My mom got it in her head that she wanted to go away for a couple of days. That's fine with me. But it's where she wanted to go that bothered me. Last year & two years prior, we went to Minneapolis, MN and I had thought we learned our lesson about going west before winter is actually over. Apparently not.
We left Thursday morning for Islip Airport. We had no trouble taking off, despite the American Air cancellations....that's why I fly Southwest! The 2 1/2 hour trip was quick and painless, but it was the holding pattern that lasted almost an hour that got to me. O'Hare was backed up with traffic (how I don't know if AA was groubding all of their flights) and the overload jammed their radar system, which affected Midway.....where we were to land. Eventually.
When we landed, we found it to be raining. I wasn't prepared for rain. I brought an umbrella, but my 'brella for one' would not withstand five minutes with the wind that they have. We found our luggage easily and started walking for the metro platform. It would cost only $2 to get from the airport to the actual city of Chicago. Nice! But it did mean transferring from one train to another. In the rain. And, I know, you'd think it was indoors, underground, or on platforms. Nope. We had to get off at one station, go down two flights of slippery stairs (wet from the rain), cross the street, and walk down two more flights to get to the next subway we needed. All this and carrying suitcases.
We took the red line to our stop and had to walk four blocks to our hotel. Again, this would be fine if it wasn't raining!
We got to our beautiful hotel and found out that we had been upgraded! Sweet! We were a half of a block from Michigan Avenue...............the Magnificent Mile.................and in the heart of everything a tourist would want. Our room was one of them on the top floors (19th out of 20) and it came with fresh chocolate covered strawberries as a welcome and a window with shutters that, when opened, looked out onto the city and a clear view of Lake Michigan a block and a half away. Stunning! We also were a part of the "Winter Warm-Up" package that gave us a $100 credit to their restaurant for anything (including the tip). So our breakfasts and one evening's dinner would be paid for. I'm all for the free meals.
Because we are in the city location, most of the sites would close by 8pm. It was already 3pm.............and raining....................and we didn't know where to go or what to do. We hadn't eaten lunch and didn't want to eat dinner too early because we'd be hungry later & it would throw things off.
We grabbed the humongous umbrella (that comes standard with each room and can fit three comfortably) and took off to see what was out there. The problem is that darn wind! I thought that, at any moment, I'd become Mary Poppins and take off. So we ducked into a building that was a 7-floor shopping mecca. I was not in the mood to shop, but I can browse. We looked at all of the pretty things and then decided to find a place to eat.
The Cheesecake Factory was right across the street and they have a special that runs during the week. For two hours each night, they have a bar menu that is all of their best appetizers, salads, and three dinners, and they are smaller portions and all range from $4 to $7. Nice! We got fun drinks and each orderd two small plaes to share. Yum.
We left there around 6pm and tried to (unsuccessfully) walk some of the Mag. Mile. Not much was open and it was still raining. So we grabbed tea from Starbucks and headed back to the room to crash.
Day One done. Let's hope Day 2 isn't as rainy.
