Labor Day Weekend: Jazz and Hammers and Amtrak Trains

We spent the bulk of Labor Day weekend at one of our annual favorites, The Chicago Jazz Fest.   Friday, we got there in the evening, just in time to catch Jeff Parker on the main stage.   We'd seen him last weekend as an audience member at The Hideout.

He took his daughter, Ruby, to The All Girl Band shows and bought her the book, "The Girls' Guide To Rocking". 

 

If she wants to rock the Jazz world, she'll have the connections.   Friday, Jeff broke out a song he wrote just for her, that I believe he called, "Time Moves Fast For Ruby".

We enjoyed 4 days of family time with the grandparents, in from Cincinnati.   Sunday, they boarded the Amtrak, Empire Builder, for Glacier National Park and then Portland, to see their younger daughter.   It's a long, but scenic, journey that they first made last fall, and enjoyed so much, they decided to do it again.  In two weeks, they'll take the train back through Chicago and drive our kids back to Ohio, for the beginning of the kids' fall break.

The train station got a bit surreal when we were about to board the escalator to the food court, to get my parents fed before departure.   An obese woman with a cane tripped in front of us, and fell, ending up wedged upside down on the escalator screaming for help.   Her family member, who had a toddler on a leash, seemed incapable of doing anything, so Dug took the leash-boy and held him while someone shut the power off.  

It ultimately took a fleet of security guards and a call to paramedics to get the enormous woman righted again.   Once Dug was able to pass the leash-boy back to Mama, we had to detour down the hall and find an alternate route upstairs via elevator.  Always excitement in the big city.

Saturday, the kids loved The Home Depot Kids Workshop.   We already have the next one on the calendar for October 3rd.   It was quite impressive for a freebie.   The kids each made a wooden bean bag toss game, with 2 beanbags and were also given an orange apron, a certificate and a nice metal enamel collector pin, featuring the project they made.

 

 

We decided to play tourists in our home town and go to The Rain forest Cafe.   None of us had ever been there and the kids thoroughly enjoyed the kitschy animatronic jungle beasties, simulated storms, and shooting stars in the night sky.

The hot fudge volcano dessert, erupting with a sparkler, that was big enough to feed all 6 of us, was a tasty climax.  

 

 

Then we went back to the fest for a Jazz filled afternoon and evening.

My parents had never been to Jazz Fest and enjoyed the music and entertaining antics of the grand kids.   Their glow stick and glow in the dark poi ball routine earned us an invite to hang with the fire jugglers at a giant drum circle in October.

We had a tasty chicken dinner and lots of good snacks on the handy rolling table-in-a-bag.   The plethora of goose poop made me xtra happy to have a table for the first time this year!   It was also the perfect size for some ruthless giant checkers matches.

We ran into kid friends Gabe and Evan, to play Frisbee and football with.   And we saw kid friends Ben and Otis, who also had their visiting Grandma in tow.  

We enjoyed the craft fair and frequented the Asian booth selling brightly colored wooden frogs that croak when stroked and dragons.   By the 3rd day, we were joking with the proprietors that we couldn't stay away.   The kids bought journals with silver embossed animals, 3 hair sticks and dragon pencils.   We got the inside scoop, too, about how the dragons are reincarnated from glue and the sawdust left from hollowing out and carving the frogs.   Yay for recycling!

The kids wandered the craft area happily sketching whatever caught their eye.  My favorite quote was from a guy working one of the booths.  When Sage explained that she was drawing everything, he said, "That's cool.  You can draw me.  Just DON'T MAKE ME LOOK LIKE A FROG!   I mean, no offense to frogs or anything.   I just don't wanna look like one."



The music was world class, the weather was warm and nice, and the vibe was relaxed and never too crowded.   So again, we say a sad goodbye to Jazz Fest, till next year.

30th Annual Chicago Jazz Fest

I haven't missed a Jazz Fest in the 18 years I have called Chicago home. And for the last 7, I've attended as a Mom with a kid or two in tow. This is the first year we were able to ditch the stroller, which was freeing, but made for some rethinking. It was a handy place to stuff stuff.

Thursday night I took the kids to Pritzker Pavilion for an amazing saxophone performance by Sonny Rollins. We swam with friends after school, grabbed a quick bite to eat in Bucktown, and took the train from there. So, we traveled without our usual baggage of camera, play tent, ribbon dancers, poi balls, Frisbees, footballs, bubbles, folding chairs, outer ware, snacks, drinks, folding porta potty seat, wipes etc.......

I was giddy with the freedom from packmuledom for one evening out--until the snarking began. I managed to carry just a Neat Sheet in my small AstroTurf backpack, my keys, wallet and el passes. Despite dinner and temps in the 70's, the kids were instantly starving, thirsty, hot, cold, bored and snarky.

Ah, yes. Now I remember why we Moms schlep so much stuff as part of the job description. It was a good lesson in simplifying, though, for everyone. Earlier this year, I was out at Reggie's Rock Club with my husband, and a drunk guy came stumbling up to us and said, "I just had to say hi to you guys. I see you at every show. And.....I mean. I'm a boyscout, too, and like to be prepared, and I don't have kids, but...... Man you guys always bring a lotta s**t." Not how I want to be remembered in this life!

We bought a bottle of overpriced Dasani water at Millineum Park Cafe and three ice cream cones which went far in the quelling the hungries, hots, and thirsties. But, I made them promise to leave their grumpies at the door in exchange for the ice cream bribe. Then we threw ourselves on the mercy of the great universe and I told the kids they'd just have to be content to listen to some world class jazz and play with whatever we found there.

Once in the pavilion, we had the great luck to plunk down behind a small troupe of jugglers. They had looked like normal 20 somethings, having beers together, when we sat down. But once they broke out numerous balls and started juggling and contact juggling, the kids were entranced. Oh, the joys of Chicago outdoor festivals.

I love that the kids are now old enough to go make friends within my sight lines. They happily and confidently trotted off to join Alex, with the dread locks and fascinating circus tricks, and his juggling friends. I enjoyed the kid-free solitude for a solid couple of hours, while the kids camped out and learned about physics and gravity a few blanket in front of me. The "big kids" as my offspring dubbed them, even broke out a deck of cards and taught my two how to play Go Fish, which Du-Jay and Sagezilla were thrilled to win.

We went back for more Jazz Fest both Saturday and Sunday evenings in Grant Park. This time we brought our own toys and chairs, but still kept it simple and took the train. The kids both fell asleep by 9:30pm, long before the final notes were played. Any other time they don't have to be up for school, they'll be happily dancing at midnight. We weighed the option of carrying two kids--65lbs and 41lbs, many blocks to and from the el on each end and made the executive decision to leave early and cab it home.

Sunday, we anticipated a similar end and drove, parking under Millennium Park, so we could stay through the end of the night. We brought enough glow sticks to share, and the kids made a wonderful eco-village out of stones, grass, mud, and sand.

It took hours and many children to make it, and expanded into quite a site art installation, made purely for the joy of it, all from found objects. All in all, it was a great year for The Chicago Jazz Fest.