A Chicago Staycation

Staycation.  Depending on who you believe, the word’s only been around for the last 13 or 15 years and has lots of supposed fathers.  Originally meant to describe time off from work that you spend at home rather than someplace else, staycation as a concept has matured.  For quite a while now it includes getaways that are strictly local.  Like, let’s say, a long weekend downtown if you live in a city of millions.

Strictly a middle and upper middle class form of entertainment, this expanded use of the word has a privileged ring to it.  Hotels, restaurants and pleasurable diversions can still add up to thousands of dollars.  Planning might maximize your chances of getting the most out of the time away from home; but the flexibility spontaneity affords has a lot going for it, too

Because refurbishing wood floors required vacating the premises for a few days this summer, a staycation made sense.  Long curious about what it would be like to live downtown and a chance to get away from the day-to-day grind of housekeeping, yard maintenance and cooking gave the notion a fast pair of legs.  Concerns about the pandemic were certainly there, but these days traveling anywhere responsibly, even to the grocery store, is built in. 

Starting on Tuesday and ending on Friday, this escape included three overnights at the Renaissance Chicago on Wacker and State.  There’s no way to beat the location.  With the Chicago River and the River Walk at its feet, tons of restaurants within a 10-minute walk, and a host of cultural institutions loaded with top of the line shows, finding things to do was easy and ultimately left a lot of good things to say about staycations.

The Renaissance has been around for almost 30 years.  Marriott took over the entire Renaissance hotel chain in 1997; making you think they’d bring their storied attention to detail to the acquired brand.  An imposing, modern hotel with a lot working in its favor, the Renaissance Chicago doesn’t make a lot of effort to impress.  A churn hotel that relies on its size and location, it could be so much more.  On a high floor looking north, with Marina Towers’ two elegant corn cobs staring you in the face and Chicago’s cleaned up, glammed out river and Riverwalk beaconing far far below, the view is what this hotel is all about.  Popping for deluxe accommodations, a bedroom separated behind a door and twice as much floor space than a regular room, might make you want to stay in your suite more than you would otherwise.  That would be even more true if the rooms weren’t quite so lived in and regrettably close to dreary.  Bureau drawers open on their own volition and towels are so no-tell motel thin, you wonder if this really is a Marriott hotel.  Public spaces boast much more vitality and glamour.  There is no restaurant offering premium dining but the wrap around bar sometimes serves meals and cocktails.  Most food lobby level is grab and carry.  Because none of it is what you’d expect, each of those points act more as an annoyance than a problem. 

Oddly, some things are very hard to find anywhere.  A bowl of cereal with fruit for breakfast wasn’t on the room service menu or the menu of any other restaurant or cafeteria offering breakfast.  Sure, this is the Midwest, but it’s also 2021 and there must be others willing to pay downtown prices for a low cholesterol day starter.  Adapting applies to any kind of trip  away from home and this too proved but a small hurdle to overcome.  Loading up on fruit at an off-Loop supermarket vanquished that problem handily. 

If you’re on the tourist track, don’t expect to see many paper menus.  Oversized QR squares are stamped directly on table tops or sit in holders that once held tangible menus.  You’ll see them from LaSalle all the way to Lake Michigan on the outdoor tables of restaurants and concessions strung along the very popular promenade hugging the river. Reading the menu from your phone for anything other than delivery or pickup may initially seems odd, but it’s the wave of the future.  Right now though, it also seems use of the codes are indicative of the quality of food you can expect to get.  If it’s true one out of three Americans eat at least one meal at a fast food outlet daily, the fare at these dining spots might prove perfectly fine.  Salt, fat and sugar are plentiful and portions can be large.  

On a beautiful day with lots of sun and a cooling breeze, a boat ride can be irresistible, even for a pretend tourist.  There are endless ways to scratch that itch.  For the ultimate do it yourself river ride, you can kayak ($35.00/hr). Electric Duffy boats, open air boats with a canopy completely covering passengers, can carry 8 to 10 and go for $159 to $225 an hour, more on the weekends.  And Pathfinders, the closest thing you’ll find to a speedboat and accommodates 6, start at $950. Costs are based on current postings of vendors along the Chicago River and are simply meant to be representative.  The vast number of those who cruise the river do so on the big boats Wendella and Mercury operate and run between $42 and $65 a head.  They’re all fun, and if you take the architectural tour, you’ll even learn something about the city.

Celebrity chef Jose Andres recently brought his popular Washington DC restaurant, Jaleo, to Chicago.  Because he’s also founder of World Central Kitchen and does a heap of good in the world by providing food after natural disasters, one way to support his philanthropy was to visit his restaurant; a 13-minute walk from the Renaissance.  Spanish, and featuring two things he’s famous for, small plates and paella, it seemed like a sure bet.  Time constraints meant small plates are all we could manage and ordered eight of them; three too many.  The best approach to small plates is to order one after the other until you’re full.  The eggplant and Spanish potato salad were quite delicious.  The bean dishes and shrimp were lethally salty.  A pity since the quality of the shrimp was superb.  A change in servers plunged the meal into an argument about equitable service and ended badly.  But that’s dining out.  No guarantees even when the best of intentions drive our choices.

An over the top dance festival that included ten Chicago dance companies from the most accomplished to the most youthful and innovative electrified the audience less than an hour later at the magnificent Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park.  Great cities boast great art and the annual Dance for Life event proved it.  A stop in at the Art Institute the following day to catch a marquee exhibit (Bisa Butler:  Portraits) before it leaves town for San Francisco was the cherry on top of the first ever staycation cake.  Final verdict:  if you can swing one, do one.