Cali Zephyr and the Windy City

On the train somewhere between Cape Horn and Lake Tahoe
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The California Zephyr left Emeryville (San Francisco) on the morning of the 10th. It took 2 1/2 days to get to Chicago! A long trip but pretty stunning. The Sierra Nevada mountains were great, amazing colours and of course loads of snow. We also saw a lot of desert, plains, pretty much a bit of everything. The Rockies were great too, kind of wanted to jump off the train for a while and steal someone's skis. Oh yeah and rivers - Missouri, Des Moines, Mississippi amongst others. States: California, Nevada, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois. Timezones:3!

One the train - Ruby Canyon and the Colorado River
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We arrived in Chicago a couple of hours late (oh man was I ready to get off that train and into a shower!) Tash (who I used to work with at the CD Store) and Bronwyn (a friend of hers) who are both kiwi nannies in Detroit, met me and we unloaded my stuff at the Congress Plaza where we were staying for the night. It was a pretty nice place and right on Michigan Ave in the middle of things.

We headed out to "Dick's Last Resort" for dinner. What a place. Incredibly rude waiters (on purpose) who make you wear hats which they write stuff on. Mine said "Not all blondes are dumb, but I sure am". The others were a lot ruder so I counted myself lucky. The other interesting thing is that all the customers throw paper napkins at each other. Hilarious. After that we went to a couple of pubs and headed home.

The Millenium Bean, Chi
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Sunday we checked out Millenium Park, which is great and includes a giant silver bean which reflects the park, people and skyscrapers in it. Very cool. Next we went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch (20 pages of menu including like 30 different cheesecakes!) It was in the bottom of the John Hancock Center, which we went to the top of. It's 96 storeys high which is a little less than the Sears Tower but no queues or security.

We did a little shopping. I bought new shoes - my fabulous red Chucks were getting not-so-fabulous so they have been put to rest :(

Lake Michigan from the Hancock Observatory, Chi
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The evening meant basketball - Bulls vs Magic which was fun. The whole thing is really quite a spectacle. After that the girls dropped me at the hostel for the night and started their drive home (sorry girls!)

The hostel was nice and also very central.

Monday - happy birthday me - I went to the Shedd Aquarium which was really great. They had beluga whales, dolphins, penguins, turtles, a huge snake, turtles, and of course considerably more fish than you can shake a stick at. Oh and, again, otters.

After that I wandered through Grant Park to the Art Institute. You name the artist, they probably had at least one. It was difficult to take it all in. The highlights for me were a couple of Dalis, and "American Gothic" which is very cool. There was also Monet, Picasso, Miro, Van Gogh, Rodin..... and on and on.

Soon after I headed to Union Station to find lunch and wait for my train to Grand Rapids, Michigan. The train left on time but surprise, surprise, arrived late.