When My Grandma Comes to Visit

When My Grandma Comes to Visit

My grandma lived in Chicago for part of her childhood before moving to rural Illinois. The phrase, “You can take the girl out of the city, but you can’t take the city out of the girl,” describes her perfectly. So when she comes to visit me in Chicago you better bet that means we do as many city activities as we can.

Right before Thanksgiving break, my grandma and my cousin Claire hopped on the Amtrak train to squeeze in some Chicago fun before the end of the semester.

I met them a little before 5 o’clock at our hotel downtown. Grandma spoiled us a little bit–we stayed at The Allerton Hotel on Michigan Avenue. After checking in, we wandered down Michigan Ave toward the river in search of a dinner spot. We settled on The Purple Pig, a restaurant I’ve walked past several times, but never had the chance to try. A Mediterranean style restaurant, with a cozy atmosphere and dishes meant to share, I would definitely recommend it. The three of us enjoyed butternut squash, fried asparagus, Italian sausage, a chocolate mousse tart, and gelato with espresso poured over top. Not a bad trade-off from the dining halls.

We then, of course, had time for a little shopping because you basically have to when you stay on the Magnificent Mile. Luckily for Claire and I, Grandma played Santa–we’ll see our purchases again underneath the Christmas tree. After our shopping trip we made our way back to the hotel and called it a night.

Luckily my classes on Tuesday are on Loyola’s Water Tower Campus, so my commute to class was much shorter than usual. So after joining Claire and my grandma for breakfast, I only had to walk a few blocks to my first two classes. On my lunch break I met them at the Museum of Contemporary Art, which is just across Michigan Ave from the Water Tower Campus. One of my cousins works there and was able to get us tickets for the David Bowie exhibit. Before going to the museum I knew of David Bowie, but not much else. Now I could tell you quite a bit about him. The short version? He is one interesting guy.

After a quick lunch at the museum, I went to my last class of the day. When class was over Claire and my grandma met me in a cab headed for Union Station, to hop back on the train and head home for Thanksgiving break. In about 24 hours we managed to pack in quite a bit, but that’s just how it goes when my grandma comes to visit.

Comments are closed.