Day One: Chicago

Fran and I packed up her car this morning and took off a little after 9am

We stopped at two banks for me so i could transfer some money. We filled up our tank at $3.75/gallon.

Then we headed to Oak Park, Chicago, where Fran's friend from high school, Travis lives. He generously offered to let us stay at his place the two nights we'll be in town.

We stopped at a Jewel-Osco just over the Illinois border to buy an I-Pass so we won't have to be stopping, digging for change every toll we'll be going through. After we called in to activate it, we were again on our way to Oak Park.

We made it to this beautiful suburb of Chicago around noon. Travis wouldn't be home from work until 1, and so granola bars in hand, Fran and I took a little tour of Oak Park. Frank Lloyd Wright lived in Oak Park and designed many of the homes in the area. Well... let's back up. We decided to walk around Oak Park to the Frank Lloyd Wright museum... but when I asked Fran to clarify who Frank Lloyd Wright was... she told me "isn't he the guy who flew the first airplane?"

Then we learned he wasn't. I knew this trip was going to be a learning experience! :D

This is Travis's Apartment building. I'll have to snap a few more pictures tomorrow... it's really cool and looks like a motel. The kitchen is sea foam green. Can't go wrong with that.

After Travis got home and we caught up for a bit, we all went for a walk to explore all that is Oak Park. Lots of cute shops. Stopped at the huge post office to get some postcard stamps. Travis showed us where the "L" was for when Fran and I left to go downtown later, after he went back to work.

Fran and I took the green line to downtown.

Travis told us to take the green line to State and then transfer to the Red line and take it to Chicago Ave.
Well, we got off on State and it seemed like Chicago Ave was close enough to walk to without taking the red line... and we were obviously downtown so we just got off and started walking.
That was our first mistake... just because you know where you want to go doesn't mean it's just going to show up when you're somewhat in the vicinity.
We learned that we definitely need to have a specific city map to carry with us when we're in a larger city, or to have written down specific directions to get from one place to the next.

So we walked.

and walked.

and walked.

and walked some more.

We finally ended up on Chicago and Michigan Ave. By then we were hungry and sort of crabby, not really talking and just wanting to GET somewhere.

We finally found a place to eat, called Big Bowl. A Chinese/Thai food place.
They could have served cat food and I think we still would have gone there, just to have a place to sit down and eat at.

Our waiter was terrible, but the food was good.
I successfully used chopsticks for the first time.

We asked the waiter how to get to the Sears tower (not even called the Sears tower anymore, which I didn't know...) and he told us, but of course we couldn't find the 151 bus he said would take us there.

We were in better spirits after a good meal and so we just walked some more.  We actually ended up at Navy Pier- I swear, the only place that had signs giving directions on how to get there.

We went on this bad boy:

But skipped this ride from hell that made me sick just watching it.

We decided to head home, and genius me thought it was the BLUE line we needed to get back here. Granted, the blue line DID take us to Oak Park, but it was a good 25 minute walk back to Travis's as opposed to a 5 minute walk. And we missed our Oak Park stop because Fran was updating her facebook status and not listening to the stops :P

It was a definite adventure today and we had a good time.
We learned some things though.

1. take the one of the three million hand sanitizer bottles we have and put them in our purses instead of leaving them in the car.
2. be a little more map/direction savy.
3. walking ALL day in sandals will lead to very achy feet.
4. Eat a little more regularly so you don't completely drain yourself.

So tomorrow we head to the city again, this time with Travis. We're hitting up the Sears Tower, shopping on the Magnificent Mile and maybe making it to Millenium Park.

We're making peanut butter sandwiches and bringing fruit for lunch to save on costs.
Also probably going to wear more comfortable clothes.


All in all day one was a success.
I'm exhausted and jealous of the sleeping Francesca next to me.
I think I'll go join her.