The Terrible Catsafterme

There are those weekends where it is nice to sit around the house, watching movies and TV, eating fast food (or ramen), playing on Facebook, and staring at the Christmas tree, wondering when it is going to take itself down. Then again there are other weekends like that of March 21 and 22, 2009. This is that rare type of weekend during which one is able to meet a handful of celebrities, have a reunion with an old friend, see two Vice-Presidential graves, visit a Hard Rock Cafe, and enjoy a sushi dinner and night on the town in Chicago.

This was Ashleigh’s birthday, but I wasn’t going to be celebrating the actual day with her. She had left with a group of friends for her Spring Break in Myrtle Beach. Instead I opted to head out of town as well and embarked on a road trip bound for Chicago. You might recall that I had intended to visit Los Angeles for the February Hollywood Collectors Show earlier this year, but had been stymied by a flight delay. I chose to believe that there had been a ‘reason’ for the cancellation of my trip, and it may very well have involved other opportunities that opened up because of it. That is to say, I wouldn’t have even considered attending the Chicago Hollywood Collectors Show had I made it to L.A.

So once I saw the enticing line-up of celebrities that included a whopping four cast members from The Brady Bunch, my decision was solidified to make the trek to Chicago. I had even resigned myself to going alone if necessary, but asked several people if they’d like to make the journey with me. Finally, Heidi who had initially thought it would be impossible to find a babysitter, found a door of opportunity to get out of Ohio for the first time in five years. And although she was dragged along with me on my specific adventures, she was able to have a few of her own that made the trip worthwhile for her as well.

So we left at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning. I was impressed that Heidi made it over to my house on time at 6:30am. We had agreed that if we took her Explorer, I would pay for the gas. I don’t trust my car to make such long hauls any longer. So we were off on the weekend adventures before 7am. Naturally our first stop was at Burger King two miles from my house.

The drive was pleasant and mostly uneventful although at one point we ran the car dangerously low of running out of gas, in desperate search of a gas station near Gary, Indiana. With my iPod and Transpod along, there was no limit to the amount of music we had at our disposal. With the one hour that we gained due to the time difference, we rolled into the Chicago area at about 10:30, and made it the Marriott Chicago O’Hare, checked in, and found our way into the collector’s show before noon.

Spotting the Sears Tower from the Chicago Skyway

We really spent only about 90 minutes at the show, first making the rounds with the ten celebrities who I had on my list to meet (who will be seen in separate postings, beginning here), then browsing the memorabilia for a while. In this current economy, I find it hard to believe that business is that good for most of the vendors, but I did spend a mere $7 each on two autographed photos, one of Suzanne Pleshette and David Birney in Oh God! Book II, and one of 60′s actress Elaine Dupont in a shot from The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. For the most part, the celebrities were very nice about taking photos with them – only two of those whom I met were specifically charging for that. Heidi of course didn’t buy anything but I did wrangle her into a few great pictures. Although originally unenthusiastic about meeting the celebs, she actually became star-struck by a few of them. I love creating monsters.

Signed promo photo from Oh God! Book II

Elaine Dupont with Rick Nelson. She starred in three episodes of one my favorite shows ever…Ozzie and Harriet

Heidi meets the Bradys

Tony Curtis and Heidi

We rested for a bit back in the room before heading out for the evening’s adventures at around 3:00. The most exciting aspect of the Chicago trip for Heidi was to visit with her friend Jennifer who lived in the area. Jennifer instructed us on where to take the Blue Line train to get to her neighborhood. It was very easy finding the train station which was in walking distance of the hotel, but unfortunately they didn’t sell the all-day passes that we decided to buy. So we had to then walk to the nearby Domenick’s grocery store to purchase them. It was about 4:00 by the time we pulled out of the station and headed for Jennifer’s stop at Logan Square. Jennifer was nearby to meet us and walk us back to her apartment, where we met her boyfriend Vincent, drank some water, and left the coats that we had been carrying with us for the last hour and a half.

