Landed at Chicago O'hare airport at 11:00, 14 minutes ahead of schedule, since we did not check-in any luggage, we were able to get out of the airport and got on a taxi (which did take us 10 minutes' wait in line), taxi ride was about 25 minutes, got to Congree Plaza Hotel, checked in, got in our room 6609 at exactly 12:00AM. This was an aging hotel that had seen its glorious days in the distant past.
5/7/2015: Didn't sleep much last night. Got up at 7:00, had in room coffee along with bean curd and beef jerky for breakfast. Walked 20 minutes (south Michigan->Madison->Dearborn) to Chase tower where we wait for our tour. We were about to call the listed number since it's getting close to 10:00 and no one showed up at the entrance when three ladies came asking if we were waiting for the tour, it turned out that the guide was waiting inside the Chase Tower building. The tour lasted 2 hours, it was quite different as the guide spent more time explaining the buildings and the history behind each. Went back to the hotel and took a break as it was getting too hot with long sleeves and jacket. Felt much better after cooling down a bit, went out and had lunch at Artists Cafe, we sat outside with cover umbrella, Anita had Chicago Dog while I had chicken pita, and corona beer for each - a total of $39, tips included. Stopped by Walgreens, picked up a bottle of Riesling, a Big Italian Sub 10" for dinner, a ham & cheese sandwich on pretzel bread for breakfast, two string cheese, and 4 bananas for $22.73, just over half of what we paid for lunch today. Found out where the ice machine is after going through hotel info booklet, went out and got some ice on the fifth floor and came back in 3 minutes. The Riesling tasted great after chilling it in ice water for only 30 minutes, this is especially true since it cost only $3.99. The Itlaian Sub 10" also was so delicious that I wished we had more. The internet speed here is pretty descent at 14ms/13.45M/9.49M.
5/8/2015: It turned very cold during the night, I had to use a bath towel underneath the comforter to stay warm. Got up at 8:50, the weather pattern forecast changed again, the morning will stay clear, rain in the afternoon and later instead. Had cheese sandwich on pretzel bread and boiled egg for breakfast, coffee with purchased hazelnut creamer taste much better. Passing through South Park and got to Grant Park, it's got the world's largest fountain (need to verify this). Walked alongside the lake front trail was a good experience, flowers or all kinds, people walking, jogging, vehicles zipping through on nearby roads, and most of all, the view of skyscrapers. Round trip of the walk took about one hour and 40 minutes, it was the first real exercise for us since we got here. Our new room won't be ready until 2:00, so went to Corner Bakery Cafe for lunch, bottle water, Chicken Parmodori and Club Panini - only $20, we each finished half of what we ordered - they also provided two bags of potato chips. We got a new room on the 14th floor in south wing facing Lake Michican, this is a bigger, cleaner(no tobacco smell), greater view room - not sure if we will be charged more :-) Went out at 2:10 to visit total its skyscraper in Chicago - Willis's Tower, took us 25 minutes to get there, Anita bought a Willis Tower magnet and we left, not interested in going up the tower to see Chicago.
stopped by Walgreens and picked up a bottle of Pink Moscato (also from California), a breakfast sandwich, and 2 24 oz of Miller' High Life ($1.99 each, 2 for $3.50). It sure feels good coming back to the 14th floor room with a view. It started to rain lightly around 4:00PM, rain steadily after 5:30. Dinner was served at 6:00 after taking shower. Wine, leftover lunch, and string cheese, yum!
5/9/2015: woke up at 3:00, took a long while to fall asleep again. Got up at 7:45, it had stopped raining but it's likely to stay cool and cloudy the whole day. The beds in this room seemed to be more comfortable, but it could also because of the view and open space :-) Started our morning walk toward Pedway, a few blocks down south Michican avenue, the coldness got to me, I had to go back to the hotel and put on warm jacket before catching cold. It got windy when we reached Chase Tower, after taking some photos of the Italian Villege, we had to duct inside McDonalds to keep warm. Took us a while to find the entrance to Pedway (on Dearborn and West Washington st), but it was closed due to public office hour. We headed toward Macy's and vicinity to see some of the shopping stores, visited Anthropology and Macy's, Anita bought a small threaded basket for $17. Revisited Chicago Culture Center, there were two exhibits, early 20th century black perfume product sale cartoons, and black artist works. Got out of the center at 12:55, shared a Subway sandwich for lunch. Visited millennium Park, took some photos of/from the "Cloud Gate", it's a $26 million sculpture fully supported by donated fund, tons of people taking photos facing and/or selfi-Ing the sculpture. Stopped by Walgreens and picked up a bottle of white wine (barefoot Moscato), a couple of apples, one Big Italian Sub 10" for dinner, one Ham & Cheese sandwich on pretzel bread and 2 boiled eggs for breakfast. Immersed the white wine and beer in ice bucket. Rested until the 2015 Buckingham Fountain opening event began at 4:00, there were about two hundred people attending. Music was loud but we could not hear the lyrics clearly because of the double pane windows. As we were getting ready for dinner, we noticed that, unlike the last two days, the white wine we got today required a cork screw to open, it took me more than 10 minutes to chip away the top half of the Vinyl cork with nail clip, poring the entire bottle of wine into the coffee container by pressing down the bottom half of the cork into the bottle - need to pay attention to this next time.
