Chicago Update!
I've got a few minutes before I have to hop on the train to go meet MikeV, so I'm sending out a quick update. Travel here was pretty good, with only one item confirmed lost (my knit hat, lost at the nashville airport). The flight was *amazing*. I still have that child-like excitement about going on a plane. It's hard to recognize the land below you as the city you've lived in all your life, and the scale of it always impresses me. You look down and see so many houses, buildings, cars driving to their destination - so many people with their own goals and dreams and problems, with no idea that I'm seeing a little snapshot of their life from a plane. It makes me feel very small in the grand scheme :) So impressive, how complex the tapestry is that is being woven with my life and everyone elses. Then the plane climbs up above the clouds and it's like another world. I'm not sure I even have the words, but it's incredibly beautiful. I tried to take a picture but a) my camera is lame and b) the plane windows were a little cloudy. Sadly, because of point a on that list, I haven't been able to get the picture off of my camera, so I'll have to figure it out when I get home and post all 6 pictures I'll be taking on this trip (the batteries for my camera fade in about five minutes. again, see bullet point a).
Okay so I get here to the hotel and settle into my room (which is nice), and promptly head out shopping. Well first of all, understand that it is incredibly cold and I lost my knit hat. So I walk a few blocks and run across Water Tower Place (huge building that is basically a shopping mall), and run in to Macy's to try and find a hat. Several cute knit things were on sale, and I felt certain this was a sign from above as to the level of success I'd have for all my shopping this weekend. With my new goodies for keeping warm, I set off again - destination: anthropologie. OH. MY. GOSH. Is it possible that someone specifically constructed a store just for me? I was like a child in a candy store, and basically spent the rest of the afternoon there until I had to head back and meet mike at 8pm. I could easily have gone bankrupt in that store, but I'm happy to say I kept a decent grip on sanity. Still, I dare say that once the weekend is said and done, the shopping line-item is going to make me very glad that I don't have a husband to tell about it. I'd look awfully cute with my new things when I did tell him though, and I have to think that would have helped.
Dinner that evening was Chicago style deep-dish pizza and oh so good. My eyes got big the first time I saw it, I had no idea thats what people meant when they said "Chicago deep dish." An incredible start to the food discoveries. Then I came back to the hotel and going up in the elevator met a guy from Germany who had been here on a business trip for Mercedes-Benz for the past week and was bored out of his mind, and so we grabbed a few drinks at the hotel bar. He is actually from Croatia where his family is and has a house there, but works in Germany. Always so interesting to hear people talk about their home country and the different culture. I feel like he was a little bit hard on American culture (not in a mean way, just his observations), but I'll chat more on that later. A really good-hearted, sincere guy, so it's nice to have stumbled across another friend in Chicago. Now I have enough buddies to cover all meals and exploration! An excellent set-up so that no one person feels like they need to keep up with me all the time :)
Not sure what I'll be up to today. A lot of food obviously seems to be on the plan. Daniel (German friend) and I grabbed some breakfast from the hotel restaurant. I know that sounds lame, in our defense we tried to set out in search of something more... special. Two people who know nothing of Chicago aren't going to get far on that plan, though, and it's too cold to wander around aimlessly outside, so after walking the block in search of some place he saw from a taxi cab, we chose warmth over special. In a few minutes I'll be on a train to meet mikey and his friends from work, and then going to his favorite lunch stop. I think I'd like to hit up the merchandise mart/water tower to walk off all the food and then go to the john hancock building tonight to see the city from the observatory and drink an exhorbitantly expensive cocktail :) I shall conserve as much camera juice as I can - maybe I can squeeze a few pictures on it before it dies again.
Okay so I get here to the hotel and settle into my room (which is nice), and promptly head out shopping. Well first of all, understand that it is incredibly cold and I lost my knit hat. So I walk a few blocks and run across Water Tower Place (huge building that is basically a shopping mall), and run in to Macy's to try and find a hat. Several cute knit things were on sale, and I felt certain this was a sign from above as to the level of success I'd have for all my shopping this weekend. With my new goodies for keeping warm, I set off again - destination: anthropologie. OH. MY. GOSH. Is it possible that someone specifically constructed a store just for me? I was like a child in a candy store, and basically spent the rest of the afternoon there until I had to head back and meet mike at 8pm. I could easily have gone bankrupt in that store, but I'm happy to say I kept a decent grip on sanity. Still, I dare say that once the weekend is said and done, the shopping line-item is going to make me very glad that I don't have a husband to tell about it. I'd look awfully cute with my new things when I did tell him though, and I have to think that would have helped.
Dinner that evening was Chicago style deep-dish pizza and oh so good. My eyes got big the first time I saw it, I had no idea thats what people meant when they said "Chicago deep dish." An incredible start to the food discoveries. Then I came back to the hotel and going up in the elevator met a guy from Germany who had been here on a business trip for Mercedes-Benz for the past week and was bored out of his mind, and so we grabbed a few drinks at the hotel bar. He is actually from Croatia where his family is and has a house there, but works in Germany. Always so interesting to hear people talk about their home country and the different culture. I feel like he was a little bit hard on American culture (not in a mean way, just his observations), but I'll chat more on that later. A really good-hearted, sincere guy, so it's nice to have stumbled across another friend in Chicago. Now I have enough buddies to cover all meals and exploration! An excellent set-up so that no one person feels like they need to keep up with me all the time :)
Not sure what I'll be up to today. A lot of food obviously seems to be on the plan. Daniel (German friend) and I grabbed some breakfast from the hotel restaurant. I know that sounds lame, in our defense we tried to set out in search of something more... special. Two people who know nothing of Chicago aren't going to get far on that plan, though, and it's too cold to wander around aimlessly outside, so after walking the block in search of some place he saw from a taxi cab, we chose warmth over special. In a few minutes I'll be on a train to meet mikey and his friends from work, and then going to his favorite lunch stop. I think I'd like to hit up the merchandise mart/water tower to walk off all the food and then go to the john hancock building tonight to see the city from the observatory and drink an exhorbitantly expensive cocktail :) I shall conserve as much camera juice as I can - maybe I can squeeze a few pictures on it before it dies again.
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