Chicago

Here is a summary of our recent trip to Chicago.

October 1, 2009 – Thursday
Picked up W&T and drove to the airport. Flew to O’Hare took Blue line to red line then to Grand stop. Walked to Courtyard Marriot hotel at State and Hubbard. Late lunch at Lou Malnati (deep dish Chicago style pizza) – Excellent. Bus to Art institute. Bus to shopping on Michigan Ave. then Hotel.

October 2, 2009 – Friday
Connie and I walked along the river to Lake Michigan. Back to hotel to clean up then breakfast at the Billy Goat grill and tavern. Had breakfast sandwich, no Pepsi, Coke. Ride bus to Shedd Aquarium. Bus back to Michigan Ave for shopping. Dinner at Cheesecake Factory. Lounge at top of John Hancock Building for view and expensive drink. Bus to Hotel.

October 3, 2009 – Saturday
Breakfast at the Hotel (mediocre at best) then Red Line train to Wrigley Field, bought tickets to Cubs game from scalper. $65 ticket for $40. Lee Ann Womack sings National Anthem. Eat peanuts and Chicago style Hotdog (no dip’n dots) Cubs win 5-0, more singing. Redline back to hotel. Bus to Navy Pier. Bus to Buddy Guy’s Legends. Jambalaya for dinner. Good (and loud) blues music from Harmonica Hinds, Joe Moss Band and Larry McCray. Panhandled by little person while waiting for bus. Bus back to hotel after midnight.

October 4, 2009 – Sunday
Took bus north to have breakfast – couldn’t find the place we were planning on, stumbled on to Tempo. Best breakfast ever (except for the hornets). Bus to Field Museum. Walked through Grant Park and Country Music Festival then to Sears Tower. 103 floors up for viewing. Taxi to Reza’s for dinner. Yummy (Connie remembered it differently) Persian food. Taxi back to hotel. Lynn and Tyson swim and sauna.

October 5, 2009 – Monday
Taxi to Tempo for breakfast. Walk back to hotel. Pack up, check out of hotel. Train to O’Hare. Fly home.

The shells I found out snorkeling. 3- Queen Conch Shells and 1 other one that I don't know the name of, it is the one with the black creature in it. When we got back to the island I cooked the shells in boiling water for 5-10 minutes and then tried to pull the creature out, it would not budge and I had to leave it behind when we went home, the fish can clean it out and someone else will have a lovely shell. I couldn't get the animal out of a few smaller shells that I had found and threw them back in the water below our cabin to let the fish eat at them. Two days later I went to check on them again and they were gone, stolen by some hermit crabs and they left their old shells there, dumb hermit crabs! I did find one of them 1 day later and got my revenge, I now have my shell back minus the crab!

More fun scuba diving the Tunnels. We saw a Hawksbill turtle and lots of barrel sponge. We went through 6 swim throughs and some of them were a little tight.

Scuba diving the swim throughs.

Drinking coconuts on our deck.

School of Blue Tangs swimming past me.

Lynn hunting for a green coconut for me to drink. He got me at least one coconut to drink each day we were here. We also had fresh grated coconut to eat with our pineapple and put in a cabbage and pineapple salad that I made for dinner. I tried making coconut candy, but it turned in to coconut syrup that we put on our french toast a couple of mornings. Yum!