Chicago, for reals
The day before I left to go to Chicago I had been asked to work a 12 hour shift at work. At this point in my life, my time is much more valuable to me than money, so I had never volunteered for any overtime. But I was tricked into it and seeing as I had been spending money like to was going out of style, I figured a little extra couldn't hurt. Once my shift was over I had bruises all over my legs (that would develop into a lovely green color by the end of the weekend) and blisters all over my hands from climbing up and down the ladders. All in all, I was sexy beast.
I get up the next morning only to discover that my long anticipated travel buddy would be coming with me. Because of this, I changed my outfit from a cute, form-fitting stylish top to a tank top. Such is life. My timing for the airport was perfect. The flight was uneventful, but I did manage to get some sleep. I was shocked when we landed a half hour early and prepared myself to wait awhile for Kyle. I found a bench outside, sat down and tried to learn how to breath in this thick air. Turns out Kyle had checked my flight online (what foresight!) and was already there to pick me up - I don't know if Chicago has magic all its own or it was still left over from Disneyland
Kyle - if you're reading this, I need you to skip ahead to the next paragraph. You're not missing anything. I promise. For those of you who don't know, Kyle is my friend from college (LeTourneau, not NAU). We'd kept in touch through the glories of Facebook. Also, he had come up to see me once while his family was in Arizona, so not it was my turn to go see him. Ok, seriously Kyle, you need to stop reading now. It had been three years since I'd seem him and he was almost exactly the same...yet different. He looked older, but in a good way. The biggest change was his facial hair. All the time that I had know him he had a goatee. Now he just had stubble....Yeah*
Welcome back. Kyle picked me up, and first on the agenda, of course, is food (call me what you want - at least I'm consistant). He takes me to this hot dog place and we both get hamburgers. And I get a milkshake. A glorious chocolate milkshake. Sigh. Next, we went back to his apartment so I could drop my stuff off and freshen up before we went into Chicago. Unfortunately, when I dropped my stuff off in the room I saw the king size bed and I remembered that I had been up since before 4 am. I swear, I only wanted to see how comfortable the bed was - I had no intention of falling asleep. But that's exactly what happened (I blame the milkshake). In fact, my nap made us late to the train so we had to wait at the station for awhile until the next one came. But it all worked out 'cause it gave me sufficent time to wake up and fodder for Kyle to tease me about.
The train finally comes. We find seats and head towards the city. Once at the station, Kyle pulls out his map ( \a picture he toof of mapquest on his computer) and we start walking. And we don't stop or the next. Six. Hours. We hit the major sights: Sears Tower, Millenium Park, The Giant Bean, Michigan Avenue, Random Crazy Guy On The Street Talking About Michael Jackson (we think), and by then it's time to eat again.
Being in Chicago, it seems only right that we get pizza. And Kyle wants to take me to his faovirte place, Giordano's. So after figuring out where it was (the camera map is useless at this point - thankfully we have the starts to track ourselves by...), we put our names down on the list and wait. Forever. Finally our name is called and we head upstairs to glory. Well, golry in the form of pizza. Seriously, it was fantastic, but I only maganged to devour one piece. I know, I fail. Kyle put away four. Leftovers in hand, we walk out on a mission to find Moody Bible Institute. Which we do! Yay us!
Silly ignorant me, I thought that Moody was in Chicago. But it's not. Apparently it's in Northern Canada. Cause that's how far we had to walk to get back to the train station. Lucky I had my passport... After scrambling to find seats, we make our way home. And listen to the conversation of the lady behind us who has never heard the terms "inside voice" or "oversharing." It's past midnight at this point so once we get back we head straight to bed.
The next day, neither one of us can really get motivated. But you know what finally gets us out of the house? Food! Well, at least for me. I think Kyle was having motorcycle withdrawls. So after getting a safety brief (basically what I heard was "don't lean the wrong way, OR YOU'LL DIE, don't let go, OR YOU'LL DIE, don't stop humming, OR YOU'LL DIE." It was very encouraging). He helps me put the red helmet on and I zip up the pink jacket (yes Lindsay, I was crazy clashing). I swing myself on, grip Kyle like he's my lifeline, and he takes off. It was really fun but I didn't want to do anything that would cause me TO DIE! Which, I accomplished! (Well, I would hope that you would assume that seeing as I'm still alive, typing this story...but I just wanted to you be on the same page as me...yeah).
We got food and I fell in love with a cheese sauce. Then we went out riding some more and I got to look at super big houses with pillars! Score! Later (in a vehicle with four wheels) we went to the movie theater and saw UP. It was so cute and not at all heart-breaking.... Then we went out to dinner (I got a steak and Kyle got a salad...role reversal, anyone?) and ice cream. This ice cream was delicious. It tasted like Disneyland. Interpret that as you will. After that we were exhausted (can you blame us ;)) so we went back to his place and watched Australia. Let's take a moment and just revel in the glory that is Hugh Jackman in that movie....Sigh. Once the movie was over, we called it a night.
The next morning I got up and got all my stuff together so I could leave right from the city. We ate the leftover pizza and headed to the Lincoln Park Zoo. It was perfect - I hadn't been to the zoo in forever and the weather was ideal for walking around. We got to see all the animals we wanted to see and Kyle compared me to less attractive animals...jerk. ;) We had to leave and get to the airport because Kyle had a concert to get to. Rude, I know. Just tossing me aside because he had more important things to do. Show's me my flying out there really meant to him ;) But to make it up to me, he takes me to dinner to one of Chicago's most notable restaurants: Burger King. 'Cause this girl is worth it!
