illinois: chicago

My flights from San Diego back to Chicago wet well enough, though I landed late in Chicago, at nearly 1 in the morning. Ugh. There is no public transport at that hour, and I had no intentions of asking anyone to pick me up then, so I slept overnight at the airport. Again. I think this was the third time I've done that this summer?  This time I found a set of chairs where I was able to lay down flat, so I slept a little better than the other nights in various airports. Chicago does not want people to spend the night in the airport, but without public transport in the middle of the night, there are no other options.

 

Around 745 in the morning I started to take trains to get back to Kelley's town. Go figure, the train I was on had to pull over to a siding and wait for a train going the other way just 10 minutes short of my final station. I was soooo frustrated, as we had to wait more than 30 minutes. Ugh.
Anywho, Kelley picked me up and we made it home. Both of us were exhausted, and really wanted naps. When we got home I brought my things into a corner of the living room, as that was where I would be sleeping for the next two nights. A couple hours later, Anita and Chris arrived, coming in from Indiana.

They didn't know I would be there, but had still brought cookies for me from a semi well known place in their town, knowing that I would be coming through soon. We surprised each other, it was fun :)
After Jon came home from his beer class, he and Chris grilled burgers for a late lunch. Yum. There were a few veggies to add, but it was mainly all about the meat.
As far as I can remember, we didn't do anything in particular for the rest of the day. Just hanging out in various places around the house, enjoying time with each other.

Dinner was ordered and picked up from Portillos, a quintessential Chicago chain. I've had food from there previously, and enjoyed all of it. This time i had a chili cheese hot dog. Yum.
The next morning Kelley had to go to work for a while, though I slept through her departure. Jon had to work too, though he was able to do it from home that day. (It was Monday.)
I watched episodes of Tyrant, getting fully caught up :) Chris did the dishes and mowed the lawn and did something with an electrical outlet, Anita got caught up on email :)

Not long after Kelley came home, the three of us ladies packed up the car and drove into the city center, to Millenium Park. This is the same park in which the bean is located.
I don't know how Anita had learned of the concert, but she'd found out about a concert by Broadway in Chicago, and passed the information on to Kelley. Both of them have extensive experience in theatre, this concert sounded like fun. Each of ten shows that have been showing recently or will be soon in Chicago sang a song.

The front area where the concert took place had chairs, the back two thirds was just a grassy area. Like many others, we brought chairs and snacks, and set up camp in the grassy area.
Anita and I then went walking to the French Market while Kelley stayed in the park with the intention of doing some work prep for the next day. The French market is in the same building as Ogilvie Transportation Center, so we walked past the end of several train tracks.
The market has a lot of stalls with gourmet food. Gourmet grilled cheese, chocolate truffles, lobster rolls, smoothies, meatloaf, etc... We had fun looking around, though it isn't the cheapest place.

We got back to the park to find it a whole lot more crowded than when we had left. I'm really glad Kelley had gotten us there when she did!
Te concert was good, though short. A local news anchor hosted the concert, coming out every so often to introduce the next singers. Kelley ad Anita had seen many of the shows (not necessarily in Chicago,) so they knew them a lot better than I did. It was nice, but too short. At the same time the short concert meant we got home at a very reasonable time.
Jon was already in bed as he had a flight the next morning, the rest of us went to bed soon after. 

The next morning, Kelley went to work, Anita and Chris packed up to go home.
I got cleaned up too, and walked to the train station in order to go into the city. Thank goodness I went a few minutes earlier than google maps said I should, as google maps led me into a trail/path that didn't exist! I'm glad I had time to go back to a street that took me where I wanted to go! The next train wouldn't come for another two hours, which would've been too late to be worth going into the city.
 

I arrived at Chicago's Union Station, then started walking. I stopped in a place called Argo Tea, for a chai latte made the way I wanted. That is, with real tea, not just flavored syrup. Then I continued walking.
I walked and walked and walked. It felt good. I took another couple photos of the bean, and a whole bunch of all the buildings of the city. The river winds through the city in a way that gives you plenty of places to take skyline type photos. Pretty.
Eventually I typed a specific shop into google maps and started walking in that direction.
Hoosier Mama Pie Shop is yummy. This was the first time I got to experience the yumminess, how have I not known about it previously? They make pie. And more pie. They have sweet pies and savory pies, and all of them sounded good. I ended up getting apple raspberry, and wishing later that I'd bought more. A lot more.

Then I walked back to Union Station, and caught the next train back to Kelley and Jon's town. Meatball and I hung out until Kelley got home from work, then all three of us relaxed. (Meatball's entire life is all about relaxing.)
The next day was my last full day in the states. Kelley and I didn't do anything crazy, just ran a few errands, shopped a little, picked up food for the next day.
Thursday morning it took me over an hour to pack up. I'm impressed with myself, I was able to get everything into just two packs. My checked bag weighed 17.2kgs, a whole lot more than it did when I arrived in the states!
Kelley drove me to the airport, traffic wasn't bad at all. My line to check in wasn't long, but moved sooo slowly. As slow as that was, I got through security really fast, I got to go in the precheck line. Yay!
My flight departed more than 45 mins late, I don't know why. A bunch of hours and turbulence later, I landed in Madrid, Spain.