Chicago, and the lovely Jeanette

One of Chicagos parks by the water
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Next stop Chicago, and with the terrorist attack scare, airport security was pretty tight.  Mike and Nicky were suffering pretty badly, and none of us was looking forward to the questioning Mike's solar powered daypack - which has more wires coming out of it than a plug your mum would wire - was going to attract.  But as it turned out, security attention was focused on me, and I had the pleasure of another 'random' extra security check.  I asked the security guy if I had really been 'randomly' selected, he didn't seem to keen to answer my question.

Chicago skyline
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The airport fun didn't stop there though.  When we got to O'Hare, we decided to get a bite to eat.  There wasn't a single restaurant in our terminal, except for one little hotdog cafe.  Nicky and I had our reservations (about the place, not in it), but it really was a last resort.  That was when we first met Jeanette.  I think my relationship with her got off to a bumpy start, when I really insulted her by ordering some food.  When she then turned to the guy behind me to take his order, I really went too far by excusing myself and asking if I could have my bottle of water.  I thought she might explode.  After throwing us all some dirty looks, and shouting at customers when their food was ready (you don't think she's gonna carry it down, do you?!), she actually tried to start a fight between two customers.  One guy started to place an order, turned and realised there was someone standing in front of him. "I'm sorry, were you in front of me?" he quite politely asked the young lady standing in front of him in the queue.  Before the poor girl had a chance to say a thing, good old Jeanette was booming out "She was not! No she wasn't!"  Maybe Jeanette was having a bad day...

Dude, you shot someone.

Pete, our first new friend
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Anyways, made it to Chicago, and checked in.  Turns out my fellow travellers are all advertising victims - after being bombarded with the bright orange signs on every block in Boston, they decided they wanted a Dunkin' Donuts.  The sugar rush proved to be too much excitement for Rick though, and he went back to the hostel to rest his wee head.  The three of us headed into town, wandering down Michegan Ave, as far as the golden mile - one of the most expensive shopping streets in the world.  Chicago's a funny kind of a city - it's way bigger than Boston, and the buildings are much taller, but it doesn't have the same 'nice' feel about it.  The street we were on was nice, round the corner seemed really badly run down, the the next street over was right on the beach, with a beautiful promenade walk, massive water fountain, and plush attractions in the park.  It seemed strange that the two extremes were side by side, only one block apart.

View from the John Hancock tower
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That night we sat in, although after his wee sleep Rick was up for another night, so he and his new best friend Pete headed out, and ended up spending the night partying with the Dirty Pretty Things!  He arrived back to the hostel at about 8am on such a buzz.  Apparently he was chatting Mike, then tried to come up to our room, but ended up knocking the door of a room full of girl scounts from Kansas!!! More about them later...

Day two and time for more touristy stuff.  As Rick slept of what was to become a mammoth hangover, Nicky, Mike and I went on Bobby's Bike Ride.  On reflection we should have given Bobby and his bikes a miss.  The bikes were the 'back-pedal-to-brake' variety, and our tour guide wanted us to 'pretend to be a car, and don't worry if the light goes red, just stick together and go through it'.  And the tour was pretty boring.  Although at one stage we stopped off in a church and most of the tour group paraded on in, failing to notice the poor bride inside the door, just about to walk up the isle.  Her dad stood there and threw everyone dirty looks until we all left - understandable really!

Blues bar
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Went out in Wrigleville that night to a top Comedy night, which was all improv on that week's news.  It was brilliant.  That was followed by a few bars, then the train home, where we got chatting to a fella.  Turns out he had been in jail for a few years for, as he put it, 'discharging his firearm'.  Dude, you shot someone.

Day three and more tourist stuff.  We headed up to the 96th floor of the John Hancock tower, and got fabulous views of the city.  After that we headed to the Museum of Contemporary Art.  Given the car and caravan structure outside the building, I thought it would have really cool stuff inside.  It didn't.  I guess modern art's just not my thing.

That night we had a free dinner, cooked by the aforementioned girl scouts.  Oh my god it must have been difficult for them to open that tin of tomatoes and pour it over the pasta.  We had to speak to them as well.  It's difficult to have a conversation with kids who come from a city where you can get your provisional license at FOURTEEN.  I found out from the others that in turning up about 5 minutes late, Rick and I had missed the holding hands and singing about an apple seed and Jesus.  I don't think I would have been able to keep the laughter in - that would have been embarrassing.

That night we headed to a blues bar, which was ace.  The music was great.  However, after Mike and Nicky's experience on the last 'transition day', they didn't want to stay out too late, so it was back home nice and early.

So long, Chicago!

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