Posted in Miscellaneous, Top Five Friday on May 30, 2008| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Things I Love, Travel on May 29, 2008| 5 Comments »
If you thought I couldn’t put any more pictures in one post than the Art Car post, you are sadly mistaken!!! I present to you Photomania Part Due: A Wicked Good Time! Yesterday I left you with a photo from me after the Wicked show. Again, it was GREAT and if you ever have the chance to go, DO IT!!
When I travel alone, I mostly let my feet do the walking, so I end up seeing more cool things that aren’t on the map, in addition to the touristy things that are on the map. For lunch one day, the feet guided me to Pizzaria Due (a relative of Pizzaria Uno) where I ate a delectable mushroom and olive deep dish.
After lunch, I made my way (on the bus, it was too far to walk lugging my 30someodd pound suitcase) to the host hotel for the training. I got settled in to my 21st floor room that had an amazing view of the Chicago skyline and coast.
In distance, beyond Soldier Field I could see Navy Pier.
After the opening training session, I set out for the Navy Pier and rode the hotel shuttle (at the suggestion of the concierge). When I found out I would be the only one going there, I hopped off near Millennium Park where I checked out the much talked about Cloud Gate.
From there, I continued to allow my feet to do the walking. They guided me through the rest of Millennium Park, across a walking bridge over the freeway, through another park, along the river, and up and over a driving bridge to the other side of the river. About an hour after hopping off the hotel shuttle I arrived at the Navy Pier.
Yes, it was 43 degrees at 7PM…and got colder from there. I decided a ride on the ferris wheel would be fun. And it was, but it was cold too. And I was all by myself, so I sorta looked like a big nerd. A big, cold nerd, all alone in the gondola taking pictures of herself. See the city in the background.
After the ride, I was hungry and decided to get something to eat, but couldn’t find anything that struck my fancy there at Navy Pier. I thought I was excited about an Italian place until I saw that you order at the register and they bring your food to your table. Um…not exactly what I wanted. So I hopped on a city bus and rode closer to the center of the city. Only I didn’t get off where I had wanted to, so I was a little further than I had hoped. But, I found the Chicago Fire House restaurant where I had a delicious Lobster Bisque topped with puff pastry
and something called the Impossible Pastel…because apparently it is next to impossible to bake all the layers together into one dessert.
After dinner it was close to 10PM, so I hailed a taxi (aka had the valet guys working outside the restaurant hail one for me because I’m really not assertive enough for taxi hailing) to go back to the hotel. I still had to get up in the morning for training and had done enough walking for the day.
In my next few days, after trainings, my time was my own, so I saw this
and this…sorry I don’t know off hand what the exhibit is called.
I saw this….
and this.
Oh yeah, and I saw this from my hotel room window.
Then I saw this….
thinking it was this.
I was disappointed at first, but realized I just didn’t go far enough to see the Buckingham Fountain the first time.
Seriously, I had an almost perfect amount of time there. I was able to see most of the things I really wanted to see, plus do a little shopping and a lot of eating. And there are still a few things I can put on my list for when I go back in August for another work training. Sorry to say mom, but a Segway tour is not on that next time list.
Posted in Culture, Entertainment, Travel, Weekend, Work on May 28, 2008| 2 Comments »
As you already know I was in Chicago for a work related training over the Memorial Day weekend. I arrived on Thursday (a day earlier than my training) and left on Monday (the day after the training) so I would have plenty of time for hanging out and sightseeing. My visit was close to the end of Tulip Days on the Magnificent Mile but I was able to see plenty of vibrant tulips in bloom.
On my first day in the city, I decided to splurge on a 4th row ticket to see Wicked at the Oriental Theater. I LOVE live shows, with the amazing stage setups, costumes, live music and fabulous old theaters.
I wish I could show you pictures from inside the Oriental lobby, but none came out very good. And inside the actual theater there was a picture nazi/usher forbidding the theater-goers from taking any pictures. Anyhow, the show was awesome and afterward, I found a nice lady to take a picture of me to commemorate the experience.
Come back tomorrow, when I’ll share more from my Chicago trip!
Posted in Travel on May 27, 2008| 1 Comment »
I’m back from Chicago, safe and sound. I know you are dying to hear all about my adventures, but that will have to wait till later. I will tell you now that I did NOT do a Segway (sp?) tour.
Posted in Entertainment, Things I Love, Travel, Work on May 22, 2008| 5 Comments »
…you’ll lose the blues in Chicagooooo!
No pictures yet, but I figured I’d update you anyhow. Been up and going since 3:45am and now it’s 11:07pm (do you know where your kids are?…sorry random, delirious flashback.) Rode on what feels like the world’s tiniest plane from BMT to Houston, yet somehow really enjoyed the fact that the desk clerk is also the same person who is loading the luggage on the plane, ANNNDDDD waving the orange lights to tell the pilot he’s good turning around. And the security guard/sheriff’s officer shuts and locks the white french doors to gate number 1 (the only gate!) when the last passenger goes through. That disturbs some people. And there was also a girl who was the flight attendant who went to my high school and recognized me. What are the chances. (BTW, on a flight that is only 20 mins in duration, there is only one flight attendant, and the pilot calls him/her by name when telling them to sit down and prepare for takeoff/departure.)
Once I got here, I took the requisite 45ish minute train ride into town. Dropped stuff at the hotel then walked around the fabulous magnificant mile (and many other miles) for about 3 hours. I am a shopping dummy and didn’t actually buy anything at H&M, Marshalls, OR Filene’s Basement-all places a bargain hunters paradise. Maybe I’ll go back tomorrow.
I finally decided that I was going to splurge on the tickets to see Wicked…I was on the 4th row in the Orchestra section. More on that later…but just to tell you it was great!!!
Anyhow, tomorrow I’ve got plenty planned, including actually checking in for the work related reason I’m in Chicago. But that doesn’t mean I can’t play until then!
Posted in Random Photo on May 21, 2008| 3 Comments »
For my random photo of the week, I present to you a masterpiece titled “Walmart sucks, but I look hot in my new George suit”.
This is what happens when you drive two hours to a job interview, only to find you left your suit at home. So you drive to the nearest Walmart and luckily they are open 24 hours, and luckily you can find something mildly attractive and actually in your size. Oh yeah, the dressing room closes at 7pm, the lady working doesn’t know/care where you try on the clothes, so you opt for the middle of the aisles layering OVER the clothes you are already wearing.
Andrea Unplugged 