Archive for the “2008 Mini Road Trip: Chicago” Category

Nothing interesting to report today; we drove through rain, we sat in traffic, etc. Just wanted to let you all know we got home safe and sound!

Well, we didn’t do all that much in Chicago, honestly. It was pretty challenging with Brian’s conference, and the election celebration kind of knocked us both out for yesterday (though Brian did make it to class — good job, Brian!). Then today, after several days of unseasonably warm (balmy, even) weather and sunshine, things took a turn and we had pretty serious clouds and scattered rain, so it wasn’t the most pleasant day for exploring. But we do have a few more things to share from our trip, such as the view from our hotel room!

We could see the Sears Tower (kind of hard to spot in this photo, but it’s there in the background to the left of the red crane) and the river and everything. Nice! And today, despite the rain, we did go back down to Millennium Park & Grant Park to see it in the daytime without a quarter of a million other people there, and we visited The Bean:

I love a bean. I also loved seeing the banners that arrived yesterday:

We’ll have to return to Chicago at some point to do more awesome stuff! We’re in Ohio now at a Super 8 outside Toledo and should get home by late tomorrow.

Brian and I were so lucky to be in Chicago tonight and to be able to attend the Obama rally in Grant Park (which is within walking distance from our hotel). I wish I had a better command of language so I could express to you how overwhelming, incredible, special, inspiring, moving, and amazing our evening was; things being as they are, I’m just going to show you some pictures from our night.

On the way back to our room, Brian and I were talking about the unlikely series of events in our lives that brought us here to Chicago and to this moment — and how lucky we are that we’ve had this amazing handful of months in which pretty much every day we’ve gotten to do something that we’ll both remember forever. We feel truly fortunate to have been here for this historic night! America, thank you for voting!! YES WE CAN!!!

Happy Birthday to Brian!! We had some good times today here in Chicago. Our day started off early when we received a wake-up call from the hotel at 6:30am! Whoops! We didn’t order that, so my first order of business once I was ready for the day was to go down to the front desk and get assurance from the manager that that wouldn’t happen again. Oy vey!

Brian went to class in the morning, then we met up for lunch. Does anyone remember this classic SNL sketch? (You’ll have to sit through a commercial first when you click play below.)

It was based on the Billy Goat Tavern here in Chicago, so even though it’s hugely touristy, we decided to go there for lunch. Of course they’ve capitalized on their SNL-found fame…

But seriously, it’s exactly the same in there as it is in the sketch. They yelled at us for looking at the menu and everything. Good times!

After that, we walked along the Magnificent Mile for a bit, which was fun, and then Brian went back to class and I decided to head out to Wicker Park, which was also fun.

Then for the evening, we stayed in to watch Monday Night Football and the SNL special; we got room service and ate cupcakes I had procured earlier in the day from Bake For Me across the street:

They weren’t very good, actually, but that’s okay because to make up for the wake-up call, the hotel sent us this:

Thanks, hotel! You can rudely awaken us and then send us free champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries anytime.

Tomorrow I intend to sit in our room and fret all day until we can go down to Grant Park for what I certainly hope will be a VICTORY party for Barack. Don’t forget to vote!

So, today was mostly just a driving day, but when we saw how close we were to Indiana Jones Dunes National Lakeshore, we couldn’t resist stopping in to check it out. We went to the visitor center and asked what we should see in our limited time and the ladies there recommended West Beach, so off we went. We trekked up these steps to an overlook:

… where we were rewarded with a great view of Chicago, looking Atlantis-like in the distance across Lake Michigan:

A strange aspect of this national park is that the parkland isn’t contiguous — that’s not unheard of; for example, Acadia’s parkland isn’t contiguous either, but what’s weird about Indiana Dunes is that the non-parkland in between parcels of parkland houses giant factories and industrial centers.

This kind of disrupts communing with nature and the like, even when you happen to come to the park during sunset:

Still, though, both the dunes themselves and Lake Michigan are so beautiful:

Oh, Indiana. I had no idea.

So anyway, after that, we finally drove into Chicago!

We’re staying at a very nice hotel for a change because Brian’s conference is being held here. After months of cheap motels, I had completely forgotten how refreshing and rejuvenating it can be to stay in a place with, like, real furniture, a nice bathroom, a comfy bed, etc. Brian is going to be in class for most of the trip, and I’m planning on spending a lot of time sitting on the chaise lounge next to the big window in our room with a lovely view of the Chicago River and working on my laptop away from construction noise. Don’t worry, we’ll do some fun Chicago things, too — hopefully including attending Obama’s victory speech on Tuesday night. Please don’t forget to VOTE VOTE VOTE!!!

Milan, Ohio, of course. We’re on our way to Chicago (we split the driving into two days so Brian will be fresh as a daisy for his class, which begins on Sunday). We’re staying at an ultra-luxe Super 8: our room has a door out to the parking lot AND a door into the hall of the hotel. It’s pretty much the best door situation I’ve seen in an economy motel (and I know from economy motels). Also, we have a totally awesome cobweb outside the door to the parking lot with a giant spider and everything. Normally, this would be disturbing, but since it’s Halloween, we’re just calling it festive.