Chicago Day 3

I mostly failed in the sleeping department last night. I was up until after 2 am, just being busy not being tired. I also woke up before my alarm was going to go off. That latter part is a good thing, I guess, since it wasn’t *too* long before. I usually do better in my day the less I have to hear alarm clock buzzing.

The situation with the second day of the class was kind of amusing. I walked over with my co-worker and we realized that someone else was sitting at the table we were at the previous day. Don’t people understand that assigned seats are understood for things like this? Anyway, we sat at a table with two young women from the Midlands in England. It was interesting speaking with them as we ate our breakfast, despite the loud noise that was going on above us. The leader of the class informed us that there was a bubble on the roof above us. Apparently this is a very serious issue and they needed to work immediately to rectify the situation. Um, huh? A bubble? OK… So, we found out we were to move to a conference room at the other end of the floor for the class today, but we’d eat in the room with the loud noises. This was only the latest in a series of problems that plagued this class, what with presenters not being able to make it, other presenters giving those presenters presentations. And the very confusing juggling of presentations, meaning that some concepts which were discussed in detail on day one were finally “introduced” on day two. It overall wasn’t a very cohesive course this way and would have been extremely confusing for the newbie. I’m just glad I had a pretty strong basis for it. In fact, a lot of it was repetitive for me from an earlier workshop I attended in 2005. During today’s session, the lights kept randomly dimming and coming back on. I suspect it was someone leaning on a light switch or something, but we never determined the source. The new room had a cool view toward the south, directly toward the Sears Tower. I hope some of the pictures I took from all our various conference rooms turn out.

The class ended early, as expected. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, it was beautiful. Complete turnaround from the weather forecast I had seen a day before. I decided to take advantage of it while I could and do the observatory tour.

First, of course, was Sears Tower because it’s required. I walked down, took the elevator down a level, and was pleased to see a short line where it looked like it was normally quite long. The woman in line after me had her luggage and thought she could hop in for a quick trip up and down while she was waiting for someone. She learned she was wrong. After buying the ticket and having the person 3 feet away tear it, we got to wait in the next line. This line was to get in to watch the required 8 minute movie. The seating was all occupied, but they allowed extra people to fill in along the back and sides. This seems out of the norm to me for things like this. Fire codes and all. Anyway, I happily took a seat on the floor in the back corner. After the illuminating film, the door opened up and we got to wait in the third line. This one was actually for the elevators. In the middle of the line was a revolving door. Since the line moved in spurts, occasionally someone would end up hanging out inside the door. The elevators held a lot of people. There was another quick movie on a screen above the elevator door. Something with animated birds. I didn’t get very much of it because of the rowdy group in my elevator, exacerbated by the major ear popping situation. The trip up to the 103rd floor only takes one minute. Then, finally, we were at the observation deck. It was high. Things were small. You could see in all directions. Took lots of pictures. I also got a picture for another virtual cache. Pretty cool.

Now, if you know Chicago, you’ll realize my decision making for today’s activities was a bit questionable. I decided to go to the Hancock Observatory too. I’d heard it was better than the Sears Tower one. They’re pretty far apart. I walked the long way. I knew it looked ridiculous, and yet, I did it anyway. I headed east in a vain attempt at another cache that I think I’m declaring not important enough. Eh. Then I walked passed the Route 66 cache on my way to Grant Park. I have done so much repetition already. I went to look at Buckingham Fountain (the one in Married with Children) but it wasn’t going. Sad. Started walking north in the park passed the bean yet again, passed R2 again, then north on Michigan Ave. Along this stretch is the Magnificent Mile. This stretch is full of lots of high end shopping. Yeah, that just screams me. I did go into Water Tower Place briefly partially because it was recommended by a co-worker, but really only to use the facilities. I just realized that the building I took a picture of because it looked like a giant sand castle is the Chicago Water Tower. Huh.

Across the street is the John Hancock building. My destination. My feet and legs were already trying to revolt when I arrived. Here there weren’t as many delay strategies, but the elevator situation was less than ideal. It was a cool view from the 94th floor. I think I liked it more, but I don’t know that it was that much better than the Sears Tower. They kind of blurred together. The Hancock building is much closer to Lake Michigan, so that aspect is pretty cool. They have some more amusing things there. There are a couple of staged areas for picture taking that make it look like the person in the picture is doing something dangerous, like lying on a beam way up in the air or window washing. If I wasn’t already ready to die, I would have probably paid the nominal fee to be able to come back at night and see city all lit up. Oh, well.

I summoned my strength to walk all the way back to the hotel. This time on a diagonal, so I got to follow whatever route the walk lights wanted me to take. I arrived back at the hotel just as the evening wine reception was under way. I’d missed it the previous two nights, once by being on an airplane, and once for being out geocaching. I went up to my room to pull myself together a bit first then made my way down for free wine. I had a glass of Chardonnay and spoke briefly with a guy who was waiting for his wife. He lives in the suburbs of Chicago. His wife is a gynecologist. At first I was glad to have someone to talk to. I had a hard time getting a feel for his personality and he seemed a little odd. I was kind of glad when he had to go away. I finished that glass, got a refill and took it up to my room. I took a nice soak in the tub and finished the wine off. I felt much better. I think it was mostly the wine part that did it.

