Why I Oughta...

How festive, right?  That's a look down Jefferson Street in Downtown Naperville recently.  We went to get Gringo tacos at Front Street Cantina and I was struck by how well done the Christmas decorations were in Downtown Naperville. Contrast it with the state of affairs in the Elmhurst City Centre.   I posted about the situation earlier this week and I've noticed that they've gotten a lot of the downtown now lit up - which is nice. Seems that the Elmhurst City Centre can learn a little from Naperville.  Both good and bad.  They don't seem to have totally solved the parking issues - and Elmhurst; with the new garage, seems to be trying to get in front of it - but the robust shopping district in Naperville is PACKED with retail.  Not salons. I know, I know....because of Oak Brook Mall, the Elmhurst City Centre will always be in a tough spot.  We're probably too close to attract major retail chains because they won't want to have two stores so close.  But,

*Rubs eyes* What?!  What is this??!? Well....that's a Sega Genesis on the bottom shelf at the Villa Park Target store. I immediately had flashbacks to playing NHLPA Hockey 93 - you know the one....where the Blackhawks were stacked with Roenick and Chelios and Larmer and Goulet and Steve Smith on offense and Vince Vaughn and the dudes in Swingers knock Gretzky out of the game . I spent countless hours playing that game.  We only had two tvs at the time and I usually found myself plugging the Sega Genesis into the tv in my parents bedroom and sitting on the floor where I honed my triple deke skills. Alas...in the 80 games that are included, there's not one sports title.  So this didn't end up in our cart. Still....for $39.99 , it seems like a fun gift for any guy who was in junior high school in the early 1990's.

 Over the weekend, I took the girls to see the  Lego Train Show out at Cantigny which is put on by the Northern Illinois Lego Train Club .    As you can see from the shots here, it was pretty awesome. Who knew that (first!) Lego trains and (second!) that a club for them even existed? The show took over the biggest room at the Cantigny Visitor's Center and had two big main loops set up.  There were a few guys behind the setup that were members of the club and had built this whole thing.  It was impressive in scope but also really neat with various details.  They had set up little towns/sections like Paris and Springfield. And I'd be lying if I told you that I haven't given a lot of thought about trying to figure out a way to incorporate these Lego Trains into our existing O-Gauge Lionel setup.  Thinking we need to give these a try, right?  Besides the trains, just the idea of the buildings/town structures via Legos seems to be a good gateway, right? The Babe is jus

We were up visiting my sister and her family in Park Ridge recently and we just *had* to stop to see the much-ballyhoo'ed Christmas setup.  Ballyhoo'ed?  Yep.   Here's the story in the Tribune about the house . After getting directions from my brother-in-law (along with a warning that there will be tons of cars there), we found the place and parked around the corner.  The two girls and I got out of the van and walked up to the front.  Great Googley-Moogley.  Best Christmas set-up I've ever seen.  Better than the Puschak's back in the day in Frankfort.  Anyone remember that?!?

Just two days after I posted about the Elmhurst Olive Oil Company closing on York Street , comes this photo studio leaving York, too.  Same side of the street as the Olive Oil Co and just south of construction going on at the old Plass Appliance site. The one thing that sticks out about this place is the weird bunny stuff.  Around Easter-time, they always had bunny and baby/kid photos in the windows and kept bunnies in cages right in the front window.  It always struck me as a bit weird.  But, based on how many bunny photos they had up, lots of parents must have loved the idea. So long, MWD.  I hardly knew ya!

After a bunch of nagging, i t seems that the City of Elmhurst and the City Centre are going to sack up and decorate the downtown business district with more Christmas lights . I have to say...the one tree that they *did* light up by the train tracks looks awesome.  Here's a shot in the very early morning hours on my walk to the train late last week.

We lost another retail business on York Street in the Elmhurst City Centre. This time, Elmhurst Olive Oil Company has closed their doors and the landlord has a 'for lease' sign up. We covered this place back in 2011 here on the blog when they opened. They made it four years and couldn't make it through the holidays this year.  This place replaced "Let's Have a Party". I think we stopped in there once in the four years it was open.  Well...besides the times when we went to the City Centre for Trick-or-Treat'ing over the years.  And that, folks, is part of the problem.