries on TOP of the pancakes and not inside!).

Martin ran off to get his hair cut, and the boys and I meandered around the neighborhood, stopping in the Book Cellar to read a nicely illustrated and very informative book about the Clone Wars. We spent more than an hour on the floor of the bookstore, looking at all the pictures, at which time Martin met us with his shorter hair. We took advantage of the coffee shop portion of the bookstore to get the boys a cupcake and fancy fizzy drinks.




Then it was off to Quake to dig through the Star Wars action figure bin. And conveniently located across the street from there: Costello's, where Max wanted to go for a turkey sandwich. Of course we obliged.



After this leisurely late lunch, we finally made our way to Lincoln Square Optical, which had been our secondary purpose to visiting the neighborhood (closely following the haircut). Of course, by the time we made it there, they were closed. We just peered in at the frames through the window, and the boys settled on the ledge to play with their new figures.



Our eyes fell on Selmarie, the little restaurant right across the street from the optician. Since it had been at least 30 minutes since we'd left Costello's, we agreed it was okay to stop in for a coffee and some cake. The boys also thought this was a good idea. We sat outside and listened to the accordion player, watched some kids dancing, and eventually ran into a friend of mine from college. So it was an all around good decision to spend our afternoon eating through Lincoln Square.





While brushing his teeth for bed, Max's seventh tooth gently extricated itself from his gums, so easily he didn't even realize it happened until it was in his hand. If only they could all come out that easily. He has such anxieties about his teeth coming out, which extend to the entire month or two that they are loose, and although we don't pull them or even put our hands anywhere near his mouth to wiggle them (this would completely undo him), he is still so very nervous about them. It is such a relief when one comes out. He is currently tearing all of his food into tiny little pieces so that none of the wiggly teeth (he says there are four, although now, I suppose, there are three) will be touched upon his bites of food. This makes any choice of food more complicated, as there are very few things he can easily eat, and the plate is always full of torn up scraps of his food (and his fingers and clothes constantly covered in whatever food he has been eating). My sweet little anxious child. I love him so.

Another Day, Another Map

Otto found my head massager and wanted to give it a try.



We had more errands to do today, which mostly centered around going to the lumber store to get some boards cut. I have been wanting to make "steps" for my bookshelves, as they are very deep and can hold two rows of books, but the books in the back get lost. My dad had drawn up a plan for these "steps" for my cousin, and I realized it would work for me too. I figured out what I needed and was going to just swing by Home Depot and have them cut it, but I remembered a little local lumber shop in my old neighborhood, which is now quite trendy (the far southwest edge of Wicker Park, which is, I guess Ukranian Village). It is where Martin and I first lived together, and I thought it would be much more fun to go explore that neighborhood while we waited for them to cut our boards. What a great decision that was!

I was greeted by the front desk person who called someone from the back to come out right away and talk me through my plans. He looked at my drawing of what I wanted, agreed with my calculations of what I needed, and then he told me that they usually charge 50 cents a cut (which I knew and had calculated already, deciding it was worth it to have it all done rather than asking Martin to use precious weekend time at his table saw). I needed 26 shelf boards and 52 support boards, which amounts to...a lot of cuts. It was about $40 in cuts and about $80 in lumber. The guy said he thought that was a bit steep and he could probably give me a deal on the cutting. He thought for a moment and then said, "how about $5?" "For all that cutting?" I asked. "Yeah, otherwise it would be a lot." he said. It was so kind of him and it took my breath away that I had almost carted myself and my lovely boys off to Home Depot, where I would have spent more time trying to find someone who could help me than I had spent in the store figuring out the total footage and pricing with this employee. Plus, they had a whole wall full of samples of laminate, and the boys found a bunch of metallic ones, which truly delighted them. They each picked out three different finishes while I "negotiated" with the very kind worker (I didn't get his name!).



Yay for MIller Lumber! Yay for small stores and personal service. He told me it would not take him long to cut it, so the boys and I went off to explore my old 'hood. Which is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. Wow. When we lived there, it was big news when the first really "fancy" restaurant opened on that little strip of Division. It was called Mas, and Martin and I had gone there for my 30th birthday dinner. It was the burgeoning of a really wonderful string of restaurants on that strip of Division, and now there are so many choices for "fine dining," it is overwhelming. But I saw that Mas was shuttered, the windows were papered over. I stared at it, and as we were staring, some workers carry in some construction materials. I guess 10 years have passed, and it's time for something new. The little restaurant that had been our regular weekend breakfast spot, Leo's Lunchroom, was closed too. I couldn't believe it. It was a Chicago landmark, I thought. I guess I will never have their red hash again.

