Chicago 2020:
Day 5


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Wednesday, September 9, 2020: We awoke to another dreary day. This may seem like a problem but it helped us justify another lazy day of relaxing at the Emil Bach House. Here's the view toward the lake from Debbie's bathroom, ...
... and here's a zoomed-in view. While Debbie was taking these photos, Tom was out fetching delicious McDonald's for breakfast.
We had been warned that a crew would be arriving to build the event tent. With a wedding reception scheduled here a few days later, time was of the essence. It was interesting to check on the team's progress over the course of the day.
One of the bookshelves in the living room contained numerous Frank Lloyd Wright-themed items to keep us entertained.
We decided to do a Fallingwater puzzle. It featured a photograph on one side and the blueprints on the other.
We figured that we'd start on the photograph side and definitely follow up with the other side. How hard could it be? Oh, foolish us.
A couple of hours later, we had all of the sharp lines and bright colors done, so we decided to reward ourselves with lunch.
We headed out to the garage (which we finally noticed had an Emil Bach House-branded cornhole set) and drove south to ...
... Tre Kronor Restaurant, a Scandinavian cafe.
We opted to eat indoors instead of on their garden patio since there was only one other table filled this late in the lunch hour.
Debbie ordered the salmon dill quiche which earned the honor of "Most Delicious Quiche Ever Eaten." Amazingly, the fruit salad earned the honor of "Most Delicious Fruit Salad Ever Eaten," due to its limited use of canteloupe and melon, and its huge variety of other fruits.
Meanwhile, Tom was loving his beef sandwich with potatoes. We would be regulars here if we lived in this town.
On our way out, we got a picture of the adorable crown detail in the woodwork.
Speaking of detail, Debbie was starting to pick up the pace on photographing interesting brickwork. This design seemed to be popular in many of the neighborhoods nearby. This is probably a good time to mention that Emil Bach co-owned Bach Brick Company. Also, Debbie's grandfather was a Swedish immigrant who lived and worked in the Chicago area as a bricklayer for his entire career. So it is very likely that at some point, Debbie's grandfather worked with bricks sold by Emil Bach's company.
We returned to the Emil Bach House and found the alley blocked again, so we drove around to the other side. This blurry photo is the only one we got of the property's extensive gardens on the street.
After parking the car, we decided to walk down the alley to the lake. There was a brisk wind so it was great fun to guess which waves would crash the highest against the shore.
This little stretch of beach, if you can call it that, is Fargo Beach Park, but all the sand appears to be underwater. It's probably beautiful in the sun when a pandemic hasn't closed all beaches.
We settled into the Emil Bach House for the rest of the day. While Tom continued on the Fallingwater puzzle, Debbie flipped through the collection of Frank Lloyd Wright books. There was a 100-pound coffee table book titled "Frank Lloyd Wright: 1885-1916" that contained a section on this very house.
It was very weird to be reading about it while sitting in it. This page contained the original sketches of the first and second floor layout.
This page featured a sketch of the house. It's a beauty!
Debbie finally convinced Tom to give up on the puzzle once the only remaining pieces were impossible-to-place green Pennsylvania leaves. The blueprint side would go unstarted.
Amazingly, Debbie had found a couple of details that hadn't been photographed, like this pretty wood votive holder in the Emil Bach House window pattern.
It matched the window pattern throughout the house. By this time, Debbie had realized that all it took to get this look was some glued-on caning and and some vinyl colors. Oh, and an eye for design - something we are both sorely lacking. But now we know that we can turn every window in our house into stained glass by using this technique. It sure was a gorgeous look for this home.
The event tent was completed shortly after we returned from lunch, so we got a picture of the finished result.
We were going to venture into the yard to get a closer look, but there was a mama rabbit and two babies on the lawn and in the mulch, so we left them to their snacking.
We're classy people, so we paired our dinner of Lunchables with a bottle of Elmaro Rosa, our favorite wine.
We loved the screened porch.
It combined the fresh air of outside with all of the buglessness and comfort of inside. We also declared it the perfect place to drink a bottle of wine.
We didn't quite make it a full Scrabble tournament but we did play a few games before bedtime.
Good night, Emil Bach House!

Day 6 >


Chicago 2020: [Day 1] [Day 2] [Day 3] [Day 4] [Day 5] [Day 6]

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