Tomorrow I hope to do museumy things. I’m not sure which yet. I’ve gotten very conflicting info. I won’t worry about it too much. I’m just going to play it by ear. Hopefully I’ll be smart enough to stick to one part of the city, or get on a train at least if I don’t. Oh, and to actually *bring* my prepaid train ticket with me and not leave it in my suitcase in the hotel room. I should probably go ahead and do that now.

BTW, despite my stupidity, I still really like Chicago.

Chicago day 2

Most of today was taken up by the conference. Something amazing happened there. I raised my hand in a room of 50 or so strangers, waited for a microphone, and asked a question of the panelists! And even more amazing, after they answered it, I asked a follow up question! It was a rare feat. I didn’t stop shaking until about 30 minutes had passed, but I did it and didn’t die. Wow!

Before the class though, I woke up a little early. I got a call from the New York co-worker who is also attending and we agreed to meet in the lobby at around 8:30 to walk over. I had time to head out and see the area a little bit first. I walked toward Millennium Park. It was rainy and cold and windy. Right before the park, I saw my first R2D2 mailbox! I photographed it. Once in the park, I tried to take the picture for the virtual cache called “Cloud Gate aka The Bean”. The effect isn’t quite so good when rain is dripping down the sides. I headed back to the hotel, got there just in time. As we walked to the conference, the rain turned to snow. That was better. The class was on the 37th floor of a building. It was really distracting at first to see the snow speeding by sideways behind the presenter, and then on the side, to see the snow hovering in place and rising. Luckily it didn’t last too long. Cool view from up there though.

After class, my co-worker and I went our separate ways until we were going to meet up for dinner. I, of course, took the opportunity to geocache some more. I had realized after the fact that that R2D2 mailbox was the R2D2 mailbox that I had printed out a cache page for. Unfortunately, waaaay too high a muggle quotient to even consider trying to figure out where the actual cache was. Maybe later. I did, however, get more pictures of me with the Bean, this time dry. I won’t be able to log it until I get home though, since I don’t have any way to get my pictures off my camera.

I then accomplished my main geocaching goal for this trip. I dropped off a Unite for Diabetes travel bug at the cache called “One End of Route 66″. It wasn’t easy. I knew exactly where it was going to be, but timing was everything. I pretended to drop my glove and made the grab while picking it up. It was nearly impossible to open the Altoids tin. I had to take the geocoin that was inside to make room for the bug. I’ll have to bring it back to Seattle and drop it off somewhere. The bug is supposed to go to Woodbury, Minnesota. It’s closer now. It started in Mexico, spent a few days in Seattle, and now it’s at the end of Route 66.

I came back to the hotel. Read up on a few things, logged my finds, caught up on the internet. For dinner, we ran out on the reservations we had and instead wandered around north of the river looking at our options. My co-worker is apparently hard to please, or possibly just in need of someone to say, “We should eat here.” It was interesting getting to see the stuff that was around though. We walked into the House of Blues restaurant. So much to look at. An hour long wait for food though. There were a lot of expensive steak places. I mean a lot. We really didn’t go that far, but I think we saw at least 5 places with $40+ steaks. We actually ended up at one. Sullivans. I had the small fillet mignon (only $27) and some horseradish mashed potatoes. They were both ridiculously good. Especially the mashed potatoes. Yum!

And now, I’m back at the hotel, again trying to remind myself I’m in central time. So far, I really like Chicago. I didn’t expect to, but it’s pretty cool. It’s easy to navigate, relatively clean, full of large public art, lots of interesting looking places, apparently good public transportation. Clearly no shortage of good food. I realize it’s been about 24 hours, but so far, so good. I’m glad I opted to stay the weekend.

Traveling to Chicago

Another trip means another blogging frenzy. Hey, it’s what I do.

So, today was all about getting to Chicago. Well, actually I woke up at 5 something and couldn’t go back to sleep for a variety of reasons. Not a terrible thing I guess, since I have to now adjust to Central Time. I eventually got up and drove into work, arriving at about 7:30. I was starting to regret that I had agreed to go in at all, given my increasing nervousness about the whole airport transportation thing. I don’t know why, but I always get nervous about it until I’m at the gate. (And as we’ll cover later, often until I’m on the plane.)

