The Night Chicago Died. Meet Gaili, spelled Violet

 That's how "Gaili" is spelled here.

 

See, that's where we went to!

 

To consider your Bloody Mary part of the filling brunch, obviously there's the bacon.

 

At 4am I woke up starving, sure that my stomach had chewed it's way through my spine. I got up, ate a handful of nuts and went back to bed.

I waited for the sun to rise, put on my running shoes, and did an eight-kilometer lap along the shores of Lake Michigan.

We chose the popular Beatrix restaurant for brunch, and after a half an hour walk we had to wait only another half an hour to get a table. Their 10-grain oatmeal with brown sugar, cranberries and almonds sounded so good that I could already imagine this luxurious porridge bowl vividly. Scott chose a burger and we also got some fluffy pancakes with lemon syrup. My oat-mocha coffee was absolutely delicious, creamy and strong. And then came the food. A large bowl of gray porridge that was so watery that there was water even on the edge of the bowl. There were a couple of cranberries in the middle, a tiny spoonful of sugar, and some almond slices. I approached it with extreme caution and after tasting it, it turned out that caution was well justified. In addition to the fact that the baby porridge contained neither milk nor cream, there was not one grain of salt. The waitress suggested to bring me some more sugar. I didn't see how it would improve the meal, so she offered to replace the porridge with yogurt accompanied by muesli and berries. Fortunately, that was good. And the pancakes were just melting in our mouths.

As always, we had chosen a place with great views over the city, and after the brunch we walked to 360 degrees observatory. Took the elevator to the 94th floor and got the entire Chicago in front of us. For $8 there was the window tilt - you stand by the window and it starts to tilt in three goes, so that you end up standing at a 45-degree angle. It is apparently the most magnificent thrill ride in Chicago. Since there was nothing to see on the street next to the observatory, we decided to skip it.

There are always seasonal drinks at Starbucks, and in October they carry pumpkin spice latte and apple crisp macchiato. I decided to try the apple one.

Barista: What's your name?

Me: Gaili

Barista: Say no more. And writes the name on the cup. 

I get my drink and it turns out that Gaili is now being spelled "Violet" here.

In the afternoon we walked to the aquarium and watched the Chicago skyline over the lake. The weather was still superb, the sun was shining… And then we started walking to Little Italy to have dinner there. We could hardly get out of the park when the beautiful weather had become a mega pouring rain. So we jumped into Uber. It turned out that only one Italian restaurant and one Chinese restaurant were open in the whole district. Italian one, as it turned out, luckily also had a back room, and we got a table there in proud solitude and freezing Alaska.

Later the night we walked to the aquarium again to see the city skyline in lights.