Hotels

In case you haven't figured it out, we're really hoping you come to our wedding. It order to make it as painless as possible, we'll be giving you lots of helpful info so you can get the most out of your trip to Chicago.

Choosing a hotel is something I used to agonize over. Now I only agonize over it if I can't bring my bike along. It can be difficult finding the right hotel for your tastes that is also conveniently located for the types of things you want to do. For now, I'll focus on giving you a few different price/location options. Perhaps later I'll try and demystify Chicago's sometimes great/sometimes awful public transit system so you can see the things you want to see without losing your shirt.

The hotels in Chicago are concentrated around the airports or just north of the Loop in the neighborhoods of River North, Near North, Gold Cost, and Streeterville.


View Marmalade in a larger map (A quick key to the symbols: beds=expensive hotels, yellow pins=bed & breakfasts, red pins=not quite as expensive hotels)

These hotels range in price from slightly expensive to very expensive.

Pros: close to lots of (expensive) shopping options, restaurants, and nightlife. Short bus ride or long walk to downtown museums, etc.
Cons: far from (less expensive) shopping options, restaurants, and nightlife.

If you're looking for something (a little) cheaper and in a more varied neighborhood, I've found a few different kinds of accommodations a little farther north in the Lincoln Park/Lakeview/DePaul neighborhoods.

Pros: close to (less expensive) shopping options, restaurants, and nightlife. Closer to some nice public beaches which are nice for relaxing even if it's too cold to swim.
Cons: only one El line (the Red Line) runs through these neighborhoods, so you'll be doing more walking, busing, or taxi-ing.

Hotels:
Days Inn
Diversey and Clark

City Suites
933 West Belmont Avenue

Super 8 (a little farther north than most)
7300 N. Sheridan Parkway

Bed and Breakfasts
Windy City Urban Inn
607 West Deming Place

Hansen House Mansion
1020 w. Altgeld

Gold Coast Guest House
113 West Elm St.
312.337.0361

This is just enough to get you started, enough to realize there's more out there than what shows up on the first page of a travelocity search. And in case you get too enthusiastic in your search, there are a few businesses with "hotel" in the name that are not what you're looking for (they charge by the hour).

If you find any of this info needs updating due to changing availability, let me know.

Wedding Gift Registry

Dear Wedding Guests,

For your convenience, we are registered online at:

~Williams-Sonoma

~Bed, Bath, and Beyond

and

~Anthropologie

However, we welcome any and all artistic alternatives from our brilliant and creative friends and family.

We can't wait to see you all in Chicago!

Love,

Jeff and Rebecca

Getting Married!

Hey, long time, no write!

But guess what, we're getting married on October 2, 2010!

We'll post details soon...

Bikes are for riding...

Among the perks of being back in Illinois is access to our fleet of bikes. Really old bikes for hauling stuff, newer bikes for going fast, folding bikes for traveling (a Raleigh Twenty and two bikes with S&S couplers), and a tandem. When our friends Tom and Jessie moved from the car heaven of Raleigh, North Carolina (#3 on the list of most sprawl-icious cities in America) to the bike heaven of Portland, Oregon, we were sure Tom's tinkering side would kick in and their newfound bikes would be transformed into rolling tributes to the DIY philosophy. We were right.

A few excerpts from his latest inventions:

Since Jessie and I have a massive pile of broken electronics downstairs (over 10 CRT monitors, a couple LCDs, some TVs, several desktops and laptops, stereos, DVD players, record players, receivers, etc etc) I figured I'd just take a gutted desktop computer and remove some more of the framework inside and make it into a box. It even has a lid that can open and close really easily (and will be waterproof once I cover up the holes in the end with some tin and silicone).

I know I need a light to be safe at night, so I took some old neon wire (pretty cool stuff, just white neon wire with a red cover, less than 1/8" thick) and made a light on the back face of the computer...err, bike box. At least this way everyone will know what I am cruising around at night.

