Clark and Touhy, southwest corner

7136 N. Clark
Built:1928

This building is in the process of converting from a used car lot to a fast food chicken restaurant. It's only natural. Originally this was a Standard Oil gas and service station. To the left is the old section, made out of common brick and clay tile. 

On Saturday we drove out to Marseilles, Illinois (Mar-sales, in the midwest lingo) to visit a farm. Once a week we pick up a box of vegetables and split it with our friends Carrie and Euan. Much of it comes from this farm, and everyone who subscribes was invited to come out for a tour/festival. We figured this was a good excuse to get out of Chicago for a couple days and show Felix his first farm. He seemed to like it. He kept waving a stick and yelling, "Go 'way, chickens!" We picked raspberries and saw some amazingly huge yellow and black spiders. Orb spiders, apparently. We even met up with Angela's friend, who moved to Marseilles with her family last year.

After a night at a hotel in Ottawa with an awesome (overheated) pool we went hiking at Starved Rock Park Sunday morning and were back in Chicago by 12:30. Not a bad weekend.

Clark and Pratt, northwest corner detail

6800 N. Clark
Car repair

Well, we had a nice holiday weekend, with just a few setbacks.


On Saturday we went to Lunt Avenue beach and splashed around for a while. We made a discovery a few weekends ago- if we take Felix to the beach, let him run around like a crazy toddler for an hour or so, stuff him with snacks and plop him in the stroller he'll usually fall asleep for an hour or two. Then we can go out for a leisurely, adult-style lunch while he dozes peacefully next to the table. So on Saturday we decided to go to Carmen's near Loyola, which has a great lunchtime pizza deal. After 45 minutes our waitress came to our table and said, "Can I get you any dessert, or just the check?" Um....how about our pizza? After an hour she admitted that the order was never put into the kitchen and offers to give us one of our lunches for free. Not enough, bad waitress. Meanwhile, Felix begins to stir. So we left, without our pizza. It wasn't like the place was crowded, either. Carmen's sucks. They still owe me for a piece of cheesecake that I paid for but never arrived in our delivery order.

So later that night Felix develops a fever and we spend Sunday watching cartoon movies and feeling very claustrophobic. In the evening we met our friends at the only taqueria in Rogers Park that has an outdoor patio, La Cazuela, just across the street from the library. Too bad it took us 8 years to find this place.

On Monday we took Felix to a super cool water park near Armitage and Clybourn (Adams Park). Highly recommended. Later that night, the fever returned, so everyone was up at 2 a.m. Just in time for the return of the work week.

But still, not a bad weekend. An inconvenience or two does not equal a trip to the emergency room.