May Fest

Chicago, like most big cities, has a lot of ethnic neighborhoods. Lincoln Square is the German neighborhood around town. It used to be huge and full of fresh immigrants, but it is quickly turning into yuppieville, as the children of the immigrants assimilate. The Germans who live in Lincoln Square now came over during the WWII years, and are an amazing little time capsule onto themselves.

The residents of Lincoln Square, whether they like it or not, celebrate several of the German traditional holidays. This weekend it was the May Fest. Sure, it's a month late, but who cares?

The following are pictures from the event - there are too many to post all in one, so I'm going to stretch it out over a few days.

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I live only about 1/2 a mile or so from Lincoln Square, and so I decided to walk. My journey took me over the north branch of the Chicago River:





Saturday had started out as a very hot and steamy day. Late in the afternoon, a short but very powerful thunderstorm had rolled through. Although it lasted only 15 minutes or so, it did quite a bit of damage:




Finally, I reached my goal. Here's the May Poll. Unfortunately, they don't do the whole dance thing where they tie ribbons around the poll. In fact, I'm pretty sure that thing is up all year round:



Although there was lots of food, the offerings for vegetarians were very slim. I ate 3 pretzels. Check out the prices!!



The storm exacted it's fury on the May Fest - when I got there, they were mopping out the beer tent:



Anyhow, first order of business was to meet Lauren and Josh, which I did. We marched off to get some beers, and then off to Walgreens to get some batteries for the camera (ahem)



Actually, I have to let it be said that Lauren drank water and sipped at our beers. Josh and I were the ones with the 1/2 liter plastic mugs of beer.

Making our way back into the festival, we stepped into Meyer's Delikatessen so I could buy some cheese to go with my pretzel. I didn't get a picture inside, it was too crowded. I did however take a picture of the drugstore. I love this place. It has all the remedys and toiletries a person could want:


I bought my pretzels from this nice lady:



End of part one.