Unfortunately, there was a meeting at 9 that I needed and really wanted to be at. At 9:30 when the meeting started to run long, I had to leave it in progress, grab my laptop and boarding pass and run out the door to go home. Luckily the roads were wide open, so I arrived at about 10. The driver was scheduled to arrive at 10:15. I had to do the last second packing bits and a brief tidy to try to make my house look slightly less horrifying since people are going to be there while I’m gone. Eek! I took out the glass to the recycling bin outside and noticed the town car at the foot of the driveway. I looked over and he said he was ready. It was about 10:05. Hooray! Well, in that case I’m ready too! So, I went in, grabbed the suitcase, said goodbye to a very confused Kipper, locked the door and I was on my way to the airport.

Since I had my boarding pass, I just had to drop off my bags at the bag check area. The line seemed longer than the check-in line. Hmmph. I hear the person behind the counter tell someone else who is going to Chicago that they had to cancel a flight there this morning. (Uh-oh! This doesn’t sound good…) When I got up there, another woman took my printed boarding pass. She crossed off the gate (C18 ) and wrote C16. OK, so the gate changed. Happens all the time. Then she crossed off my flight number and wrote a new one. “Wait, the flight number changed?!” She ignored me, and turned her attention to another agent who tells her she can’t just write it, she has to print me a new one. Meanwhile, I’m all confused. She prints the new boarding pass for the other flight which says across the top “Standby – added to list” Huh? They ask, “Did you request to go standby on an earlier flight?” “Um, no, I didn’t.” “Would you like to?” “Will my confirmed reservation still stand if I do?” “Yes.” “Well, then sure.”

So, with two boarding passes in hand, I head to security. They stamp both of them. I’m pretty sure the security guy quietly said to me “You did good. Thanks.” Maybe I made it up, but I got a chuckle. I do have airport security down to a science.

I notice the standby boarding pass says boarding starts at 10:25. It was already about 10:45. Gah! Rush to gate… thinking it’d be cool to rush straight onto a plane, still keeping in mind the overheard comment about a cancelled flight. Out of breath, I arrive to see not much activity and a lot of people waiting. At the podium it says boarding time DELAYED, next update expected by 11:30. OK, so the rushing wasn’t so much important. The gate agent informs me that there was “a foot and a half of snow this morning in Chicago.” Wow. I knew it was snowing there, but….

Now, coincidentally, my parents were leaving for Los Angeles about an hour after my scheduled flight. I checked on their gate out of curiosity. D9. Well, if there’s time, but it’s not exactly close, since that’s at the end of D and I was at the end of C. While I was waiting, the flight I was actually booked on (the 12:22) was moved to gate D8, right next to my parents’ gate. Heh. But I was stuck waiting for the standby.

11:30 came, and they just updated the expected new info to 12. At this point, the two flights weren’t that far apart in their projections. Out of boredom and curiosity, I walked quickly to the end of D and back. No parents.

Everything gets a little fuzzy here, but I talked to gate agents several times. I’ve never done the standby thing, so it was a little confusing to me, especially with the two gates so far apart, the departure time getting close, and having no idea how likely it was that I’d make it on the “early” flight. I also made another dash over toward D and happened to see my parents just after the passed through security. Part of me was worried that they’d realize that it was my flight next to their gate and not see me there. They worry about that stuff a lot. Anyway, I told them the whole situation in many run-on sentences and excruciating detail. Hey, kinda like this. I didn’t talk to them long, but just as we walked back toward the food area. I headed back to the gate, since that whole standby thing probably means I should stick close. By the time I got back around 12, the “early” flight was just being updated with an actual departure time of 1:35. The later flight still said 12:25, but I was pretty sure that was still a “next info by” time. It was. I felt much better when they were updated to 2:35. OK. Eventually, I find out I am going to get on this flight. So, I have officially flown standby now, I guess.

We ended up taxiing out to the end of the runway and then pulling out to let a bunch of other planes cut in front of us. It was weird. We ended up taking off just before 2. So, the flight that was supposed to leave 1.5 hours before my scheduled flight ended up leaving 1.5 hours after I was originally supposed to leave.

The flight was fairly uneventful. Many people on the flight were expecting to miss connections. I paid $5 for a sandwich since I hadn’t gotten much opportunity for eating yet.

As we finally dipped below the clouds, I’m getting ready to see this blizzardy coverage of snow on everything. Um, yeah, not so much. It would appear the gate agents were drastically overstating it. There were MAYBE a couple inches. Now, granted, some of it could have melted, the rain could have washed some away and all that, but otherwise, uh-uh. I guess it was actually more a visibility issue, so they were limiting the number of inbound flights.

Baggage claim was another ordeal, but not really worth talking about aside from the woman sending her son through to the restricted area to unstick some bags that caused a jam.

Then the train. Direct line to within a couple blocks of my hotel. It took longer than I expected though. That airport is a long ways out.

Now, I’m at the hotel. I just ordered a $26 spaghetti marinara because I wanted food and it was already after 10. It’s amazing how something that’s $14 on the menu ends up as that much. Sigh. I have issues with room service, but sometimes you just gotta. Well, I’m going to eat it and try to convince myself that it’s time for bed.