Wheee! I got to see Chicago!!
A friend of mine has a rental property up in that area and one of his older brothers was also having his 40th birthday party up in the Chicago area. My friend wanted some company on the ride up and a little help with some work that needed to be done on the rental property, so he asked if I would be willing to take some time off work and drive up with him. My answer was a resounding "hell yes!"
So we drove up to the rental property after we got off work on the 19th. That is a long drive BTW...whoa. It didn't seem as long as it was though.. I brought some cassette tapes and my brother's iPod and we sang along to several Depeche Mode albums, some other random shyte and I learned that our music tastes are nearly identical. When we listened to the radio, he even stopped the dial on a classical station and the occasional spanish station. wow. weird. I didn't realize I knew anyone else who also listened to those stations while driving.
So, we got to the rental property, did the work (came out way nicer than I expected) and, only stopping for BBQ and Starbucks, continued right on to Chicago. And then, after about 48 hours with maybe 40 minutes total sleep between the two of us, we finally arrive at his younger older brother's house and crash. Due to lack of sleep, we didn't get up, showered and out the door til about 3pm....ooops. BUT
We got to see THE BEAN! If you don't what I'm talking about; it's a ginormous shiny sculpture of a bean and it is awesome! Do a google image search with the words bean and chicago and you will see pictures way prettier than the ones I took.
Also CROWN FOUNTAIN at night. (Buckingham fountain was closed) Weird but kinda cool. The water was off of course because it was "a bit chilly" outside. And somehow I ended up explaining about the fountain to 3 other tourists who were there. How does that happen? Also rather cool tho'
We wandered a bit in the Chicago Library. They had these "rooms" off one of the hallways that were sort of gallery-like where they had art and furniture on display. It's the only time in my life I've ever felt under-dressed for the library.
In wandering around Chicago downtown, we also went by Frank Lloyd Wright's house (tour was closed but the gift shop was open of course...heh) and the house where Hemmingway was born (didn't have time for the tour, took a picture).
Went up to the Skydeck in the SEARS TOWER. The elevator ride up was superfast and a tad unnerving what with how it shakes as you go up and the realization of how far up it is going. And when you get up there... OH. MY. GOD. It is all enclosed in glass (and only dimly lit so you can see out), but for the first couple of minutes before your brain adjusts, the view is breathtakingly beautiful and terrifying all at once. Awe and Vertigo actually compliment each other pretty well. And it is pretty f*ing sweet to look down on a cluster of skyscrapers...from another building!!
My friend's younger older bro is a distributor for New Belgium Brewing, so we went on a brief pub crawl and got some free beer. They do make several beers that I really like, but my brother was pretty jealous since he is a big fan of their beers. And I don't drink fast enough to fully appreciate the opportunity, but that was just as well since we needed someone to drive that wasn't completely trashed....hahaha
At the birthday party I socialized for a bit but near the end, I borrowed my friend's phone (mine was almost dead) and then "hid" downstairs to chat with someone else for about an hour. (more on that later)
On the way back, we stopped at the GATEWAY ARCH in St Louis. Sadly, we barely missed the last tour, so we just went through the "museum" and gift shops and took advantage of the lovely restroom facilities before heading back out. Oh...and I learned that, while sightseeing, one should not wear a metal belt that is difficult to take off and put back on. It adds a good several minutes to your trip as the attendants WILL make you take it off to go through the metal detectors....bah.
We passed a fireworks stand on the way back and we stopped and bought some for New Years. Awesomeness.
Aaaaaand....near the very end of our trip we ran out of gas two or three blocks away from my house and I had to wake up my brother to bring us a gallon. We were all so tired we laughed about it crazily.
All in all, it was a fantastic trip. The temperature was in the 20's and 30's and I think it actually reset my personal thermostat somehow because we walked a lot and the wind was bit biting at times, but I didn't really mind it. and coming back to Oklahoma, the cold doesn't seem to really bother me at all. I loved Chicago! If I spent time in January and February weather and felt I could deal with that weather too, I think I could totally live there.
So we drove up to the rental property after we got off work on the 19th. That is a long drive BTW...whoa. It didn't seem as long as it was though.. I brought some cassette tapes and my brother's iPod and we sang along to several Depeche Mode albums, some other random shyte and I learned that our music tastes are nearly identical. When we listened to the radio, he even stopped the dial on a classical station and the occasional spanish station. wow. weird. I didn't realize I knew anyone else who also listened to those stations while driving.
So, we got to the rental property, did the work (came out way nicer than I expected) and, only stopping for BBQ and Starbucks, continued right on to Chicago. And then, after about 48 hours with maybe 40 minutes total sleep between the two of us, we finally arrive at his younger older brother's house and crash. Due to lack of sleep, we didn't get up, showered and out the door til about 3pm....ooops. BUT
We got to see THE BEAN! If you don't what I'm talking about; it's a ginormous shiny sculpture of a bean and it is awesome! Do a google image search with the words bean and chicago and you will see pictures way prettier than the ones I took.
Also CROWN FOUNTAIN at night. (Buckingham fountain was closed) Weird but kinda cool. The water was off of course because it was "a bit chilly" outside. And somehow I ended up explaining about the fountain to 3 other tourists who were there. How does that happen? Also rather cool tho'
We wandered a bit in the Chicago Library. They had these "rooms" off one of the hallways that were sort of gallery-like where they had art and furniture on display. It's the only time in my life I've ever felt under-dressed for the library.
In wandering around Chicago downtown, we also went by Frank Lloyd Wright's house (tour was closed but the gift shop was open of course...heh) and the house where Hemmingway was born (didn't have time for the tour, took a picture).
Went up to the Skydeck in the SEARS TOWER. The elevator ride up was superfast and a tad unnerving what with how it shakes as you go up and the realization of how far up it is going. And when you get up there... OH. MY. GOD. It is all enclosed in glass (and only dimly lit so you can see out), but for the first couple of minutes before your brain adjusts, the view is breathtakingly beautiful and terrifying all at once. Awe and Vertigo actually compliment each other pretty well. And it is pretty f*ing sweet to look down on a cluster of skyscrapers...from another building!!
My friend's younger older bro is a distributor for New Belgium Brewing, so we went on a brief pub crawl and got some free beer. They do make several beers that I really like, but my brother was pretty jealous since he is a big fan of their beers. And I don't drink fast enough to fully appreciate the opportunity, but that was just as well since we needed someone to drive that wasn't completely trashed....hahaha
At the birthday party I socialized for a bit but near the end, I borrowed my friend's phone (mine was almost dead) and then "hid" downstairs to chat with someone else for about an hour. (more on that later)
On the way back, we stopped at the GATEWAY ARCH in St Louis. Sadly, we barely missed the last tour, so we just went through the "museum" and gift shops and took advantage of the lovely restroom facilities before heading back out. Oh...and I learned that, while sightseeing, one should not wear a metal belt that is difficult to take off and put back on. It adds a good several minutes to your trip as the attendants WILL make you take it off to go through the metal detectors....bah.
We passed a fireworks stand on the way back and we stopped and bought some for New Years. Awesomeness.
Aaaaaand....near the very end of our trip we ran out of gas two or three blocks away from my house and I had to wake up my brother to bring us a gallon. We were all so tired we laughed about it crazily.
All in all, it was a fantastic trip. The temperature was in the 20's and 30's and I think it actually reset my personal thermostat somehow because we walked a lot and the wind was bit biting at times, but I didn't really mind it. and coming back to Oklahoma, the cold doesn't seem to really bother me at all. I loved Chicago! If I spent time in January and February weather and felt I could deal with that weather too, I think I could totally live there.