The Chicago Trip

So this weekend was our big trip to Chicago for the Get Your Rear In Gear 5K walk/run for the colon cancer coalition. So we decided to make a little mini-vacation out it while we were up there. Our flight left KCI on Thursday evening around 6:20ish with no problems and we arrived at the O'Hare Airport and caught the shuttle to the Hertz rental car place and got our car with no problems. We were STARVING as it was 8pm by the time we got the car but the restaurant we wanted to go to (Burt's Place) closed at 9pm and we arrived at 8:46pm and they were not making any more food for the evening...they are strict about how you order! OY!

Friday morning we woke up and headed to downtown Chicago for an exciting day of sightseeing and museum walking...hmmm...well after we parked in a lot (that cost $18!!!) we decided we might not see as much of Chicago as we would hope to, not at those prices as nothing is close enough to walk to several things...you have to get a cab or catch a train or trolley or move your car to another $20 lot!! OUCH! So we only went to the Museum of Science & Industry and we didn't find out until after we already paid our money that it was geared more towards kiddos and not adults, although it did have some adult moments, it still wasn't necessarily worth the tour. Thanks goodness I had a coupon for buy one admission get one free! :-)

After that, we headed to the outskirts of downtown and tried to eat at a Gino's Pizza joint only to find out it was closed! So we went to a little restaraunt next door that was a little hole in the wall Italian joint! The food was delicious and it was worth the mistake!

Then it was back to downtown to pay for more parking and up to the Sears Tower Skydeck. They were only open to the 99th floor that day for whatever reason so we didn't ACTUALLY get to the top but whatever. It was still cool and I'm glad we went, it was a nice 360 degree view of the city!

After that we decided to call it a day for the downtown area and headed back up to our hotel and called in a reservation at Burt's Place for their "famous" deep dish pizza. I found this joint from a TV show I like to watch called Anthony Bourdain, No Reservations...too bad we actually had to make a reservation...heh heh! Anyway we ended up sitting at the exact same booth as Anthony and I got my picture taken with the owners wife and we enjoyed our meal! It was TRULY delicious! Mmmmmm!!!

Saturday we got up early and headed down to pre-register for the 5K run/walk. We got our bag of goodies and put them in our car that was parked across the street in a $25/day lot...sigh...and then waited for the walk to begin. It rained a little on us before the walk started but let up and didn't do it again until WAY later on in the afternoon! So the walk was fun and we had a beautiful view of Lake Michigan and other random sights along the way! When we were done with the walk we decided to walk to the Hitchcock building and purchase the recommended trolley/double decker tour of the city...this was fun! We rode it to the theatre district where we got off and found a cute little greek diner where we ate lunch then hopped back on the bus and went to Shedd Aquarium...we were planning on this being our museum of the day but when we got there, there was a line so long we said forget it and went to The Field Museum next door instead. Well worth it! It was only sad b/c we had to rush through in order to see everything and to catch the trolley back to "near" our car!

Got back on the double decker bus and DOWN POUR of rain came BLOWIN' in!! They gave us a poncho and we were the only two who braved the storm on top exposed to the elements. It was cold, rainy, and windy! AWESOME! We were forced to the lower level once lightening started to strike! YIKES! So, soaked and cold we departed the trolley for our 1 1/2 mile trek back to our car! We had to stop at a Barnes & Noble to get coffee and a snack and to warm up before braving the winds again. But we made it and it was a good day!

When we got back to the hotel, we dried off and decided to ask the locals where to go for dinner...so we hit up a hole in the wall Mexican joint with authentic Mexican food...we ordered the Flautas de Pollo and they were DELICIOUS! I was only sad that I didn't read the menu more carefully as they had Brain Tacos and Cow Head Tacos that I totally would have ordered just to say I had eaten it!!! Oh yeah! I like to live on the edge! Bummer!

We went back to the hotel and played some Wii (the hotel had one in their lobby, of which we played every night we were there!) and then crashed at 9:45pm! We were exhausted.

Sunday we decided was going to be our sleep in day and not worry about touring day...so we took our time then headed to a nearby strip mall to go see a movie, 17 Again, pretty funny! Then we ate lunch next door at Shaw's Crab House and it was DELICIOUS!

Then we decided we better head back to the Hertz rental to drop off the car and get checked in for our flight...they told us to allow 2 hours for this process...we allowed 3! Apparently that didn't matter!! We were scheduled to leave at 5:22pm but our flight was delayed initially b/c the plane was late getting to Chicago. Then when it did arrive they discovered a mechanical error and pushed us to an adjoining gate which pushed out the departure even later. Then we think they were just making stuff up because we didn't start boarding until 7:45pm!!! Then, because they overbooked the flight (awesome) they had to make sure we made the weight limit and they put in the maximum amount of gas b/c they anticipated having to fly in a holding pattern due to weather. Unfortunately they put TOO much gas in it so we had to sit on the runway for half an hour just burning fuel to get to the legal limit to take off!!! We finally took off around 8:45pm to head for KC.

We get above Kirksville, MO and are put in a holding pattern. We are in this holding pattern for just over an hour. During which we hit a random patch of what we all thought was turbulence only to hear the captain on the radio tell us, that it wasn't turbulence but that another plane is in the same holding pattern and he thought he better get out of their way?!?!?!?! WHAT?!?!?! Ok, we didn't need to hear that, whatever! So then the captain gets on the intercom and tells us that we are starting to deplete our fuel and they are thinking about sending us back to the Chicago! OMG! They nix this idea and land us in St. Louis to refuel. We are not allowed to leave the plane and on short flights like this they don't provide snacks so if you didn't have dinner beforehand you were screwed! Luckily we brought some snacks on board. We finally take off from St. Louis around 11:45pm and head back to KC for attempt #2...they had to fly us south of KC under the storm and so we finally landed around 1am! That's right...1am! So by the time we got our bags and caught the tram back to our car in extended parking it was 2am! Then we were starving so we found a 24/hour McDonalds and grabbed something to eat and then headed to Bob's parents house where we arrived at 3am! We were EXHAUSTED and just glad to be near a bed! So we got up this morning and headed back to Burlington after lunch and I couldn't be happier to be home.

Chicago was fun, it had its high points and its low points but I am not sure we will be rushing back to get there again any time soon! haha! I hope the Get Your Rear In Gear group does a Kansas City function soon! :-)