I did something completely and totally out of character last week, and it was wonderful! Last Wednesday, I bought a ticket to Chicago for Friday night (and thanks, M., for understanding my crazy last minute change of plans). I had been talking to L. during the week, and this has been one of our longest stints apart so far. I really think it's a little easier for me, because I'm still here in Colorado with a ton of work, a bazillion activities and all my friends whereas he has less going on to distract him in Springfield. He sounded so down when I talked to him that on a whim Weds I checked ticket prices to see if it was possible to maybe meet him Chicago, since he was going to be up there visiting family.
Low and behold, we found a reasonable ticket and off I went on Friday night!
The flight was fine until about 2 minutes before we touched down at Midway. We went into the landing and at the last second, the pilot pulled the plane back up into the air. Apparently, the plane ahead of us had landing gear issues, and while it had safely landed it was stuck on the runway. Midway only has two runways (each one based on how the wind is directed), which meant that we got to circle for 20-30 minutes in hopes that they could clear the broken plane.
Because of the difficulty in getting a plane towed, we were not able to get into the airport before we started running low on fuel so we were diverted to Milwaukee. Not a big deal, only a 20 minute flight further, but then we got to hang out on the plane for a while during the refueling. At least most people on the plane seemed to be in pretty good humor...
So finally, an hour and a half after we were supposed to have arrived, we managed to head back to Midway where the airport was now open landing around 12:30am vs. the 10:15pm planned time.
It was WONDERFUL to be on the ground...I am only really good for so many landings, since for some reason the landing throws off my equilibrium more than the take-off or even in-air turbulance, and three was pushing my limit!
From there, L. was there to pick me up (poor guy, he'd been there waiting for 3 hours) and we headed back to the hotel room where I pretty much fell asleep immediately.
We stayed at the Essex on Michigan Avenue (www.essexinn.com), and it was a really cute room. All the necessities, nothing too crazy, and the location was out of this world. We were easy walking distance from the museum campus and the lake, the Art Museum and the Sears tower. The only thing that we really noticed was that the walls in the hotel were really, really thin - our neighbor coughed all night both nights, and there were some partiers who came in late one night and sounded like they were in the room with us. My singing in the shower habits were severely limited by the thin walls.
We headed out for breakfast Saturday morning to a restaurant called the Bongo Room...fantastic food! Breakfast burrito was huge, and came with this interesting sour cream that also added a kick.
From there, we headed to the Art Institute. I have not had the pleasure of visiting art museums in big cities (I now know that Denver does NOT qualify as a big city), so this was really one of the highlights of the trip for me. AND the month of February was free attendance...so bonus! We spent 3 1/2 hours wandering around the museum, and spent the bulk of that time with the impressionists. Monet, Renoir, Serat...large collections and they were all there! I about died with happiness to see three of the Water Lilies collection and the Haystack light study. I could have spent the entire day just hanging out in those rooms, and still have seen new things each minute!
And the Serat that everyone recognizes? It's HUGE. It took up an entire wall, and considering the fact that he's a pointilist, it's remarkable to me the level of execution in a painting that large. It took him 5 years to complete it, and I'll bet that was with consistent work. What an amazing surprise!
We also strolled through the modern wing (umm...scary). I have never taken the time to do both genres in a single visit, so to have them put side by side was eye-opening. I felt happy and light while viewing the impressionist gallery...but you hit the modern wing and it's like nothing will ever be happy again. Apparently to be modern is to have not only multiple levels of meaning, but to be dark and depressed as well. I was pretty disturbed by some of the content that I found in that gallery, and am not in a hurry to go back to revisit it. The Dahli was interesting, just because of the crispness of the paintings...and the Jackson Pollock was actually kind of cool. But all definitely brought me down. I suppose if the intention of art is to affect someone in some way, then it's all successful art. But you better believe I wouldn't want any of it in my living room!
From the art museum, we headed to the old Marshall Fields department store (now Macy's, and from what I hear, this is NOT a good thing if you're from Chicago!). Seriously, people...Mecca. 9 floors of department store. And we walked around EVERY floor!
As you might expect, after all that walking we were dying for food and decided to walk further to a great little pizza place called Pizzaria Due (a branch off the pizza place called Uno's). We were fully expecting at least a 1/2 hour wait, and were happily surprised to be able to walk right in. Large dinner and two margaritas later, we were ready to wander around. And how cool is our waitress that she let me steal the menu since it was clearly my first time to the city?
The wandering actually led us back to the hotel rather than out on the town - which was fine with me after all the physical activity that day...does that mean I'm getting old and boring?
Sunday was a little more laid back, since I had to get to the airport and we also needed to head down to South Chicago to visit L's aunt, uncle and cousin. We went back to Bongo Room, where I had the most amazing French Toast that ever existed, and then discovered we didn't need to be out of town until 2. That led us to walk down to the lake (which was frozen) and around to the Planetarium (which has huge, sweeping views of the city). It was definitely cold and I was so glad to have my ski hat, but it was also completely worth it to walk down over there. The ice on the water was really remarkable to me, since it's not like Lake Michigan is small.
Then, after taking a bazillion pictures, we headed over to the Bean and Millenium Park. Not much really to say about that other than it'd be fun to go to a concert there in the summer. The Bean was pretty cool for photo opps, but otherwise, not a lot to really do with it. So from there, we headed back to the car.
After a family visit, we headed on over to Midway so I could catch my flight back out. No problems on the return flight, and I slept for the entire thing. Can't imagine why!
Such an incredible experience, and I really did have fun with the spontenaeity of the thing. And...I'm really looking forward to going back in March, since we have a completely different itenirary for that trip!
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