Catch You

An unusual choice of lyric for today's post - Catch You by Sophie Ellis Baxter isn't music I would normally listen to, but the title seemed apt for today when we eat in a restaurant called Catch 35. 

Having gone back to the Suite at 2.30 am after our 6 hours walking tour of Chicago I showered - it is 93° out there in the shade!! We decided this would be a good time to use the washing machine\dryer. 

The washing machine was top loading, not something you see often in the UK but it worked very well and within 40 minutes the clothes were washed and in another 50 they were dry and ready to re-pack. 

Following an example set by my sister on a previous road trip, once we arrive over here we end up with one suitcase with clean clothes and another with dirty. This works fine except after a full wash when one case is very full and the other empty, but I'm sure by the time we head off from here on Monday we will have some dirty laundry to put in the smaller case. 

At 4.20 I left the suite to head to Mass, given a busy day tomorrow a vigil Mass seemed like a good idea, so I headed down to St. Peter's, a Franciscan Church in the loop, as central Chicago is called. 



My route is outlined here:

5.00 pm Mass was a lovely celebration in a full church with organ, hymns and sung parts of the Mass and even incense. I was a bit puzzled however by the readings as in the UK if a Holyday of Obligation falls on a Saturday or Monday its celebration is moved to the nearest Sunday. So back home this Saturday evening or Sunday people would be celebrating the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, not here, we were having the 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time??

Before I came away on holiday I checked that the USA was not celebrating a Holyday of Obligation on Saturday, in case I needed to go to Mass both days, but on further reading it turns out that, unlike the UK when an Obligation is transferred, in the USA if the day falls on a Saturday or Monday the obligation is suppressed but the normal Sunday liturgy is observed. 

I walked back to the Suite and copied over edited some of the 500 pictures which Drew had taken today (I finished this task on Sunday morning). In the end there were only 450 as a number were duplicates taken deliberately to be able to pick the best one. 

At 7.00 we headed out for dinner. If you read my last post you will know I'd shifted the Friday abstinence to today, so it had to be fish for tonight. We walked a few blocks to a restaurant I had seen earlier on my way to Mass it was called Catch 35 and was at 35 N Waker Drive. 

We both liked the look of the menu so went inside and were seated straight away. While we waited to choose we were given a half loaf of sourdough, how ever often I buy sourdough in the UK it never tastes as sour as the real thing. The half-loaf went before we had ordered our appetisers. 

Remembering that this is the U.S. and that ordering mains (Entrees, i.e. beginnings as they strangely call them here) at the same time as starters (Appetisers) is often risky as you can never guess what order they will arrive. So we ordered our appetisers; Yellow Fin Tuna Sashimi with picked ginger, wasabi and soy sauce for Drew and Szechuan Scallops with mushrooms and Chinese style noodles for me and another half-loaf of sourdough bread. 

When we had finished our appetisers we ordered our 'Entrees' Shrimp Pad Thai with Chilli sauce for Drew and Soft-shelled crab done Milenaise style with a lemon sauce  served with mashed potatoes and carrots. 

We finished dinner at 8.30 and walked back to the Suite, we were in bed by 9.30 after a long but enjoyable day.