Tuesday, July 21: Chicago

Our goal was to leave the Short’s by 7 am but of course it wasn’t until after 8 that we managed to drag ourselves away. First we had to coerce a photo out of the family much to their dismay. Thanks for letting us stay with you! We had a great time!
Our drive to Chicago was about 5.5. hours, which Martha is now considering to be quite a short drive. In England, driving for 2 hours is considered a major road trip, you have to stay at the place for a week to make it worth the drive. We made it into the Windy City without too many mishaps and viewed the Mississippi River on the way. Unfortunatley we missed both the Iowa and Illinois states signs but we really were there! Upon arriving into the city we parked at what was probably the most expensive parking garage and walked over to the Willis (used to be Sears) Tower. After that we drove over to Millenium Park and paid for parking again. The park was fabulous! They had a symphony rehearsal of some sort that included violins and guitars going on so we watched that for a while. Also checked out the huge, silver “Bean” that shows off the skyline nicely and took multiple photos of screwed up reflections. The fountains were on as well, these are two large rectangle’s that face each other with the entire surface being a screen. Each screen has a face on it which blinks and smiles in slow motion and then purses it’s lips and water comes shooting out at all the kids. Very fun. The last touristy thing we had time to see before dinner was the Navy Pier where we took a ferris wheel ride, even Martha was game for this! It was a cloudy, misty day so couldn’t see very far but it was nice to look out on the water and boats. We had heard that Gino’s East Pizza was the place to get real pizza so we wandered in. This place will let you write on the walls and these walls were COVERED with people’s names, memories, dates, etc. The waitress informed us that deep dish pizza would take about an hour and since we had to be at the Addison meeting in an hour we settled on Thin crust. Char and LeAnne decided to order salads and steal pieces of Martha’s pizza when she wasn’t looking and it was delicious. While waiting for the pizza, Char entertained Martha and LeAnne by sticking straws on her teeth, vampire-like, and talking in a weird voice. She also offered to check for lice with her new straw teeth. They left soon after to use the bathroom, at least that’s what they said, and didn’t come back until the pizza was delivered to the table. We rushed off to the meeting only getting there 15 minutes late. Afterwards, the local YP announced they would like to hang out with us at Culver’s so Megan G. decided she would hop in with us so we wouldn’t get lost on the way. Culver’s is about 2 minutes away from the meeting room. We did a giant loop through some industrial complexes, went past some road construction and found ourselves at a dead end. At this point, Megan admitted she has no sense of direction and then proceeded to tell us multiple stories of her getting other visitors lost and late for wherever they were supposed to be. NOW you tell us. After a quick phone call we were back on our way and what should have taken only 2 minutes, took us about 15 which in Megan time, is actually pretty good. J According to Megan, no Chicago experience is complete without Megan getting you lost at least once. So if you ever visit this city….look her up! We had a good time at Culver’s the YP and then followed our trusty GPS to Char’s relatives, Stephen and Rene R. We stayed up and chatted with them for a bit before heading off to the computer’s to catch up on email. Martha has decided that this is the next city she would like to live in…watch out Chicago!!!