My niece and I slept in on Sunday, our last day in Chicago. We packed our stuff and left it for the front desk to lock away while we played on our final day. We took the bus downtown and went first to the huge Apple store on the Riverwalk to attempt to get a fix on my niece's phone. No luck there. Then we went to Millennium Park to photograph ourselves by the "Bean." We walked south to the Art Institute and spent a glorious couple of hours there; photos will eventually appear on the blog. Then we moseyed further south on Michigan Avenue, until I looked to my right and exclaimed "Kilwins!!!!" These are stores with outstanding ice cream, candies and fudge, and I have been to them in Fort Collins and Panama City Beach. Therefore, ice cream landed on the agenda immediately. We sat on a low ledge to eat, and had several people say, "Where did you get that!?!?!"
We decided to find a tavern and have a final parting beer, so we walked west on Van Buren to Franklin Tap. After about an hour sitting outside, the rain started, so we moved in. It rained, but it was a small shower. It did slightly delay the start of the Nascar race downtown, which we were watching on the bar TV. We reminisced about our totally fabulous time in the Windy City.
Next we walked the few blocks to our hotel on Franklin, picked up our luggage, and took the bus to the Blue Line "L" station, and off we went to O'hare Airport. While we were riding there, we passed through a strong rain.
I want to offer praise for my cell phone and GPS and Google Maps. Without it, we would have been two very lost tourists. It gave me all the bus and "L" routes and stops, and we never took a wrong bus (though there was much bus rerouting due to the Nascar races downtown).
We hiked on over to our terminal, got through security, and checked the monitors. Note that when I flew into Chicago, it was extremely overcast, and there was a LOT of turbulence. Obviously we landed safely. Now we in Kansas KNOW storms. American Airlines are big pussies, because they canceled my flight. Of course they blamed it on "weather" so they did not have to compensate for their actions. I kid you not, the sun was shining in Chicago, and my husband in Kansas confirmed that it was dry all day. GRRRRR!
Long story short--my husband (my hero) drove to Tulsa (3 hrs) to pick me up, and we got home at 1:45am this morning. My niece's flight to Cleveland was delayed, finally canceled, she spent the night in the airport, and called me just a bit ago to say she was finally home.
We are hanging onto the thread that at least we got home safely. I guess the "charmed life" quota had run out for this trip!
Planning on a nap today,
Leta
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