Saturday, June 8
Our vacation officially began at 7:00 p.m. in Ames, when Emmie’s second recital with Motivate Dance concluded. We piled into the van, ate our drive-thru Chick-fil-A order, and began the five-hour trek to the Chicago suburbs. The drive was uneventful, and we had happily checked into our two hotel rooms a shade before 1:00 a.m.
Emmie did a great job with both of her recital performances.
Sunday, June 9
Knowing we were looking at a late arrival to our hotel, our Sunday itinerary was not officially scheduled to start until 11:00 a.m. When Noah and Emmie woke up at 8:30, I decided we’d make the most of our morning by grabbing a few things at Meijer and filling up the van with gas for the day’s drive to Michigan.
Noah and Emmie posed outside a Meijer in Bollingbrook, Illinois. The Michigan-based discount store chain could be described as a mix of a Super Walmart and Super Target.
Lunch: Portillo’s Hot Dogs
While Portillo’s has become a nationwide chain, it was founded in Chicago and known for its Chicago-style fare, namely hot dogs. I’d done little research on the restaurant, expecting it to be in a nondescript strip mall storefront. Instead, it was in an expansive standalone building, which worked well for our lunch group of 10.
We met up with Grandma and Grandpa Mac, who had also made the Saturday night drive to Chicago, and Uncle Kevin and Aunt Rachel, who were spending a couple of days in Chicago between stops in Milwaukee and Pittsburgh. We placed our orders then waited a few minutes for our numbers to be called to pick up our food and drinks.
Emmie posed with a fully-loaded Chicago dog, which featured mustard, relish, celery salt, chopped onions, sliced tomatoes and a pickle inside a poppy seed bun. I posed with the chili cheese dog, topped with onions on the same soft bun. We ultimately traded before eating.
Gee Gee was the only other member of our group to get a true Chicago dog. Noah and Gee Gee stuck with plain hot dogs.
The consensus ratings were positive, with Gee Gee giving her hot dog a 9/10. I concurred with the assessment, but Noah, Amanda, and Emmie submitted ratings of 7, 6, and 5, respectively. The bun was a negative for Noah, who had to expend a lot of energy removing as many of the poppy seeds as possible.
Ice Cream: Jeni’s
For at least seven years, Jeni’s has held the top spot on my list of favorite ice cream shops. Their Goat Cheese with Red Cherries flavor is at the top of my flavor power rankings. So, with three Chicagoland locations, it only made sense to work Jeni’s into our itinerary. Our arrival, however, was a little later than intended due to a missed exit and difficult time finding any spot to park: we caved and shelled out cash for valet parking to avoid any more time circling the blocks surrounding the Jeni’s West Loop location.
Gee Gee and Emmie each had two scoops in waffle bowls. They both had the Texas Sheet Cake flavor; Emmie paired it with Salty Caramel; Gee Gee with my beloved Goat Cheese and Cherry.
For the most part, Eilidh happily enjoyed a scoop of Blackout Chocolate Cake ice cream.
Museum of Science & Industry
We wanted to visit at least one noteworthy non-restaurant site while we were in Chicago. That attraction was the Museum of Science an Industry, a massive, multi-level facility with exhibits that could easily occupy a full day. We spent the first 90 minutes in the Idea Factory and Farm Tech exhibits before splitting up: Eilidh and I perused the Transportation Gallery and Science of Weather while Amanda, Gee Gee, and the older kids made 3D creatures!
While everyone else was building 3-D creatures, Eilidh and I explored a few parts of the museum including the full-size Boeing 727 plane which was part of the transportation exhibit.
From Amanda:
We attended a Fab Lab (Fabrication Laboratory) session where we were each able to design and 3D print our own tiny plastic monsters. The session had us lined up in front of computers dragging spheres into our own little blob creatures. After a quick tutorial, Noah and I were able to work quickly and independently. Emmie, on the younger end of ages allowed in the class, had a few technical difficulties and provided Gee Gee some (probably unwelcome) distraction from her own monster-designing.
With our computer time ending, we all saved our work and headed to the 3D printers to input our monster information. Our monsters were only 3cm tall but each took about 15 minutes to print! We enjoyed the hour-long lab session. Noah, especially, was proud of his little monster and it was fun to listen to him tell his Dad all about it when we met back up to head to the car.
Cherry Republic
Next up on our itinerary was Cherry Republic, one of the specialty store’s six Michigan locations. The town and store were quiet when we arrived, but with 30 minutes until closing, we still had ample time to peruse the varieties of cherry-based products. Gee Gee and Emmie had the most fun sampling, while Eilidh loved the in-store ball pit of “cherries.” We walked away with a few goodies, including cherry salsa and summer sausage, before resuming the drive.
Eilidh had a blast in the ball pit of “cherries.” Emmie and Noah each joined her for at least a few minutes while the grown-ups were shopping.
Emmie posed by one of the cherry displays; we left the store with chocolate, green tea, salsa, soda, and more… all made with Michigan cherries.
Dinner: Mr. Quick
There was once a restaurant in Ottumwa called Mr. Quick, one of the last remaining locations of a fast food restaurant chain. Founded in 1962 in Moline, Illinois, the chain grew to over 100 locations from Texas to Michigan. Gee Gee worked at a Mr. Quick, and Amanda recalls eating at the Ottumwa restaurant as a child. The go-to family order was the “bargain bundle” which included 5 cheeseburgers and a half-pound of fries.
The Muskegon location had a canvas print of the former Ottumwa location on its wall!
There are now only 5 Mr. Quick locations, and they’re all in Muskegon, Michigan, a community of 38,000 people, about 30 miles south of the cabin where we are staying on this trip. It has been on our itinerary since day one, and Amanda and Gee Gee were particularly excited to find out how the food tasted today.
At $9.29, the bargain cheeseburger bundle was a little more expensive than it was in the 1990s.
Gee Gee was pretty excited for her deluxe cheeseburger and fries!
Our extremely greasy order.
In the end, how was the food? Noah and Emmie gave their meals a 7. Gee Gee and Amanda generously gave it an 8, a 10 if nostalgia is factored in. I thought it was fine, a nice novelty and a place I will happily eat again on this trip, but not particularly noteworthy.
We made a final stop at a Meijer store to buy groceries for our cabin stay.
The final stretch of our drive started out fine, with a four-lane road taking us much of the way. However, an unexpected detour sign led us through a tricky stretch of poorly-graded gravel roads. The dark, rain, and fog didn’t help, but we survived and pulled into our cabin to unload the car and settle in for the next 7 nights.
After two long days of travel, Eilidh went to sleep pretty quickly.