Days, we'll be doing the museum thing, and nights... who knows? Well, I do, mostly. One of the first two nights, I want to go to Navy Pier. It was fun to wander around last time I was there, so I hope it hasn't turned into a hole-in-the-wall or anything. Wednesday night we're seeing the musical Wicked. The other night... who knows? Not me, this time. That one's up in the air. We might catch Brookfield Zoo on our way out of town, depending...

 

At any rate, I spent some of today buying expensive and almost-needless vacation stuff, like a new portable CD player--$6.50. New tie, new sunglasses... the works, I guess. Plus a few groceries for the road. I'm a bit worried about the cooler and people's luggage fitting into my trunk... I guess we'll figure that one out when we see how big people's bags are. Yup... everything going swimmingly, eh?

 

I'll probably just post again after my trip, but there's a chance--a possibility-- that I'll get a few spare minutes to post here during the trip. I'm sure all three of my fellow travellers would tell you I'm too attached to the big feeding tube called the Internet... but they can just deal with it. Wish me bon voyage, folks!

We hit the road and got on I-88 after a little while. I've never driven that one, but it's farther north than I-80, and got us to downtown more quickly. We got lost a lot in downtown, but that's no big deal, in retrospect.

Our hotel room was small, but serviceable. We didn't need it for much except sleep, we were out so much. Anyhow, after we got there on Monday we just walked around Michigan avenue and went into a couple stores... But on Tuesday, we took the subway to the Shedd Aquarium. Even though we only took the subway to and from the museum campus twice, I got kind of used to it. After the aquarium, Kara, Sarah, and I went to Navy Pier, but by the time we got there, it was closing down for the night.

A side note: it takes a lot out of a person to walk around someplace nonstop all day. That goes for the Aquarium and for the Field Museum on Wednesday. Both places were excellent, and had a lot of interesting things to see. I wouldn't recommend paying to get into any of the special exhibits at the Field Museum, thought. And the Evolving Planet exhibit? Really, really long. Remember that before you go in.

Wednesday night, we all went to the musical Wicked. We caught a cab, even. That was interesting... But the musical was almost a disaster. We got there, and at the Will Call window, we found out that the tickets we purchased through Ticketmaster were for a week prior. Luckily, we talked to the House Manager, and got four seats in the back. They were even better than our normal seats up in the front. I had a great time.

On Thursday, we went by Navy Pier again to get a few things--it's mostly just a big shopping complex--and then we went to Brookfield Zoo. That was a good time, even if it was cold out. It started to snow that day... and we drove back to Iowa in that, too. We even had to switch drivers in Rock Falls, Illinois, I got so wound up, driving.

All in all, it was a great vacation. Well worth all the money--Chicago isn't a cheap town, but I think we did a good job being thrifty. I'm definitely glad I went, and I thank my traveling companions, especially Kara for putting it all together. So, sorry to everyone about this being late, but I have stuff to deal with, being back from spring break--the most notable of which is Prom with Rachel. Plans are going swimmingly for that. Oh, yeah, and D&D this weekend is going to rock, as usual.

Have a good time, everybody.