Journal

Elaine picked me up at O'Hare on Friday afternoon and we headed to downtown Chicago. At Elaine's suggestion we ate at The Berghoff restaurant. It is a wonderful, old restaurant and I had a great Wiener Schnitzel. From there we headed to the Schubert Theatre a really grand old theatre. I really like the old theatres that aren't too huge. However, the play "The Graduate" with Lorraine Bracco (The Sopranos) as Mrs. Robinson was less than entrancing. The play is taken from the book and not the movie so there are differences but we both agreed that this Mrs. Robinson was totally lacking.

Saturday was a beautiful day so we went downtown to the Navy Pier. A wide variety of "stuff" and things to do including the Smith Museum of Stained Glass. The collection of Tiffany stained glass is beautiful; I would go back to this exhibit again.

In the evening Leah, Brian and I went to the Lyric Opera production of Lucia di Lammermoor. While we all thought there were some weak aspects to the opera, Lucia's famous mad scene was spectacular and drew numerous "bravas". The review in the Sun Times rightly calls Natalie Dessay stunning.

It was a great weekend in Chicago visiting friend and family!