Back to Chicago

Chicago again.  We find ourselves not knowing how many times

we’ve brought Oscar to this city now.  But this trip starts out with a bang when I-94 goes down to one lane for “nighttime construction” at 8pm.  So, it took us 40 minutes to go one mile to exit on US 12 because Ali’s car needed gas and we needed a different way to get to Indiana.  We found that 12 could take us a back way to where we had a hotel for the night in order to catch the early Saturday shoreline train into the city, but then got stopped at a train crossing where workers threw flares into the road.  This should have been a sign for us, as if the cars full of natives

turning around wasn’t, that we should find another route…..but, alas, we were not listening to omens and portents on this night.  We sat at the crossing for fully 30 minutes while they backed up and pulled forward and backed up and pulled forward many times in order to get freight cars moved, switched, unstuck, who the hell knows what they were doing?  I decided that they were trying to teach someone new how to drive a train, which Oscar thought was great, but at least we had already gotten gas.  But we could have staying in the traffic and still probably made it

  to the hotel at about midnight our time.  So much for getting a jump on the trip, but at least we didn’t miss our morning train because Ali would have then missed her showing of Hamilton.  John picked up the ticket and said that he would see if there were any cheap tickets left, but the last single ticket sold for $197 in front of him….crazy that it’s still so popular in the same city that it’s been in for 4 years.  We got to go check out Maggie Daley park for Oscar and have a small  rain shower in the park, but it didn’t seem to deter his enjoyment of it.  It made the city more humid though, so we all had to head back to the hotel for showers, time in the AC and a trip to CVS because somehow John and I both brought shoes that hurt our feet.  I, at least, have another pair, but he does not.  And these are shoes that are broken in, so I’m not sure why we got burned on this one, but we know now to definitely bring two pairs for everyone on the sabbatical trip.  After a stellar lunch at Vapiano’s, we hit five guys burgers and fries for dinner.  It was close, Oscar wanted fries and I’ve still never had one even though they’re everywhere.  You couldn’t believe how many fries and burgers this place was turning out.  It was just constant burgers on the grill, turning them, fry basket down, fry basket up, buns on trays, they were cooking at least 40 burgers at a time and we still had to wait a good 15 minutes for the food.  The burgers were good and Oscar loved his milkshake and fries.  So, back to the room to try to wind down after that meal.