He drops me off at the airport, says goodbye and I head in to find my gate. On my way I find I Ben & Jerry's shop and get a coconut milkshake. And I buy my one and only souviener from Chicago: a pen. It was the perfect way to end my trip. And I'm not being sarcastic, I really loved my trip. I can't wait to go back!
*Please contact me directly for a more in-depth analysis of my first impression of Kyle :)
I get up the next morning only to discover that my long anticipated travel buddy would be coming with me. Because of this, I changed my outfit from a cute, form-fitting stylish top to a tank top. Such is life. My timing for the airport was perfect. The flight was uneventful, but I did manage to get some sleep. I was shocked when we landed a half hour early and prepared myself to wait awhile for Kyle. I found a bench outside, sat down and tried to learn how to breath in this thick air. Turns out Kyle had checked my flight online (what foresight!) and was already there to pick me up - I don't know if Chicago has magic all its own or it was still left over from Disneyland
Kyle - if you're reading this, I need you to skip ahead to the next paragraph. You're not missing anything. I promise. For those of you who don't know, Kyle is my friend from college (LeTourneau, not NAU). We'd kept in touch through the glories of Facebook. Also, he had come up to see me once while his family was in Arizona, so not it was my turn to go see him. Ok, seriously Kyle, you need to stop reading now. It had been three years since I'd seem him and he was almost exactly the same...yet different. He looked older, but in a good way. The biggest change was his facial hair. All the time that I had know him he had a goatee. Now he just had stubble....Yeah*
Welcome back. Kyle picked me up, and first on the agenda, of course, is food (call me what you want - at least I'm consistant). He takes me to this hot dog place and we both get hamburgers. And I get a milkshake. A glorious chocolate milkshake. Sigh. Next, we went back to his apartment so I could drop my stuff off and freshen up before we went into Chicago. Unfortunately, when I dropped my stuff off in the room I saw the king size bed and I remembered that I had been up since before 4 am. I swear, I only wanted to see how comfortable the bed was - I had no intention of falling asleep. But that's exactly what happened (I blame the milkshake). In fact, my nap made us late to the train so we had to wait at the station for awhile until the next one came. But it all worked out 'cause it gave me sufficent time to wake up and fodder for Kyle to tease me about.
The train finally comes. We find seats and head towards the city. Once at the station, Kyle pulls out his map ( \a picture he toof of mapquest on his computer) and we start walking. And we don't stop or the next. Six. Hours. We hit the major sights: Sears Tower, Millenium Park, The Giant Bean, Michigan Avenue, Random Crazy Guy On The Street Talking About Michael Jackson (we think), and by then it's time to eat again.
Being in Chicago, it seems only right that we get pizza. And Kyle wants to take me to his faovirte place, Giordano's. So after figuring out where it was (the camera map is useless at this point - thankfully we have the starts to track ourselves by...), we put our names down on the list and wait. Forever. Finally our name is called and we head upstairs to glory. Well, golry in the form of pizza. Seriously, it was fantastic, but I only maganged to devour one piece. I know, I fail. Kyle put away four. Leftovers in hand, we walk out on a mission to find Moody Bible Institute. Which we do! Yay us!
Silly ignorant me, I thought that Moody was in Chicago. But it's not. Apparently it's in Northern Canada. Cause that's how far we had to walk to get back to the train station. Lucky I had my passport... After scrambling to find seats, we make our way home. And listen to the conversation of the lady behind us who has never heard the terms "inside voice" or "oversharing." It's past midnight at this point so once we get back we head straight to bed.
The next day, neither one of us can really get motivated. But you know what finally gets us out of the house? Food! Well, at least for me. I think Kyle was having motorcycle withdrawls. So after getting a safety brief (basically what I heard was "don't lean the wrong way, OR YOU'LL DIE, don't let go, OR YOU'LL DIE, don't stop humming, OR YOU'LL DIE." It was very encouraging). He helps me put the red helmet on and I zip up the pink jacket (yes Lindsay, I was crazy clashing). I swing myself on, grip Kyle like he's my lifeline, and he takes off. It was really fun but I didn't want to do anything that would cause me TO DIE! Which, I accomplished! (Well, I would hope that you would assume that seeing as I'm still alive, typing this story...but I just wanted to you be on the same page as me...yeah).
We got food and I fell in love with a cheese sauce. Then we went out riding some more and I got to look at super big houses with pillars! Score! Later (in a vehicle with four wheels) we went to the movie theater and saw UP. It was so cute and not at all heart-breaking.... Then we went out to dinner (I got a steak and Kyle got a salad...role reversal, anyone?) and ice cream. This ice cream was delicious. It tasted like Disneyland. Interpret that as you will. After that we were exhausted (can you blame us ;)) so we went back to his place and watched Australia. Let's take a moment and just revel in the glory that is Hugh Jackman in that movie....Sigh. Once the movie was over, we called it a night.
The next morning I got up and got all my stuff together so I could leave right from the city. We ate the leftover pizza and headed to the Lincoln Park Zoo. It was perfect - I hadn't been to the zoo in forever and the weather was ideal for walking around. We got to see all the animals we wanted to see and Kyle compared me to less attractive animals...jerk. ;) We had to leave and get to the airport because Kyle had a concert to get to. Rude, I know. Just tossing me aside because he had more important things to do. Show's me my flying out there really meant to him ;) But to make it up to me, he takes me to dinner to one of Chicago's most notable restaurants: Burger King. 'Cause this girl is worth it!
He drops me off at the airport, says goodbye and I head in to find my gate. On my way I find I Ben & Jerry's shop and get a coconut milkshake. And I buy my one and only souviener from Chicago: a pen. It was the perfect way to end my trip. And I'm not being sarcastic, I really loved my trip. I can't wait to go back!
*Please contact me directly for a more in-depth analysis of my first impression of Kyle :)