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The Windy City Part 1

Well here I am over two weeks later...my access to the internet was sporadic while I was in Chicago so I could not work on my blog. What's my other excuse for being so late? None really - how about laziness? Yeah, that'll work.

What can I say a weekend with good friends, beautiful city, sunshine every day and Paul McCartney. It HAS to be a good time - and it was.
I flew out on the early morning of Friday July 29th on United airlines - direct flights to Chicago from Regina now - gotta love it. My flight was on time and went well but customs in Chicago was pretty jammed up. Finally I got through and phoned my friend Gloria...no answer....oh oh...phoned my friend Terry...voicemail...oh dear. Luckily I had Terry's cell phone and was able to reach her. Thank goodness!!! Turns out I thought I had Gloria's home phone and it was her cell phone which she rarely uses - kinda like me...

It took them a while to get to the airport due to me arriving at Terminal 5 (international) which is hard to get to. Anyway there they were and off we went to Terry's place for lunch - ham sandwiches, potato salad and coleslaw and coke - perfect. It hit the spot. I also got to meet Terry's cute little doggie Casper. We decided to go to Lincoln Park Zoo. So off we went in Terry's car and had a wonderful time at the zoo. My favourites have always been the meerkats. So cute! We managed to see pretty well the whole zoo before it closed. Then it was time for some deep dish pizza - I can't remember the name of the place we went to but the stuffed spinach and cheese pizza was fabulous. It has layers or spinach and cheese and sauce with some sauce on the top rather than cheese ...oh and we had bruscetta to start. I love pizza - if I ever had to have a "last" meal it would be pizza. Back to Gloria's where I got to meet Wren the kitty - but Arbus the other cat hid from me the whole time. He spent the whole weekend (at least when I was in the house) hiding under the sofa.

Saturday morning we went out to the suburbs to visit Gloria's brother and then popped into the charity shop she works at. Then we drove over to Terry's and took the commuter train downtown from there. We had lunch at the train station at a sandwich shop. Then we headed over to the Willis (formerly Sears) tower only to find that there was at least an hour and a half wait. Bummer!! But it was summer and a Saturday to boot...what can you do? Next time I guess - I have been up it but not since 1981 or 82 (I was there both years but can't remember what I did when except I know I attended Beatlefest both years) So we headed over to Millennium Park and saw the Crown fountain. I had seen this back in 05 as well - amazing! It has two screens on either end with (changing) faces projected and at various times water spurts out of their mouths. Being a very hot day both children and adults were splashing in the water. It was a delight. We carried on over to Cloudgate - known locally as The Bean. A mirror in the shape of a bean - love it. We then walked over a bridge that went over Lake shore drive and sat down and drank some water. It was HOT. We then decided to take a taxi over to Navy Pier. Terry and Gloria treated me to a ticket on Windy - a sailing vessel complete with pirates! We had about an hour to wait so went to Haagen Dazs for ice cream. I had Rocky Road and ended up wearing most of it....I tend to avoid chocolate ice cream for that very reason but I just could not resist this time. The sailboat ride was lovely - I just enjoyed being out on beautiful Lake Michigan and admiring the skyline. You can never get tired of that fantastic skyline. Afterwards we went to a restaurant called Capi's Italian Kitchen. You lined up and ordered your meal and then they brought it out to you - I had the Cavatappi with Mushrooms - three kinds of mushrooms with carmelized onions in a cream sauce. Enough said!!! We then took a taxi back to a metro station and got the metro back to Terry's place and back home to Gloria's to relax. Another super day!!!

What a cutie pie.
Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree....

When I took this photos I thought it was cute that the little guy was looking at me but didn't see what he had in his hands....oh well a guy has to do what a guy has to do....

Chewy gooey stuffed pizza...oh I want me some...it was good!

One side of Crown fountain, Millennium Park.
"Cloudgate" but called The Bean by the locals

Part of the Chicago skyline

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