Mia and I enjoyed Capricon 45. It was held at the Sheraton Grand Chicago, February 1-4, as it was when we attended last year and three years ago. As on those occasions, we were very happy to be at a con in downtown Chicago again, with an almost infinite supply of places to eat and drink in walking distance of the hotel. As in previous years, some of our Chicagoland fannish friends did not attend, but others did, and we enjoyed seeing them again.

Thursday night we went out for dinner with an old friend at one of the downtown branches of Nandos, a chain that has not yet come to Minnesota. We have eaten at their restaurants at both Capricon and Windycon in the last year. It is nice to know there are some good things that come from South Africa.

Friday morning I went for a walk north to Chicago Avenue and State street, where there is a branch of Wells Fargo Bank. I needed some cash. In the middle of the day Mia and I walked to the south, into the loop itself. We both worked there for about 20 years before moving to Minnesota, stopping at the two places where we had worked the longest. Not much to see since with current security we could not inside beyond the lobbies. Anyway, most of the people we knew must be retired now. As I did three years ago, we stopped for beer at the Adams Street Brewery, which in our day was the bar of the Berghoff restaurant. We have heard that the restaurant’s food has gone downhill in recent years, but the beer at the bar was good and they still had the old decor that we loved.

Afterwards we walked north on Wabash. Many of the places we remembered are close. The Iwan Ries tobacco shop, which I remember from the 1960s, is still around. So are the jewelers on Wabash. We remembered that one of the jewelers’ malls had a small Egyptian eatery in the back. It is still there and we came back on Saturday for lunch.

For dinner we walked to the original Pizzeria Uno, where deep dish pizza was invented. So of course that is what we ordered. The pizza was great and so was the service. The beer, from Maplewood Brewert & Distillery was excellent. It was a perfect meal.

One disturbing thing about Capricon this year was that the con had clear financial problems. They were having trouble meeting their hotel room quota. There was no official con suite and there was more active fund raising than I had seen in previous years. I am concerned about whether there will be a Capricon next year.

My notes from Capricon panels and presentations I attended.

• Automatons, Robots, and Other Humanoid Creations
• The Periodic Table & Astronomy
• The Folklore of Fandom
• Powering the Space Elevator
• Mainstream Geekery
• The Battle Pope’s Elephant Collection

As we now regularly do, we left the con Sunday morning to go to St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Evanston. We again saw some friends from our time there. Like our current home parish, St. Clement’s in St. Paul, the church is doing well.