Chicago

So! I'm back. I can't really describe all the fun I had in a single blog post, but I'm going to run through the hilights:

Wednesday: Karaoke night in Gurnee, IL. This was Kassie's first (of three) birthday celebration, and it was a riot. I drank a little more than I should have, but still managed to sing several songs, among which were "Kryptonite" and "Ring of Fire". It ended too soon, though, I had a couple more in mind to try out. Next time!

Thursday: Chicago, day 1. It was amazing, as Chicago always is. It's my favorite U.S. city, and this trip re-affirmed that for me. Thursday afternoon we went into the city and spent the day at the Field Museum, the Shedd Aquarium, the planetarium and walking all around Michigan Avenue. I'm pretty sure we walked 10 miles or so that day, not counting walking around the museums. It was a ton of fun.

Friday: We went into the city again, and this time we went to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. It was basically nerd paradise. There was an exhibit called Body Worlds, which consists of preserved human bodies displayed in a lot of really beautiful and informative poses and states. It was most definitely an educational exhibit, but there was a certain art to it as well. I will say that it's probably not an exhibit for the faint of heart, or those who get queasy easily, though. After the museum, we went back to Round Lake (Kassie's suburb) and had a cookout with her family. This was birthday party number two.

Saturday: We spent most of the day hanging out in Round Lake, and then headed into the city for bar hopping in Wrigleyville (three). For those who aren't familiar (because I certainly wasn't), Wrigleyville is the area immediately surrounding the iconic Wrigley Stadium. There are a ton of great bars in that area, and we had a really good time. At the end of the night, we went to Taco Bell, and I came into possession of a packet of hot sauce that said "Are you single?" on it. I was tasked with giving this packet to a person on the street, and I did it. I did my best to appear friendly and sane, but the lucky recipient still looked at me like she thought I was about to kill her. People in Chicago apparently aren't used to random drunken strangers walking up and handing them things. Come to think of it, that's probably how it is most places.

Sunday: Six Flags in Gurnee! I hadn't been to an amusement park in a long time, so I had way too much fun riding all the rollercoasters. Brett and Kassie aren't huge fans of roller coasters, so I had most of the fun while they held my wallet and phone. Poor them! But all in all, we each had a good day there. The only problem was that the Hurricane Harbor wasn't open yet. Too early in the season. It was a real shame, too, because it was a very hot day (85-90 degrees at some parts). There were a couple water rides open, though.

Sunday night I was supposed to come home, but due to weather I ended up getting stuck in Milwaukee. It gave me some great reading time, though. Today I came home via a flight that technically had no seats open on it. I was supposed to go through Dallas, but DFW airport tends to stop all flights as soon as a raindrop hits the tarmac, and my plane out of Milwaukee was delayed too much for me to make my connecting flight to Omaha. I ended up swapping my ticket out at the last minute for a late night direct flight, but I had them put me on standby for the evening flight. It turns out that was a very good idea. One person didn't show up, and so I ended up making it home around 7:30PM, which is much better than the 11:00PM arrival time I would have had.

The trip was amazing, and I'll post pictures on Facebook for those who are friends with me there. I may also edit this post and throw a few in here. It really depends on how lazy I get / how short my attention span is that day.