Directly across from the Sutton Place Hotel is "the Original Pancack House" It sounded more appealing than over-priced hotel breakfasts so we headed over. Of course there was a line but we were assured by the friendly people waiting with us that the food 'was worth the wait'. Hmmm???
The Pancake House features an Apply Pancake that, according to them menu, is oven baked with fresh-sliced apples and pur cinnamon sugar glaze. Well, let me tell you - we saw one coming out of the kitchen and I have NEVER seen a pancake so big. It's actually a souffle so it does drop a little but it was at least 12 inches in diameter and 3 inches tall. GEEZ! It would seriouly take 3 people to eat that thing. Dear Husband and VacationGirl opted for the Dutch Baby ~ an oven baked German pancake with strawberries. This thing was huge too. (VacationGirl didn't even make it half-way) and it is very rich. Loaded with eggs, you can taste them with every bite. Almost 22 year old opted for plain old buttermilk pancakes but he said they were incredible.
We made a break for it to run back across the street to the hotel, but we were all drenched by the time we got there. Of course, two people ran. One hobbled back with her cane. Oh What Fun!
We hung around and dried out a little and waited until the Puma store that is just around the corner opened. And magically, the rain stopped as quickly as it started and it was back to sunshine and fluffy clouds. Hmmm, guess who wanted to go to the Puma? VacationGirl??? NOPE! Dear Husband??? Nada! Almost 22 year old??? Ding ding ding - you won first prize! A mere $300 dollars later, we left and the guys ran back to the hotel to drop off stuff while I waited for them.
VacationGirl decided that, no problem, she can walk down to the Hancock building. It's just 5 -6 blocks. Never mind that she can't walk around the block normally, but hey, it's vacation right? Well, we decided to not stop at the Hancock just yet - we decided to go all the way to the Seadog speed boat. It's only another 14 blocks - WE THOUGHT! Just had to walk down to Grand Ave.
Maps and directions are not our strong point sometimes. We managed to miss Grand and went to the river at Wacker drive. The boat would be on the river, right? Isn't that were most boats are? Uh, not this one. I called and they are actually at Navy Pier. Well, by now, VacationGirl's ankles look like Chicago-sized soft balls and her knees and thighs are really swelling so I suggested a taxi. Damn good thing. It was a LONG way! At least too long to walk.
VacationGirl really wanted to go on the nice, relaxing architectural tour - at 75 minute tour. She figured she could get some great pictures. She sent the guys ahead to get tickets since the next tour left at 1:15 and it was already 1:05 and speed walking is not an option in VacationGirl's life right now. More like very slow trudging!
Well, they got tickets - for the 1:15 tour - just like VacationGirl asked. But....it was the wrong tour. This was a 30 minute speed boat run. ARGH! It was a blast though. The captain did all kinds of turns and managed to get everyone on the boat soaked. A great way to cool off in the hot Chicago summer. She's still really bummed that we didn't do the archtitectural tour but hey, that's life! I still got some good picture - most with people's head in them that were on the boat, but maybe photoshop can help me do magic!
After the boat ride, we decided that another taxi would be the best way to get us to Gino's East on Superior. VacationGirl and Dear Husband's first official date was at the Gino's East out in the Northwest suburbs. We LOVE this pizza. Love it, love it, love it! And it was wonderful! Almost 22 year old really liked it. During our late lunch, he made the announcement that in 2 years, he would be moving to Chicago. hahaha. I knew he'd love it!
After lunch, it was a short walk - oops, trudge, hobble, crawl - to the Hancock building. There was NO way VacationGirl was gonna be able to walk down all the stairs to get to the observatory ticket sales booth - so we asked and were told where to go to find an escalator. Oops, not exactly. We ended up on the 96th - twice - before we got out and trudged back to ask again. This time we got the RIGHT directions and made it to t
he ticket booth and ultimately up to the observation deck. VacationGirl had high hopes for the outside observatory - it didn't exist when she lived here many years ago. But, truth be told, she was really disappointed. It wasn't at all what she expected. Nice, but didn't live up to expectations.
Although it was only 5 - 6 blocks back to the hotel, those softball sized ankles would never make it back to the hotel. Shoot, VacationGirl shed tears at the top of the observatory when she didn't make the elevator and had to wait for yet another one. Talk about feeling silly - but when it hurts, it hurts. However, we had a sweet taxi driver that let me set up front and we made it back to the hotel where VacationGirl immediately started icing those knees. Who knows what else the evening will hold. (ok, my guess is nothing since everyone else is a sleep at least the ankles are no longer throbbing!)
We got back to the hotel just in time. When we walked in, it was still sunny and beautiful. But about 15 minutes later, the sky turned black and the skies opened up. We couldn't even see the street from our hotel room. It was crazy. We had thought about going to Second City for a show there but since it was so ugly and we were exhausted, we opted to have room service. Expensive but good! We watched a movie and then all proceeded to crash for the night.
See you tomorrow.
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