local Chicagoan

What an odd place for an embassy...
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The day started off well at midday with a 'kill me now' spin class at the local gym around the corner and then a healthy lunch followed by somehow managing to take 4 hours to find a US post office and send my package home....

Keri took me down the Magnificent Mile, which, filled with huge stores, hotels and generally expensive things, is not suprisingly, quite magnificent. You'll see in a picture that I've taken a store called Banana Republic. The story with the picture goes like this: The first time I encountered the name I was walking through the busy main street of Seattle in the evening. Amongst all the shop lights and people, I spotted on a street corner a rounded building with "Banana Republic" on it's metal awning (similar to what you see in the picture). My first thought was, "Gee what an odd place to put an embassy". My second was, "I wonder where the Banana Republic is". My third was "Why would an embassy sell (fashionable) clothes?". When I saw the store again here in Chicago. I thought I'd better take a photo.

To make the me a bit more of a tourist today, Keri took me up to the Signature Room to see the view of Chicago over a couple of cocktails. Chicago is incredibly huge. I don't think I've ever been to the top of a building to look out at the city at night and had the lights go all the way to the horizon from all sides.