There was no "Urban Hike with Mike"...

...last week as I was visiting my other son in sunny California. Instead, the guys were "On the Go with Lorenzo" in Pilsen. (Okay, not bad.)

So last night we resumed our multi-week project of tracing the Chicago Marathon course. It was the sixth leg in the series and took us to at least the halfway point of the course. If you'll recall, we left off last time at the Chicago Brown Line stop in what may have been our coldest Hike ever. Although the temperature dropped at least twenty degrees by five o'clock yesterday, it felt positively balmy in comparison. And it was foggy, as you can see from that picture above.

We got off the el at Chicago and took a slight detour over to Big Wig Tacos & Burritos on LaSalle for dinner. I always check to make sure the restaurant we're planning on going will still be open and was reassured to find out Big Wig operates on Wednesdays until 4:00 a.m. (Which begs the question: who in the heck is going out for tacos in the middle of the night?)

After dinner we backtracked to Chicago and Wells and began our Hike south at about the eleven and a half-mile mark. There aren't that many landmarks on this stretch of Wells, especially now that Ed Debevic's has made way for another high-rise condo building between Erie and Ontario. But I was really disappointed to see that Carson's, just across the street, had also recently closed its doors! These were two of my favorite spots when I arrived in Chicago back in the 1980s. (I was relieved to learn later, however, that both restaurants plan on reopening soon, Ed Debevic's in Streeterville and Carson's in River East. Phew!)

At Hubbard we turned right (west) and left (south) at Orleans, the twelve-mile mark. When we crossed the river I had the guys stand in front of the Merchandise Mart for a picture.

The "Mart," built by Marshall Field & Company in 1930, was the largest building in the world -- it has its own ZIP code! -- until the Pentagon was completed in 1943. The Art Deco masterpiece was designed by the Chicago architectural firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst and White, which had a long-standing relationship with the Field family. To give you an idea of the severity of the Great Depression, the structure was originally built for over $30 million but was later sold to the Kennedy family in the mid-1940s for only $13 million. (At the end of the last real estate bubble, in early 2007, the Mart was valued at over $900 million.)

When you cross Wacker, Orleans turns into Franklin, and we took it south until Monroe Street. After a quick jog west to Jefferson and the 13-mile mark (halfway!), we turned left (south) and then turned quickly right (west) on Adams.

On Monroe we passed the twin towers of what is now called the CME Group but was known simply as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange when I worked there from 1983 until 2005. (I started my career in the "old" Merc, the "Green Box" above Union Station, in 1981.)

At the corner of Adams and Desplaines, of course, is Old St. Patrick's Church. A debate immediately broke out as to whether or not Old St. Pat's was the oldest Catholic Church in Chicago. Other candidates included Holy Family on Roosevelt Road and St. Procopius in Pilsen.

(According to its website Holy Family Parish, founded in 1857, is the second oldest parish in the city. St. Procopius, in comparison, wasn't organized until 1875 and its Romanesque building on 18th Street wasn't completed until 1883. A veritable arriviste!)

Old St. Patrick's was founded on Easter Sunday in 1846. Originally housed in a wooden building at Randolph and DesPlaines, the current church building was constructed of yellow Cream City brick from Milwaukee in the 1850s. (Two octagonal spires, said to represent the Eastern Church and the Western Church, were added in 1885.) The building is one of only a handful of structures remaining that predate the 1871 Great Chicago Fire and is the city's oldest standing church building. In 1977 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

We then crossed over the Kennedy, through Greektown, and into the West Loop, which has positively exploded in recent years. I would say it has to be the "hottest" neighborhood in town and has undergone an incredible metamorphosis over the last twenty years or so. My favorite line about the West Loop (which anyone who knows me is sick of hearing) is that when my niece moved to Chicago around the year 2000 I showed her the various neighborhoods in and around downtown. When we drove down Halsted past all the Greek restaurants I cautioned her not to "go west of Greektown," the implication being that it was, well, "rough." I now tell young people not to "go west of Greektown -- you can't afford it!"

When we finally reached Racine, just shy of the 14-mile marker, we turned left (south) and made our way back to 1212 W. Flournoy. Next week we'll pick it up again on Adams and Hike around the United Center. Remember, not too long ago, how you would never walk around in that neighborhood after dark? Well, believe me, it's changed. Come join us; I think we'll be dining at the Billy Goat on Madison.