Chicago - Day 1
We drove down to the train station in Dearborn. It was a better choice than the Detroit station. The Dearborn station is right near the police station, which is a nice bonus. Plus there was plenty of space to park. The train was about 20 minutes late, but we did not mind since we had no real schedule.
The ride was uneventful. We bought some overpriced, but decent food. We did a lot of reading and listening to MP3 players. We also eavesdropped on our neighboring passengers. We only had two real delays, but even those were not too bad. While we were stopped in Gary, Indiana, we heard from some of the other passengers that Michael Jackson had been taken to the hospital and had likely died. I only mention it because MJ was from that area.
We pulled into Union Station about an hour late, but no worse for wear. It was a bit crowded. We walked from there to the hotel which was only about three blocks away. We did have to cross the highway, but there was a pedestrian path along an underpass. We checked in, dropped off our stuff, and relaxed for a few minutes. I had brought my work laptop so we got onto the hotel's free Wi-Fi to check email and Facebook.
By that time it was after 7:00pm, so we went downstairs to eat dinner. We decided to try the pizza place in our hotel. We were seated pretty quickly but then forgotten. Our rule is that you have to at least acknowledge our existence within 5 minutes and bring us water in not much longer. They did neither so we got up and walked out. We stopped at the front desk to ask about nearby restaurants and were told that Greektown was only a few blocks away. That was our next destination.
We ate at a place called The Parthenon. It seemed safe (meaning nothing too crazy on the menu) yet somewhat authentic, plus did not look too fancy for our casual, shorts-wearing selves. The food was pretty good. We were amused by the number of Saganaki that people ordered. One party had four and the waiter lit them all at once! We also noticed many bottles of a pale, red beverage being ordered. We asked our waiter about it and he said it was their house wine. We probably should have tried some. The highlight of the meal was the appetizer we ordered. It was made of filo dough, stuffed with Feta cheese, and topped with honey. It rocked!
After dinner we walked around a bit including making our way to the Sears Tower. I remembered hearing that going to the top had gotten expensive, but we checked it out anyway. They were sneaky about it. You had to go in a building, down an elevator, and through a security checkpoint before even seeing the price of admission. Fortunately we could just make out the sign from before the checkpoint. When we saw that it was $15 a head, we decided to skip it. We then made our way back to the hotel to watch TV before bed.
Both before and after dinner, probably half of the channels were obsessing about Michael Jackson. Was he still alive? Was he in a coma? Why was he seen going to the medical center days before? Blah-freaking-blah. They also showed the hordes of people outside the L.A. Medical Center. What a circus. By the time we went to bed, it was confirmed that he had died.
[Pictures] [ Day 2] [ Day 3] [ Day 4]
The ride was uneventful. We bought some overpriced, but decent food. We did a lot of reading and listening to MP3 players. We also eavesdropped on our neighboring passengers. We only had two real delays, but even those were not too bad. While we were stopped in Gary, Indiana, we heard from some of the other passengers that Michael Jackson had been taken to the hospital and had likely died. I only mention it because MJ was from that area.
We pulled into Union Station about an hour late, but no worse for wear. It was a bit crowded. We walked from there to the hotel which was only about three blocks away. We did have to cross the highway, but there was a pedestrian path along an underpass. We checked in, dropped off our stuff, and relaxed for a few minutes. I had brought my work laptop so we got onto the hotel's free Wi-Fi to check email and Facebook.
By that time it was after 7:00pm, so we went downstairs to eat dinner. We decided to try the pizza place in our hotel. We were seated pretty quickly but then forgotten. Our rule is that you have to at least acknowledge our existence within 5 minutes and bring us water in not much longer. They did neither so we got up and walked out. We stopped at the front desk to ask about nearby restaurants and were told that Greektown was only a few blocks away. That was our next destination.
We ate at a place called The Parthenon. It seemed safe (meaning nothing too crazy on the menu) yet somewhat authentic, plus did not look too fancy for our casual, shorts-wearing selves. The food was pretty good. We were amused by the number of Saganaki that people ordered. One party had four and the waiter lit them all at once! We also noticed many bottles of a pale, red beverage being ordered. We asked our waiter about it and he said it was their house wine. We probably should have tried some. The highlight of the meal was the appetizer we ordered. It was made of filo dough, stuffed with Feta cheese, and topped with honey. It rocked!
After dinner we walked around a bit including making our way to the Sears Tower. I remembered hearing that going to the top had gotten expensive, but we checked it out anyway. They were sneaky about it. You had to go in a building, down an elevator, and through a security checkpoint before even seeing the price of admission. Fortunately we could just make out the sign from before the checkpoint. When we saw that it was $15 a head, we decided to skip it. We then made our way back to the hotel to watch TV before bed.
Both before and after dinner, probably half of the channels were obsessing about Michael Jackson. Was he still alive? Was he in a coma? Why was he seen going to the medical center days before? Blah-freaking-blah. They also showed the hordes of people outside the L.A. Medical Center. What a circus. By the time we went to bed, it was confirmed that he had died.
[Pictures] [ Day 2] [ Day 3] [ Day 4]