Super Chicago Saturday

Saturday we slept in late AGAIN! Gotta love Lynn & Em's place! They have a 2 bdrm/2 bath condo, and we love the way the second bedroom is made. It is on the inside wall & doesn't have any windows. However, the top of every wall is open about 2-3 feet from the ceiling. So you get filtered light. Nothing direct from a window. We'd been offered the master bedroom for our use, which was sweet of the girls. It has a huge tub & a TV you can watch in bed. But we ended up spending most of our time in the kitchen getting & eating food & drinks. So we were always at the counter bar area or the couch watching the bigger TV. What we loved about "our" bedroom the most, though, was that secluded feeling that kept the light out. It felt great to just sleep in without any light coming in. Sleeping was real cozy! The only downside...if you can call it that...is the fact that you lose track of time sleeping so much. So it wasn't unusual waking up around 10 a.m. CST, which for us was like waking up around noonish since we were used to EST. BUT we aren't complaining. Hubby & I both couldn't think of a time when we were able to sleep in for so long so often. Oh yes, we did get up to take "the boys" for a walk (Em & Lynn's greys). I should say HUBBY did because he was more of a morning person, and I'm sure part of it was that he didn't want to wait for me to try & wake up & get myself dressed. I'm too slow for him. You know guys...throw on a shirt, slip into jeans, and they're good to go. Definitely not as easy for me. Factor in trying to put my contacts in, brush my hair, etc & you'd be waiting WAY too long, according to Hubby. But hey...I love him anyway. I traded him the walk for preparing the boys' food & making him a pot of coffee. So I THINK we may have evened out. No matter what, it was sweet of my Hubby to walk the boys without me.
After taking the boys out, sleeping, taking the boys out again....we went over to Starbucks for another cup of coffee. It's been pretty cold here. Lows were in the 40s. Freezing to a Floridian. We jumped back on the green line & headed back to Oak Park. Hubby had said yesterday that he REALLY wanted to get into the Unity Temple...to see it & hear more about it. So we bought tour tickets. They are only $8, and the docent was a very knowledgeable woman. I was so tempted to ask her if she was an architect now or in a previous life, or possibly even a professor at a nearby college. She was very thorough.
Another strong glimpse into Frank Lloyd Wright's work & life. He loved this little temple. He called it his little jewel box & felt it was his best work of all his religious buildings. He began the design in 1905 to replace the Unitarian Universalist Church that was lost in a fire. As you go into the foyer, look on the wall behind the display of t-shirts & bags for sale. You will find gold-plated nails children pulled from the rubble after the fire of the original church. These nails were given as keepsakes to the people of the congregation. One woman donated hers back to the church upon her death, and it is the one hanging in a frame on the wall.
The church had only a very small budget, so FLW was confined to that budget for rebuilding on the narrow lot & so close to the street. There was also the need to build it in such a way as to its use in a variety of functions. It is currently used for public gatherings, such as musical performances. So FLW built the temple (as the people asked it to be renamed) between 1906 & 1908 for the cost of $60,000. He mainly used reinforced concrete slabs, formed by pouring a mixture of Portland Cement & crushed red granite. Pea gravel or crushed stone aggregate added texture to the exterior roof, floor & walls. His use of concrete helped him stick to within his budget, & it made him one of the earliest to use poured-in-place concrete. (Personally this part of FLW's preference is not one that I like about him. I understand why he used concrete & how it was supposed to be more modern for the times, but I find concrete to be rather bland.) FLW used art glass in doors, windows, skylights & in the light fixtures. He used natural oak in the wood millwork in the window frames, doors, in bands around the concrete areas, & in the organ screen, which is a beauty in & of itself. Much of the furniture was designed by him, but wasn't intended for the temple. He did design church pews for it, but they were never built. A simpler & less expensive set of pews was chosen, again probably due to cost.
On the outside of the temple, the words "FOR THE WORSHIP OF GOD AND THE SERVICE OF MAN" are carved. The temple has two distinct areas. One is for the worship of God & the other is called a meeting room, to be used for social occasions. The two-story social room has a huge hearth & fireplace. The bottom had kitchen, study and classrooms, and balcony classrooms are above. Reopened galleries offer views from the main level through upper clerestory windows.
There's so much more to tell about the Unity Temple, even as simple as its form is. But there is nothing like going to experience it for yourself.

After Hubby & I enjoyed the tour, bought a book & a CD to go with t-shirts from the day before, we headed out on a walk around town. We'd visited inside the township's library before heading in for the Unity Temple tour. Now we headed behind the temple for a few blocks & over to another section south of the loop. There we ate at a simple family restaurant called George's. It had a mixture of all-American & Greek food. Try the gyro pita! The sauce was on the mark! Then we discovered K9 Cookie Company, "the bakery & boutique for discerning dogs", voted best bakery for dogs in Chicagoland. Of course, we just couldn't resist taking homemade doggy treats back to our "furry nephews" back at the condo. We also bought extra to take home to our own furry "relatives" who always expect SOMEthing upon our return. The boys here LOVED them! You can find them at k9cookiecompany.com if interested.
Then we headed "home". We debated going down to Grant Park. We really wanted to see the fountain at night. But we discovered that part of the Loop was closed down for renovations. So we decided to stay in & ordered pizza (Pat's Pizzeria, 628 S. Clark, (312)427-2320..."not affiliated with Pat's Pizza at 2679 N. Lincoln Avenue"). Their saying is "we think our thin crust is the best in the world", and if you like crispy, credit-card-thin pizza like Hubby & I do, this is the place to order. (By the way, a relative owns the one at Lincoln Avenue, though they parted ways. It ALSO has fantastic pizza!) Be sure to try the garlic bread, baked with mozzarella, while you're at it, too!
Tomorrow: Sunday...time to head home... :-(
But we enjoyed this so much. We hope to be able to come back soon & discover more of Chicago. With over 9,000 restaurants ALONE to try, there's still a lot of adventure left!
~sher