Chicago. City of Big Shoulders. City That Only Takes a Nap every once in a while.
We fled to Chicago just in time: the air conditioning in our house had been out for two days. It was out Monday and Tuesday while we were enjoying the luxury air conditioning at the hotel, as well.
Yeah, that isn’t the Hilton this time. But it was close to the Hilton.
The Travelodge had some classy accoutrement with which the Hilton was not appointed:
While some things are universal:
We had a brief scare while we unpacked; I set my socks down on the bed, opened a drawer, turned back to get my socks and got a bug as well.
Of course, Gary felt it had been on the bed the whole time, but when we discovered it was dead we realized it had not been lowered on top my sock by the angels, so it must have traveled from Saint Louis with me. I assumed a 17-year cicada had laid eggs in my socks 17 years ago, but closer inspection showed it was a normal Saint Louis June bug. And, this is scary, I don’t know what I did with it.
We started off each day in search of adventure, and found ourselves revisiting old haunts, such as the Field Museum:
… and the waterfront:
..where they do not allow diving:
…or anorexic people so weak they have to be in wheelchairs.
(This sign really had me at a loss. They fined the disabled if they went down on the dock? Harsh.)
There was a downpour as we waited for the show and I realized that Gary sounds just like a flock of seagulls when he’s in a panic. He’d shriek “Oh my God! It’s a tsunami! The power’s going to go out! How will there be a concert with no power!?” while the seagulls screamed right along with him.
Of course, the concert was not rained out. Man, we were early, but it gave us a chance to rest.
My feet were killing me. Those poor toes. Ow. What could I do to make my toes feel better?
(Does that sound right? Seriously, three-fourths of the traffic on this site is from toe searches. And yes, that is a French Pedicure on those toes, because I love my fans. I just want to give back.)
Strangely, the second day my feet hurt after only a few minutes outside. Come to find out Crocs, while comfy, can pick up nails and thorns.
There were two stealth thorns that had secreted themselves snugly into the heel and pointed halfway through the sole directly up at my foot. I only noticed them WHEN I STOOD ON MY FEET.
After a little pizza:
…and a visit to the aquarium we were on our way.
Really, next time I’m in Chicago I will get off Michigan Avenue and see some sites other than the museums.
Tomorrow? We get all new air conditioning, humidifier, thermostat and furnace in the house, one year before we planned to do it, but ah well.
11 responses to “Chicago: The Sights”
We used to stay there before it sold….looks like nothings changed. it was a residential hotel then but Emmanuel used to give us keys to 3 rooms and let us decide which we could do. it was 60 bucks then and that’s still all it’s worth but it was a big part of the festival for us.
I live thirty minutes from downtown Chicago, and even I rarely make it away from Michigan Avenue and the museums. It doesn’t help that most of the time I’m giving a tour of sorts to some out-of-state friend, but still… I never grow tired of seeing Millennium Park and Buckingham Fountain and the Field Museum and whatnot. Guaranteed to be a great time and a huge pain to one’s feet. (Love the pedicure, by the way! It definitely adds a unique touch to your pictures.)
Is this a Midwest version of ‘Where’s Waldo?’ – Find the Queen’s toes.
Your toes enjoying a pizza is the funniest thing I’ve seen all day.
Nice travelog, and nice blatant attempt to remain Queen of Toe Porn. 😉
I really enjoyed the pictures of your foot. Now I’m rethinking my pink toenail polish. Your toes look much more sophisticated than mine.
JO – We didn’t have Emmanuel, we had “Petey” (not his real name, unless “Petey” is a common name in Bangladesh). Every time the phone rang while he was talking to us, he would say “Oh, give me a BREAK!” and pick it up. He was stressed. Kind of like an Indian Basil Fawlty.Rachelskirts – (Hi!) The thing I don’t like is when I take a friend to the Saint Louis Art Museum to see my favorite painting or exhibit “� and it’s on loan to the Art Institute of Chicago. You have Nighthawks! Why do you need the big hefty Woman that was in our lobby for years? Becs – Actually, it’s an homage to Mr. Bear from Catherine from LA’s site (sothathappened.typepad.com).TasterSpoon – I liked the subtlety of that one.Jammies “� you know, you egged me on in your comments on your site. KC – Oh, you can thank Catherine the Red for turning me on to that French Pedicure. It was from someplace near Saint Louis Hills.
Love the toes!
sue — Oooo, lesbian toe porn.
When you said that Gary sounds like a flock of seagulls when he’s upset, I thought you were saying he sounds like A Flock Of Seagulls when he’s upset.
Vaguely – damn! I meant to Google to see if that really was a band. I read somewhere someone had a “Flock of Seagulls” haircut. I was listening to NPR at that time, so I’m not familiar with them.