Getting ready to board the Blue Line train

On the stoop of Jennifer and Vincent’s place, aka Sesame Street

Already with the Facebook?

We walked over to a local pub called Dunlay’s for a pre-sushi cocktail, arriving about 4:45. I had the Avalon cabernet while the others stuck to beer. I also discovered this delightful concoction called beer cheese which was perfect for dipping chips into. After about a half-hour, we stopped briefly by Jennifer and Vincent’s apartment and then embarked on our evening’s sushi adventure.

It was a nice establishment within walking distance called Hachi’s Kitchen. Since it wasn’t quite 6pm yet, the place was nearly empty. Jennifer assured us that it would be more crowded later and in fact, by the time we left, the place was packed.

I suggested that Vincent and Jennifer do the ordering since they were more familiar with the restaurant. We kicked it off with some cold saki and an oyster shooter. For those not in the know, an oyster shooter consists of a raw oyster, vodka, and hot sauce and is meant to be taken in one swift gulp – which is exactly how I took it. The ladies usually take it in two bites. This was by far the most unique item from the menu that we had that night.

The oyster shooters, about to be sucked down

The dinner was a parade of various types and styles of sushi including the dynamite (scallops), salmon, sea bass, and shrimp sushimi, salmon roe, wasabi tobiko, volcano maki, dragon maki, crunchy spicy tuna, and unagi. Overall, an extraordinarily delicious dinner that we were treated to by our excellent hosts. Vincent is a live sketch comedy artists, so I met my match in humor. Naturally there were a lot of laughs, but the funniest one came when Jennifer, Vincent, and I nearly blew out our nostrils on the wasabi tobiki, while Heidi chewed it up as if it were Bubble-Yum – with no reaction to it at all. I accused her of being a robot.

Our scrumptious array of sushi delights

Apparently the wasabi blew my hair into reverse

Vincent’s turn with the wasabi sushi, as Jennifer waits her turn

Heidi struggles to keep her sushi together

Vincent tries to ward off any ill after-effects of the meal

We finished up a little after 6:30 and headed back to Dunlay’s on foot. There the drinks began to flow nicely. They had these nice  beer samplers with three glasses of various beers. I first tried the Rainbow Road assortment (as seen at the top of the posting) with White Ale from Japan, the Belgian style Golden Monkey, and a wheat beer. I followed it with a second trio of varieties from England (the Across the Pond special): Samuel Smith Teddy Porter, RCH Pitchfork Bitter, and Young’s Double Chocolate Stout. Oh and another Avalon Cabernet.

A quick after-sushi stop at Colon & Colon, an unfortunately named tax agency

It was during our time at the bar that I had another one of my patented reunions. My old pal Rob Bradford who used to live in my neighborhood in Beavercreek made his way from his local home to meet up with me. It was great to hang out with him for the evening as well. More details of our meeting can be seen here.

Naturally as the alcohol flowed, the gals became ravenously hungry and ended up ordering another round of chips and beer cheese, a tasty skillet cookie, and a batch of french fries with ketchup and mayo. This obviously mixed well with the alcohol and sushi. Yeah whatever.

Skillet cookie madness

A kinder, gentler moment after the cookie craving had been satiated

Rob, me, Vincent, Jennifer, and Heidi…the gang’s all here

By 11pm, the long day had taken its toll and we decided to head back after nixing the idea of grabbing a subway and heading to downtown Chicago (Heidi gets these ideas). We walked Jennifer and Vincent back to their house, grabbed our coats, and caught the subway back to the O’Hare stop, walking to our hotel in the chilly Chicago evening air. It had been a fun and eventful day…and there would be more to come.

Late night Chicago train station

Chicago will continue…

Follow the trail of celebrities from the Collectors Show here…

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 at 6:42 am and is filed under 2000's - Late, Autographs, Celebrity Encounters, Vacations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.