kitchtrips

Somewhere out there in America
There’s a long haul driver filling up
And a welcome-back-home party twelve ounce toast
Carolina toes on a California coast to coast
The Sun going down
Fields lightin’ up in two-lane towns
Heart’s on a hood down airport road
Seeing how high they can go

Yeah American nights comin’ out of that dash
Goin’ big time on a little bit of cash
Raisin’ one up, and singin’ along
Living the words to all those songs
American nights slidin’ off that sky
That “vow that I’ll be going home” look in her eyes
Ain’t nothing better, no there ain’t nothing like
American nights
Yeah these American nights

– Parmalee

Friday 2 June 2023

We unfortunately said goodbye to Elias this afternoon. He is needed back at the World Bank in Washington D.C. to solve all the world’s problems.

However, we didn’t let him leave the Midwest without checking out one of the best sights in Chicago. We headed north after breakfast into one of the more affluent suburbs around, Winnetka, which is home to the Home Alone house that was made famous in the 1990 John Hughes movie and the sequel that came out two years later.

For people our age, Home Alone is very much a cultural touchpoint, and every time we bring someone new to Chicago, one of their requests is to go up and see the Home Alone house, at 671 Lincoln Avenue. Nearby is the house where the climax of the first film’s showdown between Kevin McCallister and the Wet Bandits (memorably played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern) at 656 Lincoln Avenue.

Not surprisingly, there is a fence around the house, which is probably necessary given the amount of foot traffic there is. Case in point, it was a random early June Friday with school still in session in some parts of the city, and there were other people there taking photos.

There has been some modelling done to change the front curving driveway – in the movie, the running gag is that either the pizza guy or shuttle driver always screeches to a halt and knocks over a silver statue – to a driveway that goes straight down the left-hand side of the property. The six-bedroom house was not used for internal shots.

After checking out the house and walking through Winnetka, with a stop at a very nice juice bar, we drove Elias out to O’Hare so he could catch his flight back. Lunch – at a reasonable, lunch-y hour today – was at Denny’s, close by the airport and the Rosemont Outlets, where Kat checked out a Coach shop whilst I caught up on some reading, something I haven’t done much of this trip, as we’ve been pretty busy, and I’ve spent most flights since getting to LA dozing or watching the live TV they have on some planes.

In the evening, we went over to the Weller’s house. Scott and Kristina are two of the nicest people you could meet, and it’s always a fun time when we hang out. These days, Kristina is famous for her Wheaton Balloon business, and she surprised us with an amazing Aussie-themed garland out in the backyard.

We drank cocktails then got to once again sample Kristina’s amazing steaks, with double-baked potato, salad, green beans and garlic bread. Yet again, I ate plenty, but saved some room for homemade apple pie with ice cream. A brilliant meal, and lots of laughs.

After dinner, we went down to 302 Wheaton, a burger restaurant where the band that Scott “manages”, the Wheaton Dad Band were playing. These guys are legit: they can go from the Eagles to Metallica to Journey to Rick Springfield and do them all great justice. Especially for us Aussies, they played the AC/DC Classic “You Shook Me All Night Long”. It was fun to hang out with a bunch of my Wheaton buddies – Scott, Bryan, Keith etc. – on a perfect summer night. Life doesn’t get much better.

Home at a reasonable time tonight, and putting a lid on this blog. We are doing a special 5k charity walk/run event tomorrow. More on that in the next edition.