Chicago Part One: Leaving for Chicago (October 22, 2008)

Preface: Please forgive any pointless rambling. This is also documentation for Mark and I to remember our trip.

We left for the airport around 9:30 a.m. for a noon flight (thanks to Steph for driving us there). Not sure why we left so early but I'm glad we did. Around 11:00 a.m. the alarm system in the airport was sounding: *civil defense sirens* "Attention. An emergency has been reported. Please move to the closest exit."

Needless to say, this was disconcerting. About the time we reached the stairs to leave the secure part of the airport, security told us it was a false alarm set off by a kitchen fire. Still not comforting but better than a bomb being reported. After this, I noticed that we were going to be sitting in row 13 of the plane. I was ready to abort our mission and stay in Austin. Nevertheless, we were off to Chicago at noon!

Once we arrived in Chicago, we successfully found the train to take us downtown from O'Hare. It cost us $2 to get to the city! Public transportation is awesome. I wish we had a better system here. (Hopefully the train from Leander to downtown Austin will be completed soon so I can take the train to work.) Imagine no car payment, no car insurance, no gas money. Everything you need is a short train ride or walk away.

We checked into our hotel which was amazing. Sorry no pictures. Just trust me. We stayed on at the Hilton Chicago on South Michigan Ave across from Grant Park. Below is the view of our hotel from Grant Park. It's the big red and beige building that looks like four separate buildings...it's huge!

After checking in, we decided it was time to eat. It was 6 p.m. and we hadn't eaten since 9:30 a.m. It was worth the wait. We ate at Giordano's across from the Sears Tower. Mark's friend Jordan called us to meet up and he happens to work at the Sears Tower so he met us for Pizza and beer.

After dinner, we left Giordano's to go to Jordan's place in North Chicago. The apartments/condos in Chicago are amazing. They have aged brick walls, fantastic patios on rooftops and beautiful old architecture. I wish I had a picture but I was too excited to take pictures the first day so the ones you see are ripped off from the Internet. After dropping off Jordan's things at his place, we went bar hopping (We were told that Chicago is known for its dive bar scene). We went to the Gingerman and Toons.

Gingerman

Toons

We were soooo tired from traveling that we left around midnight to get sleep for an early Thursday.

To be continued...