Sunday we headed to the West Side Market, an indoor market recommended by someone from the campground. It’s similar to Reading Terminal market in Philadelphia or Pike’s Place seafood market in Seattle, two places we’ve been to and posted on our blog. What’s pretty cool about this market is it’s been around since 1859. 100 years longer than Jim!

We had lunch at one of the breweries next to the market then headed off to do some shopping. The first stop we made was the fruit and vegetable section with plans to shop around for some vegetables and fruit. Well the plans to shop around were halted when we hit the first booth. Apparently, the owner of the first one we passed was trying to get out early (it was only 2:00) so when she got our attention by offering us a taste of her peach mango fruit (yes, you heard right, I never heard of it either but it was delicious) she then proceeded to offer us 4 mangos and a box of 8 packs of strawberries for $10! They looked and tasted good so we bit. We also took care of the rest of our fruit and vegetable shopping getting the strawberries, mangos, some onions, and 6 ears of corn for $17! At that point I had to bring our stuff back to the car because we couldn’t carry it all and had more shopping to do. We ended up getting some brats for lunch, some cheeses and some meats. Fortunately, we brought a cooler with us.

Next it was on to the house that the movie A Christmas Story was filmed at. I have a ton of pictures from the house so if you’re not a fan of the movie you can probably skip the pictures below. I won’t bother writing much about that visit here, I’ll let the pictures do the talking. But here are a couple of fun facts I will mention about how they chose this location and house for the film. The producers chose the area because they searched the country for a place that 1. Should have snow, 2. Has the feel of a post WWII area with older homes and neighborhoods, and 3. They searched for a store that would keep their decorations up well after Christmas for the film. The store they found was Higbee’s, which became a Macy’s and now there is a casino on the location. The house they found when they got lost looking for other locations. They came across a neighborhood and house they deemed perfect. They knocked on the door and the owner wasn’t home. Frustrated they went to the bar across the street to have a beer and ask the bartender if he knew the owner. He said no but as they were talking another man at the bar said why are you asking about my house? After originally saying no to using his house he changed his mind after they offered him $20,000.