Chicago - Day 1

D and I arrived in Chicago after an issue with the plane's "battery" (oy) that caused a two hour delay. I didn't mind. I was out cold despite the Dramamine's being non-drowsy. Plus, I needed some sleep after not really getting any that week (stress, fighting, sad, etc.) and after having woken up at 6:00 to get to Neward on time for the flight.

When we landed we experienced a bit of travelling-with-someone-else stress when we couldn't decide if we should take a cab, take a shuttle, take the train, etc. I'd assumed that D, who was in charge of the plan, knew where the hotel was and could therefore predict what would be best, but he didn't know where it was. He called, and we determined that taking the train would be best, although we couldn't tell how far a walk it would be from the train station to the hotel.

I was getting a bit crazy because my bag was heavy and because I hadn't eaten and it was 1:00, Chicago-time. Not knowing when I'd be able to get some food was enough to drive me nuts, but I tried to hold it together. I want D to be happy, and his happiness has been revealed to be completely dependent on my own.

We hopped on the train.

Reason #1 Chicago is Awesome: Public transit. WOW. So easy and cheap to get a visitor's pass. So clearly marked. So few crazy people.

We soon realized that Chicago is very compact. If you looked at the map you'd think that it was pretty huge, but I guess we are New Yorkers and now attribute New York Scale to all things.

D asked if we could be moved to a high floor once we arrived at the hotel.

Reason #2 Chicago is Awesome: The girl at the desk said "Well, I have something on the 35th floor if you'd like." Easy.

We ran upstairs, dropped our bags, gasped, ooh-ed, ahh-ed, "I can't wait to take photos when we get back AFTER WE EAT SOMETHING."

We devoured some Chicago deep-dish and stopped over at the Museum of Contemporary Photography where, coincidentally, my favorite photographer had some photos showing! Woo!!! We tried to get tickets to Wicked (I knew there was no chance), then to the symphony (I didn't know the pieces so I exercised my veto power), then got super super ridiculously awfully cold, so we headed back to the hotel. The room was small, but we didn't care, because:







These buildings are apartment complexes. I adore them:





D cleaned the windows on the other side of the room so I could take more photos:



We walked even higher up the stairwells:





We just stared and stared and stared:



The sun went down:



We'd read in Time Out Chicago that there were going to be fireworks along The Magnificent Mile (magnificent for its shopping!), but we didn't know where they would be. I was feeling a little sluggish after flying and starving and being generally disoriented, so I said "Maybe can we just stay here and hope to see them from the hotel?"

This turned out to be the best option possible, as the fireworks were right outside the hotel:



We were literally right on top of them:



I've never been on top of fireworks before. The whole hotel was shaking:



After the fireworks and after my nap (woo!), we set out in search of steak and cheese. Steak for D, and cheese involving Mike Ditka's bar. Heh. We found an amazing restaurant that had an entire section of its menu devoted to potato! Super fancy, super good, super worth the many many many dollars we spent. We then went to Ditka's because we figured it was the most tourist-y thing to do, where they did not have ciders so D said "Let's get out of here." We ended up at a bar on the 96th floor of the Hancock Tower, where the best view, I must admit, was from the ladies' room.

Then we went back to the hotel, stared out the windows some more, and completely passed out.