Our train was a bit late, an hour or so, which wasn’t really an issue. We had no time schedule. Once on and rolling it was smooth sailing to Chicago. Both of us with our individual head phones on playing our own music. Kev working on his laptop, me mostly just staring out the window. A nice mellow ride… and we didn’t have to drive. Yay!

We got in to Chicago, oriented ourselves (with the help of the iPhone GPS) and walked the 20 minutes from the station to our hotel. We checked in, dropped our bags, and immediately went in search of food. Not just any food, but Chicago food. Pizza. That’s right… Lou Maltani’s pizza. So good. I mean… really good. We loved it big time.

Then it was walk time… had to walk off some of that pizza. We walked over to Michigan Avenue and took a stroll up to Millennium Park. All kinds of stuff going on near the Art Institute, at the Jay Prytzker Pavilion, and the Crown Fountain. We saw tango dancing, heard Dennis DeYoung (lead singer of Styx) singing with his band live and for free, took our photos at the bean, and marveled at the beauty that is Chicago architecture. That’s just day one.

We are now comfortably ensconced in our room, hooked into the internet, TV on, loads of water here for the drinking to combat the humidity. It’s supposed to be rainy today here, but wasn’t and isn’t. It was humid, but beautiful. A few clouds, but loads of blue sky to go with. They say thunderstorms tomorrow, but who knows… hopefully we’ll get more of what we had today. And if not… s’ok. We will still be out exploring more of this gorgeous city.

The Jay Pritzker Pavilion. An amazing outdoor concert area designed by Frank Gehry. The metal “net” over the lawn is designed to be a sound system. There are speakers attached to it all over. The idea is that you get the same sound, sitting out there on the lawn, that you’d get from being in a great auditorium. Pretty cool.

Street Corner, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

Inside the Glessner House.

Wandered around Chicago with Martin yesterday briefly while Karen and Mary went in search of boots. We, meaning Martin and I, were more successful. We found photos. The boots remained elusive.

Across The Street, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

This is the last photo I took on Sunday after the Bridge Pedal. The building across the street from the Deschutes Brewery.