Back From Chicago

First, a big thank you
to everyone from my last posting
wishing me a good time in Chicago!
I just got back yesterday evening, about 7:30 p.m.

Driving to Chicago was pretty uneventful.
Usually, the check engine light comes on
on our car during moderate-to-long trips.
It always seems to be a temporary glitch in a sensor
that otherwise doesn't affect the car...or trip.
Sometimes I feel it's brought on some bad gas.
But on the way to Chicago, it stayed off.

On the way, an interstate led us
through an industrial park
in Gary, Indiana...and what a stench!
The air was filled with an acidic-sulfur-like odor
that took my breath away several times.
The smell was compounded by the fact
that before we left
my wife was sure our car's A/C didn't need recharged,
so I didn't check it.
I turned it on though in Indiana
and all we got was pretty much "vent air".
So we had to drive with the windows down.
I was a little pissed
because I had everything at home
to recharge the system.
And there was an orange haze above Gary.
We saw where there were several homes nearby
and were thankful we didn't have to live there.
We have no idea how they were able to tolerate it.
Because of the smell, I was hoping we didn't get
a breeze from the east while staying in Chicago!

The moment we crossed from Indiana into Chicago,
we found ourselves in a huge traffic jam.
Most of it was just from cars piling up at toll booths
but there was a little road construction, too.
Funny, though...
as the construction got more extensive,
the traffic flowed better.

We found our hotel,
the Best Western in Grant Park
(just south of downtown Chicago).
It was a pretty nice area.
The Chicago Hilton where presidents stay
was just down the street.
The room was OK,
but we got a view of a dilapidated building next to us
and a pretty good view of downtown.

This was what we saw

looking straight out our window....

....but looking a little to the right

gave us a much better view!

outside - just to the south of our hotel

We were hoping to get a corner room
with a view of downtown and Lake Michigan.
But that probably would've cost a lot more.

looking north toward the center of downtown

The thing that shocked me the most on the trip
was parking and the parking attendants.
Not the price...$15 for 24 hours,
about what I expected.
What shocked me was giving them my keys,
letting them park it,
and returning an hour later to get more out of the car
and finding
that not only did they leave the windows down,
they left it completely unlocked!
We questioned them extensively about this
and this was apparently the way they operated.
Sure enough...we noticed everyone's cars like this,
even Corvettes and Hummers!
They explained the vehicles were very secure
and assured us not to worry.
There were large, prominent,
professional-looking signs posted
threatening anyone with prosecution and jail time
who was in there without a legitimate reason.
That made me feel a little better,
but...
lets see...
very large city, car open and unlocked
and leaving it for 3 days.
I couldn't help but feel very uneasy.
I wondered what my insurance agent would say
when we'd tell him our car was stolen
under these circumstances.
He'd probably call us idiots (and rightfully so),
ask us why we'd agree to such a stupid thing,
and not give us a penny in compensation.

The first thing we did was walk down the street
to eat at a place called Eleven Diner.
The atmosphere here was wonderful!...
The ceiling was very high
and hanging from it,
lights that were dim
and had a bit of an orange tint to them.
A huge chalkboard filled one wall,
listing their specials.
My wife got a tuna salad sandwich platter
which she said was very good.
My youngest son had a hot dog
and my oldest was supposed to have "Noodles, Noodles!"
He figured he'd try that and see how it was.
He got a bowl of boiled spaghetti.
Honest to God, that's all it was.
There was nothing at all on it.
I got some kind of sandwich
called the Marshall Field Special.
Turkey, lettuce, tomato, onions, bacon
and thousand island dressing on big bread.
They took forever bringing it out,
the waitress seemed to be avoiding us,
and then she brought me the wrong entree.
More time went by,
then when they finally brought it out
the entire thing was ice cold.
No, it didn't cool off after being cooked...
it was made to be ice cold!
It might've been much better
if the bread were toasted,
the turkey and bacon were hot
and everything else were put on cold.
But no.
And although everything seemed fresh,
it just wasn't very good as it was.
A chef came out to ask us how everything was
and I complained about my son's "noodles".
He acted like I ripped out his heart,
threw it on the floor and stomped on it.
"Well...yes...these are noodles! Spaghetti noodles!
What did you want, flat noodles?"
"Well...yes, that's what I expected!"
"What kind of flat noodles?"
Then,
he named a couple of different kinds of flat noodles,
names that were foreign to me.
So I didn't complain about anything else.
We left as soon as we got done.
Oooops!...I didn't leave a tip!
Oh, well.
All in all...that place really sucked.

