Sweet home Siloam

Even though I was sad to leave Chicago, it's really good to be home. Wow... that was the first time I've thought of Siloam as home. Major milestone.

We didn't do much today except pack, ride to the airport, eat lunch, fly, and drive home. Granted, we rode to the airport in a Town Car (which I highly recommend) and ate at Macaroni Grill, but still, it wasn't too eventful.

Now I'm doing laundry and thinking about all of the stuff I need to do at work. I'm actually excited to get back to my to-do list, even if I'm no longer in the Windy City.

At least I have my memories. Here are a few pics to share.

The Wrigley Building



Opera House



Lindsay, Chris and me, during the fireworks over Lake Michigan



Once again I left Chicago without a visit to Wrigley Field, but maybe next time. We had a fabulous trip! Check out all of the pics if you're bored. I know you are, 'cause you're reading this blog.

Side note: I'm thinking about buying an apartment in the new Trump Tower in downtown Chicago. A studio goes for a mere $800K.

Goodbye, Chicago!

To answer Lonnie's earlier question, no I will not be detailing my bodily functions. I will, however, describe my fantastic dinner in great detail.

After two good sessions this afternoon about branding (in reference to marketing, not cattle identification), we boarded the Chicago First Lady to see the city from our perch atop a ship on the Chicago River. It was mostly an architectural tour, but it was really fun to see the Windy City from a different perspective. I took some great pics, which I'll post when I get home and find my camera cord.

We made a brief stop at Fannie Mae candies, then changed for dinner. We returned to Joe's tonight, this time with Chris in tow, and had the same waiter as last night. He was thrilled to see us (was it our beauty or our $40 tip?). Tonight's menu included the best crab cake ever, followed by another fabulous filet, topped off by chocolate fudge pie that was unbelievable. On a scale of 1 to 10--Western Sizzlin' being a 4 or so--tonight's steak was a 12 or 15. Best ever!

Chris is ready to go home and see his wife and boys. Lindsay is excited about seeing her husband and son. I'm sad to leave Chicago. And it's not just that no one cares if the old maid spinster comes home, it's that I'm so in love with this city that I don't want to leave tomorrow. Suddenly dinner at Callahan's in Siloam just doesn't cut it.

I heart stuffed pizza

Four years ago I came to Chicago for a meeting and had my first slice of Giordano's Pizza. I've had dreams about it since.

This morning I got up at 5:45 a.m. to attend a 7 o'clock breakfast meeting (see... my life's not all sunshine and roses), then went to a session about data at 8:15. Thankfully I had a venti latte to keep me awake.

Chris, Lindsay and I walked down Michigan Avenue for a bit, shopped at the 14-floor Macy's store (formerly Marshall Fields), where I gazed lovingly a $400 handbag that I did not buy, then we headed to Giordano's for pizza. It wasn't quite as amazng as I remembered, but it's hard to top last night's steak at Joe's. (Oh, and I had some more directional issues, which I'm sure LiLar and C-Ray won't let me live down.)

I'm headed off to more meetings.

Death by steak (and crab)

Well our first 24 hours in Chicago were a culinary nightmare. After last night's mediocre dinner, this morning's (very cold) brunch was just bad. My love affair with the Windy City was in jeopardy.

Lindsay and I slept until nearly 9 a.m. She allegedly had a hard time going to sleep; I did not. So I got a good solid 11 hours to make up for yesterday's exhaustion.

Tonight LiLar and I cabbed it to Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak and Stone Crab. It more than made up for our other bad dining on this trip. Let me just say, it was an experience. Not only was the food perfect (I had a filet and stone crab claws; Lindsay had sockeye salmon), our waiter was just fantastic. It was one of the best--if not THE best--restaurant experiences I've ever had. And since it was our first trip to Joe's, our waiter brought us some key lime pie that was to die for. And now I'm stuffed.

Tomorrow we have four sessions and some city exploring to do, including Giordano's Pizza for lunch (my fave!). We made reservations to go back to Joe's tomorrow night since Chris played hooky tonight and wrote a paper. Yum! Tomorrow night we're doing a cruise around the city on the lake.

I'm back in love with Chicago. I may never come back to Arkansas.

North by northeast

I've always taken great pride in my sense of direction. While most women find themselves stopping to ask how to find a location, I can usually, even without Lola's able help, figure out if I'm headed north or south, east or west.

I take it all back.

After a relatively simple a short plane ride from Tulsa to O'Hare, we bravely picked up our luggage and boarded a bus which took us to the L station. I've seen the movie "Shall We Dance" no less than 20 times and have evidently romanticized riding the L train. Remember how Richard Gere looked out the window and saw Jennifer Lopez gazing out of the dance studio? Surely a ride on the train would be memorable.

Well it was, but not for any romantic reason. Mostly because Chris almost fell through the door and Lindsay and I couldn't stop laughing, and then when we finally got to our stop (which we only knew because he called the hotel and asked which stop to take by using the word "y'all"), we couldn't figure out where to go. I juggled my luggage while accessing the Google maps on my iPhone. Yeah, that didn't help. A nice traffic cop gave us directions, and we proceeded to cross Chicago traffic no less than 10 times while dragging suitcases and walking at least a mile, all the while unsure of our destination. We finally got here.

Tonight we took a cab down to the Navy Pier which was kinda cool. We walked around looking for the Italian restaurant, then ended up at a barbecue place that was completely disappointing. The best part of the night was the Ben and Jerry's ice cream, cake batter with chocolate icing.

Now we're back in our fabulous room, in bed at 8 p.m. But we're exhausted from the travel and the incessant walking.

I forgot my camera cord, so no pics until Thursday.

My kind of town

In a mere 19 hours, I'll be on a plane to the Windy City. I am so excited! We have plans to go down to the Navy Pier tomorrow night for dinner, then on Wednesday we're doing the boat tour on the lake. Oh, and I suppose I have to go to a few sessions during the conference.

It's All Star week, so there are no baseball games, but I'm hoping to make it to Wrigley, which I've never seen. I've been to the Art Institute, Sears Tower, and Millennium Park, but never Wrigley.

Here's a pic of a room at our hotel. Can't wait!

The Windy City

I'm on official Chicago countdown. On Monday morning, two coworkers and I will fly out to a conference in my favorite city. I am so excited!

We're staying at the Hyatt downtown, and I can't wait for great food and good shopping.