I was in Washington D.C. / Maryland all last week. Really I was out there for a memorial service for a friend (which I mentioned in my last entry) though mostly I spent the week with my friends.
The day before we left the East Coast got hit by snow pretty hard. Our flight home this past Sunday was canceled so my family had to purchase new plane tickets. Upon arriving at the airport (Reagan National in DC) the lines where huge because all airports had been closed the previous day due to the weather, we stood at baggage check for 2 1/2 hours during which our flight was delayed 3 times, from 6:30pm - midnight. This caused us to miss our connecting flight in Chicago back to Seattle.
So. The next available flight from Chicago to Seattle was Tuesday. That's right, we were stuck in Chicago for about 36 hours.
I was totally fine with that! I have a few friends in Chicago and I had never actually been there. My family and I stayed at a hotel down the street from O' Hare. On Monday (our only full day in the area) I took the Metro (is it called the "L" or something?) from Rosemont Station to Clark/ Lake station right downtown on the Chicago River. It was pretty cold, but not too bad. I walked by the river on Wilson Street (or something) down to Michigan where Millennium and Grant Park were. Took some pictures of The Cloud Gate then found a record store not far away called Reckless Records. I have a friend who was my first roommate in college that now attends The School of the Art Institute of Chicago at Grant Park, so after he got out of class, he gave me a tour of the school and we walked around for a bit then took the Blue Line back, as he was living at an apartment off the same line.
I liked Chicago. I didn't eat or drink or really do a whole lot. I could have totally milked it and been out from sunrise to sunset, but this was sort just a situation I fell in to due to weather, so there wasn't a lot of time to plan. But I'm really happy I got to add another city to my already long list of cities I've been to this year.
I got home yesterday around 5pm.
Oh! It is also worth mentioning that I met a really cute Graphic Designer while standing in line for 3 hours at baggage check at Reagan on Sunday. How could I not talk to a pretty young women reading a book about typography? Thanks to the powers of the internet, I may have found this person whose contact I completely forgot to ask for. Fingers crossed, or something.
Here's a shot from my iPhone of the Chicago River, right after i got off at Clark/Lake Station downtown. Yesterday.
Oh, and here is my and my buddy Michael at Red Robin in Maryland last week. Mmm, brew.
Two pictures from my trip appear in my profile in that series of three pictures: The first picture is from Ben's Chili Bowl in D.C. and the third picture is in front of a famous monument. You know which one.
The day before we left the East Coast got hit by snow pretty hard. Our flight home this past Sunday was canceled so my family had to purchase new plane tickets. Upon arriving at the airport (Reagan National in DC) the lines where huge because all airports had been closed the previous day due to the weather, we stood at baggage check for 2 1/2 hours during which our flight was delayed 3 times, from 6:30pm - midnight. This caused us to miss our connecting flight in Chicago back to Seattle.
So. The next available flight from Chicago to Seattle was Tuesday. That's right, we were stuck in Chicago for about 36 hours.
I was totally fine with that! I have a few friends in Chicago and I had never actually been there. My family and I stayed at a hotel down the street from O' Hare. On Monday (our only full day in the area) I took the Metro (is it called the "L" or something?) from Rosemont Station to Clark/ Lake station right downtown on the Chicago River. It was pretty cold, but not too bad. I walked by the river on Wilson Street (or something) down to Michigan where Millennium and Grant Park were. Took some pictures of The Cloud Gate then found a record store not far away called Reckless Records. I have a friend who was my first roommate in college that now attends The School of the Art Institute of Chicago at Grant Park, so after he got out of class, he gave me a tour of the school and we walked around for a bit then took the Blue Line back, as he was living at an apartment off the same line.
I liked Chicago. I didn't eat or drink or really do a whole lot. I could have totally milked it and been out from sunrise to sunset, but this was sort just a situation I fell in to due to weather, so there wasn't a lot of time to plan. But I'm really happy I got to add another city to my already long list of cities I've been to this year.
I got home yesterday around 5pm.
Oh! It is also worth mentioning that I met a really cute Graphic Designer while standing in line for 3 hours at baggage check at Reagan on Sunday. How could I not talk to a pretty young women reading a book about typography? Thanks to the powers of the internet, I may have found this person whose contact I completely forgot to ask for. Fingers crossed, or something.
Here's a shot from my iPhone of the Chicago River, right after i got off at Clark/Lake Station downtown. Yesterday.
Oh, and here is my and my buddy Michael at Red Robin in Maryland last week. Mmm, brew.
Two pictures from my trip appear in my profile in that series of three pictures: The first picture is from Ben's Chili Bowl in D.C. and the third picture is in front of a famous monument. You know which one.