Weekend in Chicago

[bjarvis]

In past years, my household has gone to Cleveland for a recurring square dance weekend. Alas, the host club hasn't held the dance event recently but we missed hanging out with the close-knit gang we'd regularly see. Earlier this year, we proposed using that same Columbus Day/Canadian Thanksgiving weekend to get together somewhere else, visiting a different city to be tourists together for a long weekend. This first year, we chose Chicago.

We trickled into Chicago Friday. Brian & Mark arrived via Amtrak early Friday morning; kent4str, cuyahogarvr and I flew a little later. Dale & Kim also came into town via the train while Nick & Bob landed at Midway in the late afternoon.

In all, the weekend was pretty much a blur, but here's some highlights:

• walking tour of Millennium Park, Grant Park, "The Bean" and Buckingham Fountain;
  
• a segway tour of downtown Chicago (I wasn't on that one);
  
• a boat river & lake tour;
  
• visiting some of the local bars;
  
• Museum of Science & Industry;
  
• food, food and more food. OMG, did we eat!

In all, it was a great trip and despite some minor disasters --Kim returned home early with a nasty cold and Bob lost his wallet while flying to Chicago-- I had a great time hanging out with friends with a free-flowing schedule.

I tentatively proposed visiting New York City next fall. There was some early support for the idea but we'll have to spend some time locking down dates & locations after the new year.