We walked east on Division, heading for our old apartment. There were all sorts of cute coffee shops and restaurants, but the boys preferred the familiar sight of a Starbucks, so amid all the indy spots, we settled in to the corporate giant of coffee (and I mused that perhaps this was balancing the fact that I was so proud of myself for choosing an independent lumber shop). Otto sipped his vanilla milk and admired his metallic tile samples.



Then we walked to our old apartment, passing some familiar sights. This is the barber shop where Martin would get his hair cut for about $5. They also would give him a real razor shave, which was quite a thing to witness. The same guy who cut it was still sitting in one of the chairs, reading the paper and talking to his colleague. Just like the good ol' days.



Here was the restaurant where Martin took me on on of our very early dates. It's a total hole in the wall, there is only counter space, and there are only about 5 options of tacos to eat, and none of them were chicken, which totally disappointed Otto. The kids walked in and immediately declared it unfit for their presence ("It's too stinky in here," Max said). And I told them the story of how on our date, Papa had ordered a beef tongue taco and totally grossed me out. They thought this was hilarious.



To clear our palate (even though we hadn't eaten any beef tongue), we stopped in at the Alliance Bakery, another staple of the neighborhood when I lived there. It seems much hipper now than it was years ago, when it was much more like an old-fashioned bakery. But they still had some of the old reliable pastries I remembered (hopefully they were freshly made pastries and not actually old pastries).



The boys found some frosted cookies that met their satisfaction.



And then we passed a window of a glasses shop, where Max and Otto decided that there were big paper mache heads of me and Martin...




We stopped at the former Leo's, which is now called Mac's, and played on the tables, which were admittedly much cooler than what could be expected from the old workaday Leo's. The boys tried to trace the "maze" on the table, but they became very frustrated. (As a side note, these chairs were really cool—they have "pressure points" to massage your back while you sat. I was happy to sit and watch them play.)





Here's my lumber, all cut and wrapped and delivered right to my car! I'm so happy about it!


On the way home, Max drew up another map of our day. This one was stained with some Doritos, as a bonus.


Here's the selection of pastries the boys and I picked out for Martin.



And then we set about making ourselves that sturgeon I mentioned. We iChatted with our Canadian friends while we both made dinner. I followed a recipe I found online (well, not really following it, since I made the sauce with yogurt), here's our dinner.

The yogurt-lime-cilantro sauce:



The grilled sturgeon with the sauce (and some farm share and backyard tomatoes).



The whole meal. Yummy.



And here you can see the inside of it, which really is similar to swordfish. It was absolutely delicious, and if I see it again, I will definitely buy it.



What a good day we had! I'd like to do it all over again.

Monday

Mondays are quite often an errand day for us, as we tend to do our grocery shopping on this day. It's one of the only things in our lives that follows any sort of schedule, and even that is very flexible, often ignored or completely revised. And as always, we conduct our errands in a relaxed manner and fit lots of fun stuff in between. So, while Martin trudged off to work on Monday, the boys and I went to Lula for breakfast (and Lego play).



It was a really wonderful day, cool and sunny, almost like fall. We played by the Logan Square monument and found an empty bird's nest that had fallen from a tree.



The boys found lots of other things too, including a huge collection of bottle caps and some empty bottles too. It was really yucky how much garbage there was around the square, and we did a small bit of public service for the day by throwing some of it away.

We went to the library and picked out a few movies and a new audio book. We started listening to it right away in the car, and it's really funny. Daniel Pinkwater reads aloud his own book, Looking for Bobowicz : A Hoboken Chicken Story. We only got a couple of chapters into it before we arrived at another destination (still on the way to our grocery shopping): Fellger Park.

We spent a while at the park, where both boys ran under the sprinkler, despite the rather cool weather. We then had to stay even longer to dry out in the sun. It was a good plan on their part, I think.





They played in between the pine trees, pretending it was a house. They collected sticks and dried pine needles and made a "fire" and cooked "eggs" (pine cones) on it. They also made an X out of bark chips to mark the spot.



Ice cream: mandatory. Blue color: optional.





Since it was getting quite late, we finally convinced ourselves to leave for the grocery store, where we actually had lots of fun looking at all the fish (we bought sturgeon which was on sale and looked really interesting) and picking out the week's food. On the way home, we listened to some more of our audio book. Max found a piece of paper on the floor of the car. He was asking me to recount our day for him. We went through all the things we did: Lula for breakfast, walked to the monument and found the bird's nest, drove to the library, Fellger Park, Whole Foods, home.

He and Otto were discussing various portions of it, and when we got home, I realized he had drawn a "map of our day."

It's hard to see here, it's wrinkled and has some sort of stain on it, but I love this little memory of our simple, wonderful, well, our simply wonderful day.