In response to Tom's tinkering, I thought I would detail all the ways I've modified my bike to make it great for cruising around town in all kinds of weather with a week's worth of groceries. While I certainly try DIY as much as possible myself, I also don't mind occasionally buying off-the-shelf stuff, since a large part of the challenge with bicycles is attaching various accessories so they don't get in the way of some other vital component. A loose wire, nut, or something rattling at 20 mph can quickly turn into a spectacular crash, something I've been trying to avoid more and more in the last few years.

The grocery bike is a 1965 Humber Sports. It lived through many winters in Traverse City, Michigan until it made its way to Champaign via Scot McCollum (the friendliest, most knowledgeable bike person you're likely to meet). It was covered in a thin layer of rust, and the rust had eaten through the fender in a few small spots. I sent it to get sandblasted and powdercoated at Coating Specialties. It came back rust free, beautifully (and durably) coated, ready to be built up.

I retapped the bottom bracket shell so it would accept a more modern bottom bracket and I could ditch the old cottered cranks, which aren't unreliable, they just require much more effort to service than newer cotterless cranks. I replaced the wheels (and donated the wheels to others looking for old English three-speed wheels) with a three-speed/drum brake rear and front dynamo/drum brake. Drum brakes are especially useful in adverse weather conditions. When using brakes that engage the rim to stop the bike, rain (plus the road grime it contains) and snow (plus the salt that has been added) gets caught between the brake pad and the rim, quickly eating into the rim until the braking surface is so thin it gives out and the tire and tube pop off the rim. Coaster brakes, drum brakes, disc brakes, and Servo brakes all help to solve this problem.

And if you plan on riding in all that rain and snow, you better have a good mudflap on your front fender. I made this one out of gasket material and put it on with three pop rivets. If you want a little bit better protection, you can make the top a little wider and attach it to the fender struts. The mudflap will curve around the tire a little bit more, keeping the spray coming off the tire more confined.

If you're going to be carrying much, you'll need a rear rack. And while you could put a basket (or computer tower) back there to carry stuff, I prefer to use panniers that hang off the side of the rack. They are waterproof and I can take them into the store with me, so I don't keep accumulating plastic bags. This particular rack (Axiom Odyssey) has the extra guards to keep panniers from getting caught in your wheel and it has one of the highest weight ratings I could find, at around 150 lbs.

And sometimes it's nice to be able to see what you are carrying--in case it is delicate or otherwise in need of a watchful eye--and to have a front rack, also. This one is a CETMA rack from Oregon. I've also mounted the (hub-powered) light underneath the rack, so it doesn't get obstructed by anything I might be carrying. Among other things (plants, trash cans, cardboard boxes, dishes, I've also carried a complete bike on the front rack. I removed the wheels, bungeed the frame on the rack sitting upright, then sandwiched the two wheels on.

You can also see the curtains Rebecca and I made in the upper right side of the photo.

If you are using your front rack a lot, and carrying heavy stuff, it would be better to attach the rack to the frame (which doesn't rotate), instead of the handlebars and fork (which do), like this rack from WorkCycles. Either way, you'll want something to keep the front end from rotating while you're trying to load up your rack. I put a small spring between the frame and the fork to keep the fork/wheel from rotating too far. Normally, it doesn't affect steering since you don't move the handlebars very much. It makes tight, low speed turns more difficult and also make maneuvering the bike inside your front door a little harder, but otherwise works great.

In one last safety feature (besides the front and rear lights), I found these pedals with LEDs in addition to the reflectors. They don't require any batteries, the rotation of the pedals powers the lights, very convenient (similar to these, but mine don't have a capacitor that keeps the LEDs on when you stop).

Any other noteworthy DIY projects and modifications going on out there?

Don't drink the water...Seriously.

