On Saturday, we had another Chicago Adventures day. Anna, Nadia, and Kira came to Chicago for a day. I bought two tickets for “Peter and the Wolf” in CSO, and this time, I went with Nadia, and Anna and Kira explored the Art Institute while waiting for us.
The day started a little bit catastrophic. The CSO requires all unvaccinated patrons to show a recent COVID test. For PCR, it can be a day old, and for antigen, it has to be three hours before the show. Anna took Nadia for the test the day before, but the results were not ready by the evening (and neither did they come Saturday morning). Anna called the CSO guest service, and they assured her that there are several pharmacies very close to CSO, where they could get a COVID test right before the show. I was a bit skeptical, knowing that many places in the Loop are closed during the weekend, but there was not that much choice.
The train arrived on time, so we had an hour and a half before the show, and we started walking in the direction of the CSO. We didn’t see any opened pharmacies on the way, so we headed to the Walgreens closest to CSO. It was open, but we saw that the pharmacy itself was closed for the weekend when we came inside. That was concerning, but we still had both time and hope. I asked an associate where the closest Walgreens is to get a COVID test, and he said: two blocks North. It was in the opposite direction to the CSO, but at least we thought we would get it done. Nadia was doing great walking with almost no complaints.
When we reached this other Walgreens, it turned out that… yes, their pharmacy window was closed, too! We had no time to go anywhere else, so Anna bought an at-home test from Abbot’s Lab, installed the app on her phone, and we opened it right there on the pharmacy floor :). Anna swabbed Nadia’s nose and started the test. We didn’t have time to wait for the required fifteen minutes, so we started walking towards the CSO, and I was trying to hold the test horizontally :).
The test was ready just when we reached the CSO. It was not so easy to show the test results on the phone while the phone had to stay with Anna :), but we managed.
Nadia enjoyed the performance, and I liked it a lot, too. There was no narration, but there were mimes. Also, before the orchestra started to play the actual piece, the conductor demonstrated all the instruments, which character was played but which instrument, and what were the main themes. So it all worked great.
The Wolf was played by one of the mimes, and when he appeared, we heard a child crying. My first thought was: why somebody brings a baby with them?! But then I turned and saw that that was not a baby – it was a boy who got scared of the Wolf!
Our initial plan was to go skating after lunch and then to the Art Institute. But since the Art Institute Educational Center recently reopened and was only open until 3 PM, we decided to switch the sequence of events. We ended up not skating at all because when the Center was closed, Nadia decided to see exhibits :). But at least nobody was late for the train this time!
Just one closing remark – if the Art Institute would have their coat check open, our lives would be much easier!
Hettie's Reflections 