The next day we walked to the Sears Tower
and they invited my 6-year-old
to push the button to the top floor
and announce:
"Next stop...top floor! See all of you there!"
So he did!
That was very nice of them to do that
and he had fun.

the Sears Tower,

looking up from the sidewalk

Damn, that elevator goes fast!!!
I determined it traveled at 2-floors per second!
Talk about your ears plugging up fast!
The view from the top was beautiful,
even with the few clouds and haze we had that day.
We had our fill and left.

different shots

from the Sears Tower observation deck

After that
we traveled to the Navy Pier by free trolley....
*Note*...
if you ever travel to Chicago,
never depend on the free trolley.
There's maps available for the regular trolley system
(which is $25/day for adults and $10 for kids).
But the free trolley system isn't much more than a myth.
You see a couple of them driving around with passengers
but we only knew of two stops.
Otherwise, more is known of Bigfoot
than Chicago's free trolley system.
So...
after we had fun at the Navy Pier
(which is pretty much an amusement park
with lots of restaurants),
we never saw a free trolley stopped again.
Late in the day,
and therefore not wanting to pay for the regular trolley,
we walked back to the hotel.
And it was a long walk.

That evening, we found an italian restaurant
called Boni Vino.
This was a much better restaurant
than the place we went to the evening before!
We had very thin pepperoni pizza.
Not only was it excellent,
it was reasonably priced,
as was everything on their menu!
We went there again our final night
and had some different things:
I had a steak sandwich and my wife and kids
had mostaccioli and shrimp.

The final day
we broke down and spent $60 taking a guided tour
(about 90 minutes) going around the entire city
on the regular trolley.
The kids and I were all tired from the day before
so sitting was welcome relief.
My wife never seemed to get tired.
The city energized her
and like the Energizer Bunny, never seemed to run down.

There's a few interesting facts
we learned from the guided tour:

- there's a jewelry store in Chicago
where you must be fingerprinted
before you examine any of their merchandise.
I'm sure
there's places in L.A. and New York like this,
but I didn't expect it in Chicago.

- the Sears tower is very strong
due to the way it's built:
the towers around the center are shorter
than the rest, and thus
cradling the middle sections.

- the tower next to the Sears tower
is the tallest tower in the world...
without a name.
There's several businesses inside
and the tower is simply known only
by its street address.
(I suppose if someone bought the rights to name it
there'd be nothing special about it any longer, huh?)
At night,
the water tank and spires on top of it around the edge
are lit up with lights
and it looks like a crown.

Yesterday morning, tired and ready to go home
(well...at least the kids and I were),
I paid the parking garage and got our car back
and it was indeed still intact,
had no new dents or scratches
and nothing that was left inside
was taken out of it.

As we left and headed south,
the traffic was heavy and stop-and-go
due to the construction
and I was noticing the green Honda Accord behind me
and admiring how the driver
really hung way back a safe distance.
A few minutes later,
we got rear-ended.
Yes, by the just-mentioned Accord.
My wife screamed
and we got out to survey the damage.
The Honda had some light front-bumper damage
but our Taurus wagon just had a few scratches,
nothing more.
Wow, the way we were jolted
I would've sworn we had some damage!
That poor car has been rear-ended several times
and never more damage than a few scratches.
The Honda driver apologized profusely
and since she sustained more damage than us
(and it was her fault)
and heavy traffic was zipping all around us
and we had no place to pull over anyway,
we all agreed to go about our merry way.
Now I'm thinking
she was hanging behind us "a safe distance"
because she'd probably rear-ended others before
and did it as a precaution...which didn't work.

Other than that
and driving through a couple of severe thunderstorms
(one with hail),
coming home was pretty quiet
Oh, yeah....remember the check engine light?
It finally came on during the drive home.
That figures.

Some things I noticed about downtown Chicago:

- it's very clean, at least where we went.
I even noticed a guy with a knife
digging up the few little weeds that were there
- root and all -
growing between sections of concrete
in front of the store where he worked.

- we spent most of the time
in middle-class areas,
and I never once saw any drunks
or any drug exchanges or dealers or anything.
We felt safe.
I did see four beggars.

- Chicago is truly a melting pot,
and the ethnic diversity is unbelievable.
Blacks, hispanics, asians...
many, many kinds of people live and work there.

- this place is home
to what seems to be 10 million bicyclists.
With really wide sidewalks
and some concrete urban bike and walking trails,
it's really the best way to get around.

- nothing is cheap in Chicago.
Everything is expensive.
Except the little italian restaurant we went to.

My wife says she misses Chicago already.
I suppose we'll end up going back some day,
the way she's talking.
She's a city girl at heart
and I'm more at home with rugged natural scenery.
National parks, beaches and mountains
are for me.
Even though I had fun,
there's other places I'd rather go.