OK, we’re in Chicago and so far it’s been AWESOME. At first, I was a little worried. The two days of driving were very long, thanks to lots of construction and heavy rains, and then the hotel we had originally booked (the Days Inn in Niles/Skokie) was AWFUL. Like, blood on the walls, no towels, internet not working, bad shower curtain AWFUL. So today we checked out of that hotel and moved to the downtown Howard Johnson’s. It’s old and obviously ‘economical’, but it’s well-maintained and the people are nice so we consider it a big improvement, even though we’re paying more for the convenience of being downtown.
We went to the Sears tower this morning which was pretty cool though the weather was hazy. I started getting souvenir-crazy then, though luckily I’ve been able to say ‘no’ to most everything so far. Then we went to Giordano’s for some real Chicago deep-dish pizza that was ever so tasty. Then we went to Grant Park and saw Buckingham Fountain, easily the most impressive fountain I have ever seen, though some might consider it overly ornate. Then we went to Millennium Park and saw sculptures and fountains and gardens and the Giant Silver Bean (I believe it is officially called the cloud sculpture or something like that) and I was duly impressed. This evening we headed out to Wrigleyville for a Cubs game. It was AWESOME. It’s amazing how everything, absolutely EVERYTHING there is built and geared around the Cubs. It was awesome! I got a new Cubs shirt and we ate hot dogs and popcorn and got rained out and the CUBBIES WON!! Hooray!
Now I’m bushed, though we still have 2 more days here. So fun!