We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that self may prove to be. ~May Sarton

from my bookshelf

Monday, July 9, 2007

Chicago - a HOT time in the town

Miserable heat was the theme for K's and my trip to Chicago this weekend. MISERABLE. The trip was a grand time, but the heat was practically unbearable. We almost left town early we were so uncomfortable. We ended up going to the Adler to escape the 95 degree weather on Sunday.

Saturday morning, we drove to Michigan City, IN and picked up the commuter train from there on the advice of a couple of friends, and I'd really recommend doing that. It only costs on average $7 for the ticket into Chicago, and you can park your car for free. We got into town, dropped off our luggage at the Hyatt Regency, dashed out the door, grabbed a cab and headed straight for the Taste of Chicago. It's a huge festival where you can sample "Tastes" from restaurants all over the city. It was so much fun. There were a lot of people there, and it was hot, but it wasn't overwhelming, which is what I was concerned about. After we wandered around there for awhile, we took off for Macy's to see if the loverly V was working, and much to my delight, there she was at the Frango counter, so we picked up some chocolates and visited with her for awhile. After that we wandered up to the Mile, window shopped for awhile and then met C at Bella Bacino's for dinner. We sat and talked for over 2 hours. It felt so good for the 3 of us to be together again. It has to have been 4 years or better (maybe 5) since the 3 of us were together. Good times. C had plans that evening, so K and I went to a free concert at the amphitheater at Millennium Park and enjoyed a performance of Duruflé's Requiem. After that, we cabbed back to the hotel and crashed for the night.

Sunday, we headed back downtown, and looked around for the Daphne Gardens, but were never able to find them (which I discovered is because the Gardens no longer exist - as far as I can tell, the only statue left is the one in the intersection that we found on Saturday). We stopped back into the Taste, and used up our last couple of tasting tickets, and decided that if we didn't find anything to do indoors soon, we were going to have to cut our trip short because it was just too hot, and that's when we decided to head over to the Adler Planetarium. We spent a couple of hours there, and then caught our train back to Michigan City and got back to the apartment about 11:45 last night.

We're talking about going back in November, and honestly, this trip has killed any urge I have to go back to Chicago in the summer anytime soon.

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