To Chicago, Habrae, Hidden Lake, And Reza's

We're in Chicago with old, old friends.  Actually they aren't older than we are, but we've known them for a long time.  

We thought it would be easy getting here on a non-stop flight out of Anchorage.  For the non-stop route, we were willing to fly overnight.  In the end, after lots of to-ing and fro-ing (one hour delay, get on plane, taxi from gate, sit on tarmac, return to gate, need to fix some mechanical issue,  some people want to get off because they've already missed their Chicago connections, then everyone told to get off, then several new estimated departure times, then four hours from original flight time, the flight is cancelled) we were quickly put on a 5am flight to Seattle with a tight connection to a Chicago flight, which we made.  And later we got an email with a $200 credit for each of us on future Alaska Airlines flights.  For people who were soured by Alaska Airlines because of these delays, it's a bittersweet reward.  But for people dependent on Alaska Airlines like we are, it's a decent apology gift.  

But our friends were patient on their end and got us to a great Thai restaurant in Oak Park for dinner and home to crash.  

We shared sticky rice and mango for dessert.

Thursday they took us to Hidden Lake.  It's in DuPage County and abuts the Arboretum.  

They were trying to get us somewhere that got us into woods without too many urban distractions.  

And they did a pretty good job.  The trees are so different from Anchorage trees.  No spruce, no birch, no cottonwood.  Not sure what they all were, but it felt exotic to this Alaskan.  It seemed there were some maples.  Probably in the arboretum there would have been labels, but we just wanted to walk around and enjoy.  A few trees are just beginning to turn, but barely.  Temps in the low 70s.  And lots of birds, but for the most part not easy to catch with the camera.  I think the one below is a flicker, but I'm not completely sure.  

Lots of late flowers like this clover.

But there is a villain in this story.  

These are the same white flowers, but they weren't quite in focus so I played with Curves to get this version.  

And then we lucked out on dinner.  We'd passed a sign for Reza's on the way.  Sounded like a Middle Eastern place.  Even better, it turned out to be Persian and we had a delicious dinner with an accommodating waiter, and lots to take home for lunch today.  This one was a chicken kabob.