Starting off Summer with Bucktown & Chicago Events

Welcome to our first blog!  Area happenings, favorite neighborhood places, and a little about Ray’s of course!


Around Bucktown: Some places in the area that we recommend.

Gallery Caberet – Open mic night Thursday – Live music every night
Cage Laguardia –  Live music on Tuesday & Wednesday
Rio D’Sudioamerica – Live music Saturday nights
Farmers Markets – Several Chicago neighborhoods have weekly farmers markets
Movies in the Parks – Free outdoor screenings of a selection of movies in Chicago’s neighborhood parks throughout the summer, including Holstein Park – less than a block away from the B&B
Guerilla Tango Theatre – unique and entertaining burlesque, sketch comedy and musical productions, such as Attend the Tale of Danny Tanner: A Full House Musical – featuring a relative of one of our guests!
Takashi Restaurant – Sunday noodle deal
Bucktown Garden Walk – an annual walk on July 14-15 from 11am-5pm
Birchwood Kitchen – Recently named one of the Top Spots for Chicago Brunches


Around Chicago:

Two of our guests “Biked the Drive” recently.  Even with temperatures rising to a record 95 they seemed to survive their 29 miles.  Once a year Chicago closes down Lake Shore Drive and allows people to ride their bicycles on this beautiful drive that runs about 26 miles along mostly the whole city limits of Chicago

Memorial Day Weekend kicks off the summer season for Chicago, with farmers markets every week, and special events and festivals almost every weekend.  Some of our summertime favorites are free music at the Pritzker Pavillion, both Mondays and Thursdays, with Thursdays featuring World Music.

Upcoming special events include Ribfest (June 8-10), Taste of Chicago (July 11-15), Pitchfork Festival (July 13-15), Lollapalooza (August 3-5), and of course the amazing Bucktown Arts Fest (August 25-26)

Around Ray’s B&B:
Today four of our guests took one of  the Architectural Foundation’s River Boat Tours; guests also like to explore Oak Park’s Frank Lloyd Wright district rounding out two of our guests’ favorite activities (being beat out only by visiting with kids or grandkids in the neighborhood).

Ray finally replaced all remaining non-HDTVs with large flat screen HDTVs.  We also switched over our cable service to one with amazing free On-Demand (hundreds of movies, TV shows, etc).  We appreciate that they promise a two-hour window for their tech and nailed it (actually called to ask if they could come early) – gotta love the fact that at least one company….

Our herb garden is coming in nicely, complete with mint, basil, lemon balm, flowering garlic chives, cat mint, and roses, (ok not an herb, but edible) for garnish on our breakfast plates.

Rocky’s Ringside Ramble (the good cat): I am getting my usual great lap time with guests in the community area and I am enjoying the new window that connects the two wings what looks down Webster Ave.  Nice place to get both morning and afternoon sun.
Maggie’s Rant (the psycho cat):  As usual, everyone bugs me, so just leave me the hell alone.

(The World Revolves….) Around Ray: 
Having enjoyed by “Big Month”* of birding in Peru last year, I am excited about my excursion to Costa Rica’s central section Parque del Questral and Chippo.  I want to also go back to the Mountverde area for the Mountverde National Park and Santamaria National Park, and to Paque de Carare as last time I was in Costa Rica all three of theses national parks had amazing birding!  Luckily for me I have a great staff, that handles things flawlessly while I am gone.  Also luckily for me, I can get texts and emails even in remote amazonian jungle lodges (sometimes just for a few hours while their generators are running but still…).