There must be a light under the bushel!

Picked pockets and fun days

Well, my trip to Chicago was awesome. I absolutely loved the city. The plane ride was a little uncomfortable because of my ear infection, but it was worth it for the weekend fun ahead. My friend Robin and I stayed in the theater disrtict, so we were walking distance to just about everything we wanted to see. I came home with sore feet and legs and realized why I didn't see many fat people in that city!

When I got in Friday afternoon, we stopped and ate gyro sandwiches. Not the kind with sliced up beef we get in Texas. Instead, it was some of the most tender meat with the most interesting sauce. I know there was a cucumber flavor, but I couldn't tell what else was in it. It didn't sound appetizing, but it was melt-in-your-mouth delicious.

Then, on our way to the hotel, we spotted an art festival downtown. That's never good news for anyone who is stuck with me for a few days. We visited the festival 3 of the 4 days I was there. I'm addicted to buying artwork (for the house I do not yet have!). However, I limited myself each day to just an hour or so.

That night, we went out for some real Chicago-style pizza. I was game to try all these new foods, but that deep dish stuff has just never appealed to me before. Now I don't know how I've gone this long without some of that yummy, flaky, gooey stuff. I expected it to be real heavy and thick, but the crust was light and the toppings tasty. We ended the night in our hotel bar. It's apparently a great locals place to hang out, so we enjoyed some people watching and mingling.

The next day we headed out to the Magificent Mile, Michigan Avenue. It was quite an experience, but boy, was it crowded. I'm not too keen on crowds, but I was willing to deal with them for the sake of new sights. We did a little shopping but found everthing to be really overpriced, so we mostly just soaked up the atmosphere.

That night we stopped by our hotel bar to listen to the live jazz band for a bit before we headed to the downtown bars and just picked one at random. We ended up having a great time. The place was just a small pub called O'Sullivan's, and we spent the evening talking to the locals. Robin was a bit of a stick-in-the-mud about doing the nightlife things since she's currently dating a new man, and I really didn't understand how that meant she couldn't go out and have a good time (it's not like she was trying to hook up with anyone), but whatever, overall it was still fun.

On Sunday, we went to the art museum and spent hours perusing the displays. I really enjoyed it and would have loved to go to the history museum as well, but I like to read about all the pieces and time constraints just didn't allow me to see all I wanted to in that area. We went to a little Italian cafe for lunch that reminded me of Italy in both its food and atmosphere. It was fantastic. Then, for dinner we went to a restaurant called Maggiano's that was also a definite thumbs up.

When we got back from dinner, Robin wanted to rent a movie in the room, and I was disappointed. I hadn't yet seen any live blues and it was my last night in Chicago. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it and put a damper on the vacation, so I headed out on my own to see what I could find. I walked to Sears tower and stood at the base and looked up and up and up; that was an incredible sensation, but I didn't find any live music on my stroll; mostly what I found was men stopping me to talk to a woman walking alone in downtown Chicago. I decided to head back and pack my bags for the next day's departure. I hated that my last night was such a bummer, but I still had the next day to see more, so I was detemined to let it go.

We got up on Monday and checked out of the hotel and then decided to ride the El to Wrigley field. I was bummed that the Cubs weren't in town, but it was still interesting to see the field and all the properties surrounding the stadium that had elaborate set-ups on the rooftops set up to watch the game. Some had bleachers; some had tables and chairs; some had actual stadium seats.

On our way back to downtown, we saw a sight right out of urban America. We saw a man get his pocket picked. A man pretended that as he was trying to enter our subway car, his foot got stuck between the bottom of the car and the railway platform. He put up an impressive struggle to free himself until 3 men ran over to help him. He flopped about for several moments until he miraculously broke free and then turned and hopped back to the station. Hmmm. Why didn't he get on? Sure enough, one of the men yelled out suddenly that his wallet was gone. I can certainly say that experience will stick with me.

Once we got back to the car, we went for a drive around Chicago so that I could see more than just the little glimpse of downtown. We started on Lake Shore Dr. and gawked at a beach in the middle of a city. We also drove by the projects and some of the rich neighborhoods. It helped me to get a better perspective on the city.

On the way to the airport, we stopped off to get a Chicago dog, and that was probably the most interesting of my culinary experiences on the trip. The dog had mustard, relish, tomatoes, pickles, peppers, onions, and cucumbers. Without the tomatoes, it was actually quite good, although it sat in my stomach like a rock for the next several hours!

I have to say, if I could afford to live in downtown Chicago, I would be extremely tempted to move there. That's how much I loved the city. However, I might sing a different tune once the winter rolled around with all that snow, ice, and shoveling...

My pockets are a little lighter now (from my own doing, though!), but I have a great memory from the experience. Now, unfortunately, it's back to the grindstone and long days back at work. Boring meetings that I think are designed simply to get us to the point where we're hoping to have a classroom full of kids just to escape the agony of inservices!