The drive was good. The vista leaving Cleveland was American rural in white. I am not sure if you have noticed, but snow is still a wonderful thing to me (Jen, pass my number on to the east coast). I amused myself with music and podcasts and regular pit stops. I found out there is no fruit in the interstate that is not in a McDonald's apple pie or Starbucks cherry spiced latte.
Getting to Chicago was a breeze- get on the I90 and drive. Shazam, you hit Chicago ($20 in tolls later). The hard part was getting a park. Just as I missed my second last turn (oops) the blackberry suffered a catastrophic failure and required a battery pull. For those who don't know blackberries, it is quicker to load a game on a commodore 64 using a tape than restart one of these. I focused myself into a zen like state and pictured the map. I was Yoda himself and found where I was going . . . . Or did I? I was in a back ally which did not look good so I chucked a right. Suddenly I am in the strange underground world from Batman Begins.
I loop the block and then try the street in front of the hotel. It is called Michigan Ave and all the cars in the world were on it at once. The only luck going for me was there was no snow. I follow my blue dot on the BB GPS but after 8 weeks of navigating around the US, I still never remember the blue dot is about a half a block in the past and I pass the hotel and cross a bridge. Oh dear. Each set of lights has a no u-turn sign (which I respect because the traffic was a combined consciousness of angry horns tooting everywhere). I take the plunge and loop around a block, run a 4 way stop sign (there are those horns again) and start back in the right direction.
Hallelujah, there is the awning for the hotel but god is having his way with me again (not in the good way) and there is nowhere to stop. I do a loop (or two) of a few blocks, mapping the parking garages in my head. After about 3 more loops I take the plunge, following a public parking sign in the underground world. I get to the end of this "street", after passing the homeless man making up his bed and there is a closed car parking garage. Back out with an Austin Powers like 3 point turn and looping the block again.
At this point, the 3 bottles of water I had in the car were knocking and if I crossed and tighter, blood would stop getting to my toes. I follow another sign to public parking and praise be, I was parked (and I think in the only park left in the first level). I did a quick anti-theft cleanse of the car and hid the iPod etc in the glovebox. There is a chance this park is going to cost a kidney but it was a medical emergency.
I checked in to the thinnest hotel in the world and made my way to level 16 for some relief. In stepped god again as one of the lifts were out. I did get to level 16 and my hotel room is actually a 1 bedroom apartment with a view up and down Michigan ave (photos). It is very impressive, especially for $75 a night.
I went walking for a couple of hours and ducked into famous Ada's for a beer and lunner (lunch and dinner). After that it was freakishly cold so I made my way back, past a really amazing outdoor ice skating rink (notice no quotation marks). I will have to check that out. The bit of Chicago I have seen is dense with spectacular buildings and I could just walk around looking for days (in fact, I just might).
Back at the apartment I really wanted to get out there again but there was a new episode of For the Love of Ray J and I was tired. I was in bed by 7.30 (central time) and 10 hours sleep later, I wake up fresh as a daisy.
I left the curtains open as I can see down Michigan from my bed and in the morning, I could see (after I put on my glasses) a couple of inches of snow had fallen. It's 11am now and it is still going.
I have checked out a few shopping centres (and the shiny Apple store with the huge rubber stairs) and Chicago is the city for everyone. It has:
- Tiffany's for Al
- Apple for, well all nerds
- hershey's for Caroline
- Oprah for Caroline (this just may be your city, all it needs now is country music)
- Disney store for Carla
- borders for David, and
- snow for me
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