Russell on the left, Jefe on the right

In our last few weeks in Europe, we went to visit our friend Russell in Kraków, Poland, a place very unlike France and a nice change of pace before we head back to the United States. We didn't know much about Poland before we got there, and Russell has only been living there a few weeks, so no one knew what to expect. (You can read Russell's summary of our trip, without pictures :( on his blog)

Russell has been slowly learning Polish for more than a year, but (as we have also learned, here in France) jumping into a conversation with a native speaker is still a daunting task. He was kind enough to help us as much as he could and we all learned a little more Polish vocabulary. We learned the words for "danger, mean dog"...Uwaga Zeypies

The sign says he's a mean dog,
but he looks more like an awkward ballet dancer

and that night we made home-made tortillas (we brought some masa with us from France) and carnitas, he learned the word for shoulder blade at the grocery store (łobotka, as in pork shoulder, the cut used for carnitas)

Of course there was a little bit of culture shock. The small grocery store across from where we were staying remained open all night, we couldn't believe it. Instead of thinking "how convenient" like an American, I thought "who would work those hours" like a French person.

The clocktower across from our hostel.
Zoom in to see the odd typeface of the numerals.

The food was also surprising. After a few meals in a row of various kinds pork paired with piles of french fries, we were excited to find something a bit different...for instance, a place using local specialties in creative ways. Oscypek is unpasteurized, smoked sheep's cheese that has been pressed into cylinders with designs on the outside. In this case it was sliced, grilled and served with strawberries. In true Polish fashion, they managed to sneak some meat in, since it was tasted like it was grilled on the same grill used for fatty pork products, which made it even more delicious. Baked camembert with strawberries is a similar dish, which we've found here in France. We'll definitely be looking for this Polish cheese in the Polish grocers of Chicago.

Grilled Oscypek with fig jam and strawberries

After a meal of pork, or things grilled in pork fat, there is nothing like finding a good bookstore to relax. With the population of English speakers in Kraków--some residents, some tourists-- comes the local English language bookstore: in this case, the very welcoming Massolit. With three rooms of books, English language periodicals, comfy chairs, and a small cafe, it's easy to spend a whole afternoon here. I was able to catch up on a fairly recent copy of the New Yorker, which was addressed to someone in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood, and had made its way to Poland, probably thanks to Chicago's enormous Polish population.

Taking a break at Massolit bookstore in Kraków

For better or worse, it seems that Poland is taking a lot of its cues from the United States. There are the twenty-four hour grocery stores, the poor bicycling infrastructure, and the occasional lack of government oversight. Case in point: the tap water is unsafe to drink, which I didn't believe at first. When I initially heard this, I had already been drinking it for a day or two with no ill effects. I wondered if it was unsafe like in Central America, where the effects were immediately apparent, or if the effects were more long term. Turns out the contaminants in the water cause long term damage...as in liver damage.

In the American spirit of exploiting loopholes, we noticed another phenomenon, that I though might be a quirk in the advertising laws. There were bikes covered in advertisements, locked to street signs and fences. I wondered if putting the ads on bicycles exempted them from normal advertising restrictions, or perhaps just the costs associated with renting ad space.

Of course there were plenty of used clothing stores, and even a used clothing market every Sunday in Kazimierz, south of the city center, but we especially liked the one in the photo below because of the frankenstein mannequin out front. They stuck a small head on a regular body...

...and somehow made it seem kind of gangsta

Besides all the previously mentioned American imports: greasy food, crazy drivers, the idea of convenience over sanity, there was one last blow that was especially crushing after living in France. This is a snapshot (see below) of a menu at a mid-priced restaurant. The American wines available are Sutter Home and Carlo Rossi, two wines which are particularly well known for their disgustingness and popularity amongst underaged drinkers. So why import it to Poland and feature it on the menu? I assume it is mostly to keep prices down. And to make us feel even more uncomfortable with the way Europeans imagine Americans. On the other hand, both the locals and tourists here clearly expect things pretty cheap. The French wines we found in wine shops usually cost three times as much as they would for us in France, which makes them true luxury items when you take into account Poland's otherwise low cost of living.

Sutter Home can be yours for only 17 złoty ($5) a glass, the same price as bottle of good wine in France.