Road Trippin' to Chicago

Wonderful friends, wonderful times!

I've written several times on the blog about how much I enjoy visiting Chicago (here, here and here). Not that I've been there a ton of times - last weekend was just my fourth - but I knew after my last trip I really wanted to return and make sure Mark was with me. In other words, I wanted to visit Chicago for pleasure, not business!!

So, when I mentioned to my friend, Joanne (who lives in Chicago) that we really wanted to come for a visit, she suggested we come the weekend of the Chicago Marathon (Sunday, October 12) when my other friend Kristen would also be visiting to take part. So, off I went hunting for an affordable hotel so we could stay right downtown and really take advantage of some of the hot spots. We ended up staying at the Talbott Hotel, a nice, old boutique hotel on Delaware Avenue, two blocks from Michigan Avenue ("The Miracle Mile").

We drove the 10 hours to Chicago on Thursday, October 9; because of the high price of accommodations, we really couldn't afford to fly as well. The trip was a straight shot along Lake Erie then Lake Michigan through Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana and, while an easy route, was a super boring drive. While in Chicago we enjoyed spending time with Joanne and her husband, Jimmy (and super cute pup, Heffy and old cat [20 years!] Tony Buttafuoco), staying the first night in their lovely home. Being lifelong Chicagoans, Joanne and Jimmy know the places to eat and things to see in Chicago, and were wonderful city hosts. We did a ton of walking (10 miles on Sunday alone!) and site seeing, and ate wonderful food. On Sunday, Kristen ran the Chicago Marathon in 4:41, which was a new PR by (2 minutes) for her. We were so happy for her - I really admire her endurance!!  It was also so much fun spending time and catching up with Kristen and her husband, Ken, and with Joanne and Jimmy - they are all such special friends!! The weekend weather was warm and beautiful, and the city, with the Chicago River running through it, is very lovely, especially at night.

On Monday morning, we were back on the road at 5am (Central time, 6am Eastern time), headed for home and to pick up our freshly groomed pup.   There are things we would have liked to do this trip, but, regrettably they did not work out. We wanted to attend a taping of one of our favorite NPR news shows,Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, but they were not taping on Thursday night. Also, we would have liked to go a Second City Show, but tickets were sold out for the three nights we were there, as were tickets to tour the submarine at the Museum of Science and Industry. Sooooo, you know what that means...we have to go back!!