HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Getting 3 blogs uploaded
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Can’t think of a single thing
WORD OF THE DAY: New friends
After our massive day yesterday and a bit of a sleep in this morning till 9.30am we decided to have another ‘vacation’ day today. I think we have well and truly earnt it. There is that awkward moment though when you are happy to have a home day, Cheryl is happy to have a home day but who goes first thinking that the other person maybe disappointed…… Well either way it worked out and by the time we had got around to discussing it, it was already 11am. The only thing we had planned today was actually dinner tonight at the Pump Room and I am pretty excited about that.
Not one to totally laze around all day I got out the computer and started to just knuckle down and pump out some blogs. I was still in Canada and had to at least get my but into the USA today no matter how long it took me. In the meantime Cheryl cooked another amazing breakfast/brunch and this has been our routine for the last few days. She loves to cook; I love to eat-what could be better. So we generally have the one meal ‘brunch’ maybe a snack in the afternoon (with a cocktail) to get us through till dinner time and then we have dinner. I like this way of living and especially when some-one else is doing the cooking! While on the computer I also loaded the last few days of photos and it didn’t surprise me when there were more than 300 to do. I just couldn’t stop taking pictures of all the buildings. The weather has been perfect to date, the sun out and it just makes for amazing pictures. What can I say….
I haven’t mentioned at all how Chicago got to how it looks today with all its architecture so thought I would give a little background into it all and it all pretty much started after the Great Chicago Fire. The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday, October 8, to early Tuesday, October 10, 1871, killing hundreds and destroying about 9 km2 in Chicago. Though the fire was one of the largest U.S. disasters of the 19th century, the rebuilding that began almost immediately spurred Chicago's development into one of the most populous and economically important American cities. On the flag of Chicago, the second star commemorates the fire. Although Mrs. Catherine O'Leary and her cow were publicly blamed for starting the fire for many years, evidence was eventually presented that the story was fabricated for dramatic effect by a journalist, and she was officially exonerated. The exact cause and origin of the fire remain uncertain. The fire started at about 9 p.m. on Sunday, October 8, in or around a small barn that bordered the alley behind 137 DeKoven Street. The traditional account of the origin of the fire is that it was started by a cow kicking over a lantern in the barn owned by Patrick and Catherine O'Leary. Michael Ahern, the Chicago Republican reporter who created the cow story, admitted in 1893 that he had made it up because he thought it would make colorful copy. While the barn was certainly the first building to be consumed by the fire, the official report at the time stated, "whether it originated from a spark blown from a chimney on that windy night, or was set on fire by human agency, we are unable to determine". The fire's spread was aided by the city's overuse of wood for building, a drought prior to the fire, and strong winds from the southwest that carried flying embers toward the heart of the city. The city also made fatal errors by not reacting soon enough and citizens were apparently unconcerned when it began. The firefighters were also tired from fighting a fire that happened the day before. The firefighters fought the fire through the entire day and became extremely exhausted. Eventually the fire jumped to a nearby neighborhood and began to devastate mansions, houses and apartments. Almost everything that crossed the fire's path was made of wood that had been dried out for quite a while. After two days of burning, rain helped douse the remaining fire. It is said that over 300 people died in the fire and over 100,000 were left homeless. When the fire engulfed a tall church west of the Chicago River, the flames crossed the south branch of the river. Helping the fire spread was firewood in the closely packed wooden buildings, ships lining the river, the city's elevated wood-plank sidewalks and roads, and the commercial lumber and coal yards along the river. The size of the blaze generated extremely strong winds and heat, which ignited rooftops far ahead of the actual flames. The attempts to stop the fire were unsuccessful. The mayor had even called surrounding cities for help, but by that point the fire was simply too large to contain. When the fire destroyed the waterworks, just north of the Chicago River, the city's water supply was cut off, and the firefighters were forced to give up. As the fire raged through the central business district, it destroyed hotels, department stores, Chicago's City Hall, the opera house and theaters, churches and printing plants. The fire continued spreading northward, driving fleeing residents across bridges on the Chicago River. There was mass panic as the blaze jumped the river's main stem and continued burning through homes and mansions on the city's north side. Residents fled into Lincoln Park and to the shores of Lake Michigan, where thousands sought refuge from the flames. The fire finally burned itself out, aided by diminishing winds and a light drizzle that began falling late on Monday night. From its origin at the O'Leary property, it had burned a path of nearly complete destruction of some 34 blocks to Fullerton Avenue on the north side.
Eventually it was determined that the fire destroyed an area about 6km long and averaging 1 km wide, encompassing more than 2,000 acres. Destroyed were more than 117 km of roads, 190 km of sidewalk, 2,000 lampposts, 17,500 buildings, and $222 million in property—about a third of the city's valuation. Of the 300,000 inhabitants, 90,000 were left homeless. Between two and three million books were destroyed from private library collections. The fire was said by The Chicago Daily Tribune to have been so fierce that it surpassed the damage done by Napoleon's siege of Moscow in 1812. Remarkably, some buildings did survive the fire, such as the then-new Chicago Water Tower, which remains today as an unofficial memorial to the fire's destructive power. It was one of just five public buildings and one ordinary bungalow spared by the flames within the disaster zone. The O'Leary home and Holy Family Church, the Roman Catholic congregation of the O'Leary family, were both saved by shifts in the wind direction that kept them outside the burnt district. After the fire, 125 bodies were recovered. Final estimates of the fatalities ranged from 200–300, considered a small number for such a large fire. In later years, other disasters would claim many more lives: at least 605 died in the Iroquois Theater Fire in 1903; and, in 1915, 835 died in the sinking of the Eastland excursion boat in the Chicago River. Yet the Great Chicago Fire remains Chicago's most well-known disaster for the magnitude of the destruction and the city's recovery and growth.
