Steady Mobbin': Best Chi-Town Chinatown

So . . . Monday morning I was poking around the house, no one was really around, when Owen appeared and told me that we were supposed to meet everyone in Chinatown for lunch. When? I asked. Uhh, Right now. he said. So we grabbed Jeramy and hit the road.

I saw a bunny beside the garage. I showed this picture to Mom, she recognized the bunny from the scruffy patch on his back. She says he lives in our backyard.

Listen, I won't lie, I didn't know how to get to Chicago Chinatown and I didn't know what to do when I got there. We'd only ever been there once before, in 1992.

We spent some time being blasted by the sun and figuring out where to eat. We didn't know where to eat because we hadn't been to Chinatown in 20 years. All we had were some recommendations from the Water Taxi lady that brought everyone else to Chinatown. ("Water taxi?" you ask. "I'll tell you later." I tell you)

Hey! You can't say that!

Something Chinatown is always good for is signs.

I'm not used to big, open, sunny superhot Chinatowns.

Panhandler, please!

So we found somewhere to eat. A sim sum spot. The waitress asked us if we knew what we wanted before we sat down. No, we're going to need to look at your confusing checklist menu first.

Eventually we just checked off just about everything with "pork" or "shrimp" in the name and we did pretty well. Rachel demonstrated very innovative chopstick usage. I found the meal to be good and filling. Everything you could ask for!

Outside on the plaza by the restaurant there were statues of all the Chinese Zodiac animals. I only took pictures of a few.

Also there was a turtle nearby.

We decided to all take the Water Taxi back to downtown Chicago. It would be my first Water Taxi ride and my first time ever on a boat on the Chicago river. Somethings just take time, I guess. Along the way to the Water Taxi I saw this exceptional home.

And this famous bridge, but from a side I'd never been on before.

There was this like, park? by where we caught the Water Taxi.

A Polar Sun Dial. But who cares what time it is on the North Pole?

This guy helped develop lot of Chicago Chinatown.

Water Taxi dock worker helping the recently arrived decide what to do.

And here we've boarded the boat.

Mom sees us off. It was her job to drive the car back downtown.

Boat riders, let's go!!

Rachel and Blake, Kings of the World!

Riding up the river, going under bridges.

Past buildings.

And boats and other apartments.

Look! The Willis Tower! I've been up there!

And the Lyric Opera! I've been in there, too!

I asked Kristen to look patriotic, she did a good job.

I asked Rachel not to bite her brother. She barely resisted.

I guess a lot has changed since the Joker ran rampant on Lower Wacker.

Buds.

Icons.

That new Trump Tower. I don't know a lot about it.

I also asked Owen to look patriotic.

We disembarked near the Trump Building so I said, "Hey, let's go have a look at the lobby." It was nice, of course.

There's me! I just like to be on my own blog sometimes.

Leaving the building I saw a tenant pull up in his Lamborghini, license plate "Cajas", and leave it for the valet. Must have been the Boxes King of Chicago.

The Trump International Hotel & Tower Official Accolades (Oct 2009 edition)

At this point I split up from the family to check out a camera shop in the loop.

I tried out a bunch of old Leica lenses from the 50s and 60s, there was one I particularly liked . . . not the worst photo, right?

Walked back up Michigan to find my family, passed the usual Millenium Park happenings.

I found everyone at the Watertower. The Highland girls were emptying out the American Girl store. No pics. But here we are on the street, disliking the traffic.