Thursday 6 September
Woke up 8:25, showered checked email and LJ then down to breakfast 9:15 dinning area packed but managed to find a space. No bagels though. Read a bit and finally left at 11:10 for Millenium Park.
Arrived at the Welcome Center just as the free tour of the park was starting! Spent an hour walking around, finishing at the Bean. Then across the Nichols bridgeway to the Art Institute down to ground level, wandered the shop. I then went to the Corner Bakery Cafe on Monroe, had an All American Scrambler (bacon, eggs, hash browns, onions) and water for $7.19. Then to CVS to get pain killers and hand cream. Noticed for the first time my hands are starting to look old!
Back to the old library/cultural centre to rest and catch up on my blogging. Downloaded the "Chicago" app, a bit late but...
Then back to the hostel in time for the weekly lemonade and cookies
Left at 4:15 for the Brown line north (caught at HW Library). Stayed on until Merchandise Mart, had problems exiting but eventually got out at Orleans. Walked north to Grand where the MacMall was on the corner (329 W Grand Avenue) bought a new iPod touch for $210.18 (£132.35) including tax. Then walked north to get the Brown line at Chicago, Grand being halfway between Chicago and Merchandise Mart.
As recommended by one of the volunteer guides, I stayed on the Brown line until it's terminus at Kimball. It was interesting to see the different building styles as the train left the city. Five stops from Kimball it stopped being elevated and ran at near ground level.
I got on the next train back to the loop at Kimball and returned to my starting station (HW Library) two and a half hours later.
I was back in the hostel by 7:00 and unpacked my iPod hoping to try it out. First it seems to be exactly the same size despite of cameras and microphones. However it seems to require an unsecured wifi connection to start. So far this has been unavailable.
Phoned the MacMall store (free as local call, store open 8:00 to 8:00) and got confirmation that they have a network that would work. So if all else fails I can return there to set it up.
Discovered that cafecito (next to the hostel) has a secure wifi so bought an iced coffee for $2.18 and got access. The coffee was excellent. Then up to my room to collect my now fully charged iPod. Then down again and logged into cafe wifi and it worked. Completed setup with iCloud sync and started trying the camera. Low light levels ment poor quality but so cool.
Decided to get something to eat so used a discount coupon to buy a medium blizzard strawberry cheese cake ice cream for $3.31 from the "DQ Grill & Chill" on the corner. It was lovely but I then had a penny dropping moment when I realised DQ stood for Dairy Queen! (I also discovered that tlc stood for "the L cafe" rather than "tender loving care").
I then decided to try a little beef sandwich at Al's #1 Italian Beef. Mountains of juicy beef stuffed into a 4" roll, for $4.98. I had to wash my hands before leaving, there was so much juice. It was nicely seasoned too.
Back to the hostel to trim my beard and then take a shower, then updated my blog notes before bed.
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