In the days and weeks following the fire, monetary donations flowed in to Chicago from around the country and even foreign cities along with donations of food, clothing, and other goods. These donations came from individuals, corporations, and cities. New York City for example gave $450,000 along with clothing and provisions, St. Louis gave $300,000, and the Common Council of London gave 1,000 Gunieas as well as ₤7,000 from private donations. Chicago emerged from the fire with one of the country's leading fire fighting forces. Land speculators and business owners quickly set about rebuilding the city. Donations of money, food, clothing and furnishings arrived quickly from across the nation. The first load of lumber for rebuilding was delivered the day the last burning building was extinguished. Only 22 years later, Chicago hosted more than 21 million visitors during the World's Columbian Exposition. Another example of Chicago's rebirth from the Great Fire ashes is the now famed Palmer House hotel. The original building burned to the ground in the fire just 13 days after its grand opening. Without hesitating, Potter Palmer secured a loan and rebuilt the hotel in a lot across the street from the original, proclaiming it to be "The World's First Fireproof Building". So that is pretty much where Chicago was reborn and what a story. I couldn’t imagine what it would have been like to see a fire of that magnitude to start with but them to see the ruins of a charred city would have been just as devastating.
So the afternoon rolled on and I got the last blog loaded at 5pm. Just in time for me to start getting ready for this evening’s dinner at the Pump Room. It is a swanky little art deco restaurant and we need to bring our A game. I had a shower, donned on a DRESS, did my makeup and I even borrowed Cheryl’s hair straightener and ironed my hair. Now ‘that’ is something I haven’t done in a long long time. I miss my GHD and I know I will definitely appreciate them when I get home. It was a wonder I remembered how to use them after 14 months. I felt and hoped I looked like a lady……. We had cocktail hour while we waited for David to arrive at 6.30pm and then we headed at 7.30pm for out reservation we had at 8pm.
We were a party of 4 tonight, meeting Nora at the restaurant for 7.45pm. We had a quick walk around of the lobby of the groovy hotel before checking in and being asked to wait as our table was just being cleared. There was a funky vibe to the place, it was busy and to me felt like the place to be seen. I think we were definitely going to have a good meal tonight.
The Pump Room, established October 1, 1938, by Ernie Byfield, is a restaurant located in the Public Chicago Hotel, formerly The Ambassador East, in Chicago's Gold Coast area. The restaurant served a number of celebrities who were regular customers and has been written about in books and articles. Arturo Petterino (1920–2010) was its maitre d' for many years, steering celebrity patrons to the coveted Booth One. Famous guests included Frank Sinatra, John Barrymore, Judy Garland, Bette Davis, David Bowie, Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Ronald Reagan, Paul Harvey, Helen Hayes, Clark Gable, Sammy Davis Jr.,Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, Elizabeth Taylor, Lena Horne, Joan Crawford, Audrey Hepburn, Liza Minnelli, Robert Redford, Bill Murray, Josephine Baker, Phil Collins, Gertrude Lawrence, Eddie Fisher, Michael J. Fox, John Belushi, Eddie Murphy, Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner, Mel Brooks, Olivia Newton-John, Peggy Lee, Mick Jagger and many others. In April 2010, the Ambassador East Hotel was sold to Ian Schrager Co. It closed in 2011 and was completely remodeled as the Public Chicago Hotel. The Pump Room reopened in fall 2011, with food concepts by Jean-Georges Vongerichten. The good thing eating with friends is that you get to try each other’s meals once they come out. For appetizers I got a carrot and avocado salad with sesame seeds, sprouts and a dip of sour cream, Nora had fois grais, Cheryl had the pea soup and David had some green vegetable salad. After tasting Cheryl’s pea soup I think it was the best soup I have ever had. Entrée (main meal) consisted for me of California lamb chops with salad and fries, Lemon fish for Cheryl, chicken for Nora and David had the (um I can’t remember….) but my chops were just divine and the fries were just delicious. Amazing how something so simple could be made to yummy. I even managed to fit in dessert having a warm chocolate mud cake with vanilla bean ice cream and the ladies shared a rhubarb pie and ice-cream. The service was amazing. We had a server, then a plate clearer (cute and Nora and David were trying to guess who’s people he was) and when the meals come out they were all served at the same time by 2 more people. It was like we were getting buzzed each time in a flurry of waiters and plates and it felt kind of cool to have that attention, if even for a few seconds.
On our way out, downstairs they have old black and white photos of all the famous people that had eaten here before it was closed and then rebirthed again. There were some very young pictures of Rob Lowe, Eddie Murphy, Mick Jagger and Michael J Fox to name a few and then the golden oldies of Carey Grant, Fred Astaire and Paul Newman. Why they don’t show case these photos upstairs and down near the toilets is beyond me, but there must have been over 300 photos there and we took the time to look them all over. There is a piece of history tight there sitting on those 3 walls. It was pretty cool to see.
So that was our ‘vacation’ day and a perfect way to end the day. We also didn’t feel guilty about not doing much today as we have a big day in the city tomorrow visiting the NOC of United and getting up the Willis Tower (Sears Tower) to name a few things.
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