The wine still taste pretty good, too bad we could not find it in San Jose.
5/10/2015: It was still raining when we got up at 7:45., had cheese&sham on pretzel bread and coffee for breakfast. After finishing up all essential morning tasks, we set out to Field Museum. It was still raining although much lighter, I had the microfiber sweater and a vase on but still felt the chill through my arms. Took us about 20 minutes walking to The Field Museum, we didn't see too many people on our way, guessing weather may have something to do with it. There were three tiers for ticket price, $18, $25, and $31, we got the $25 one which allowed us to see all permanent exhibition and one selection special exhibit or one 3D movie - we picked Egyptian Tomb excavation 3D. Went through the dinosaur exhibit, took us nearly 2 hours to see most but not all of related displays, went to the main floor and spent sometime with Sue, the world's largest, most complete, and best preserved tyrannosaurus, it's head alone weighs 70 tons, took many photos of it. Shared a burger from Field Bistro afterward. Stopped by the Sue Store and got a magnet and a postcard. Did a quick tour of the Inside Ancient Egypt exhibition, it has a lot of artifacts info, too bad both of us were exhausted and had to leave, overall, we probably only glanced through 1/5 of what the museum was showing but we did see Sue - our main goal has been accomplished. Walked back to the hotel by 2:40. After gaining some strength, we headed out to get dinner, original plan was to order some Togo sushi (Dragon roll and Sushi Roosevelt from Osaka Sushi Express, had to postpone to tomorrow as it is closed today (Sunday), we went to Walgreens and got a 4-pack small bottle Moscato, a dishing tray, a small box of celery/carrot/baby tomato, a couple of bananas, 2 mozzarella cheese in salami, and a ham&cheese sandwich on pretzel bread (for breakfast). Started dinner at 6:00, the sushi tray didn't appear to be enough, had to take some nuts to supplement, but we did finish the 4-pack Moscato though. Just discovered that the Buckingham Fountain performs every hour on-the-hour for 20 minutes every day from 8:00am to 11:00pm starting mid-April to mid-October, performance includes changing lights and streams, much less dramatic than, say, the Bellagio fountains.
5/11/2015: Woke up by the shining sun at 6:20, got up at 7:30. The sun disappeared and it started to rain at 8:00. Had Ham&Cheese on Pretzel Bread and cheese stick with Salami, and of course coffee for breakfast. Visited Frank Wrigley Foundation Just two blocks away from our hotel, they have everything about buildings/skyscrapers of Chicago, a bit pricy but good stuff, Anita bought a book "101 things I learned in Architecture school", the miniature model they have at the back of the store is magnificent, it showed every detail of the downtown buildings and streets, even the hotel we stayed. Picked up a Cuban Press from Corner Backery, very dry beef and ham sandwich, a bit hard to chew. Anita went hiking to the Magnificent Mile and bought a T-shirt at Walgreens for me, she's fulfilled her Chicago trip goals :-) Ordered Sushi Roosevelt and Dragon Roll from Osaka Sushi Express, cost $24.20. Bought a 4-pack small bottle Gallo Zenfendel, one banana, and a Ham&Cheese on Pretzel Bread from Walgreens, picked up the sushi order on our way back to the hotel. Had dinner at 6:10, sushi was very tasty, much better than the one we bought from Walgreens yesterday. Started packing after dinner, we decided to check-in the luggage this time to relieve some burden from our old bodies. Need only put away the charging hub and cables tomorrow morning and we are good to go.
5/12/2015: woke up at 2:00, got up at 6:15, get everything ready and left the hotel room at 7:25, got on a taxi at the hotel entrance at 7:25 - gave the porter $2 for getting us the taxi. The city and freeway were jammed with commuters, luckily we decided to get on the road earlier, got to O'Hare at 8:25, it took only 25 minutes to get from O'Hare to the hotel the night we arrived here. We were at gate C22 at 8:49 after luggage check-in, security check, and short walk. Boarded the plane at 10:10, once again, the flight is fully booked with a number of people on waiting list. The original flight time of 2 hours and 40 minutes was reduced to 2 hours and 15 minutes possibly due to tail wind, the departure time was, however, delayed by 30 minutes from the scheduled 10:20. We landed at Denver at 12:03, 3 minutes behind schedule. Went to United club to enjoy their simple food and comfort. Checked flight schedule and found out that 665 will be delayed by one hour and 4 minutes due to late inbound aircraft, the new arrival time will be 5:46, 44 minutes late. Arriving gate B36 at 3:35 waiting for boarding. Boarded the plane at 4:10, it's Airbus 319, the same one we flew from San Jose to Denver, once again a full flight. The plane took off at 4:45. Landed at San Jose airport at 5:55, got to baggage claim at 6:09, retrieved our luggage at 6:25, got hold of Jason and we got home at 6:50.
