I saw that my life was a vast glowing empty page and I could do anything I wanted 

Jack Kerouac 

Arrived just over 6 hours late into Chicago at 10:30 pm. Apparently Amtrak is getting us a voucher for another trip of some sort, although have not seen it yet. Then the hotel was 2.3 miles away not the original 2 blocks I had thought, as originally looked at. Difficult to find a place as turns out this weekend is the Chicago Marathon as well as a big convention. Seems the world in the United States at least, has figured out how to gouge the tourist again with demand pricing. Normal rate is $180, but we are paying $450. Gouge the tourist. Sometimes I hate capitalism. we caught a Lyft cab for $5.50 and arrived. I had chosen a room on the 21st floor and amazing views out to a taller building across the street with condominiums. Apparently Chicago has become a desirable place and people want to live in town. It shows.

Always interesting to come to a new city. One has to figure out the mass transit – how to pay, where to pay, where to go and how to get there. In Portland my phone as soon as we were in airport came on (unasked for) saying Portland mass transit accepted apple cash and phone could be used for payment, just walk on. Here one gets an app and purchases access, but you have to know which mode you want. Some cities accept cash, some do not. We will see, have not tried it yet. I am sure once one does it, it is easy.

Seems every city in the world has a particular vibe, and always interesting to see what that is. New York, Washington D.C., London, Paris, Kathmandu each has an individual feel. And Chicago is the same. There is a particular vibrancy here, although currently it might be skewed due to the marathon. 50,000 people does have an affect.

My cousin drove into town from their home just outside town about an hour, and we had a delightful day. We walked about city central, found a sandwich place for lunch and yammered on. Jeanne had been here before and raved about the boat tour of architecture of the city. We had signed up for that. Tom and Ilona used to live in the city and certainly had visitors and had done tours but had never done that tour.

Seems after the recession of 2008-2010 money began to flow again and there was building boom here. There were certainly skyscrapers here before, but now a lot more. I had been up the Sears tower maybe 20 years ago, once the tallest building in the United States, now the 26th tallest in the world.

The tour was amazing, with the guide being a former history teacher and was passionate about Chicago and its history. I love it when people show passion in what they do. He covered not only the architecture ranging back to the 1850’s, the environmental aspects, the river, the geography, separation by a hill near here dividing the continent between the Atlantic ocean and gulf of Mexico, batman movies made here, and a myriad of other subjects.

Some factoids – learned where one building used the river water for cooling the building, but when it returned to the river it was warmer and affected the life in river.

Chicago is known as the windy city, and it is windy, people assuming it is named that because of the wind, but actually it is the history here of corrupt politicians and windbags, giving it the windy city name.

Michigan Avenue used to be the edge of the lake but after the great fire of 1876 (?) and other stuff, the residue was pushed out into the edge extending the land out. And the city elevation was raised by 10 feet so that the sewage from homes and buildings and the animal processing facilities could drain into the river easier. The clean water act of 1972 changed a lot for the river.

After the tour we found a small bakery shop and stepped in, continuing our yammering visit. Turns out Chicago does not do coffee very well , that I have found, and I am not particular. Weak cold coffee does not do it for me. Jeanne got sludge from her coffee pot.

Tom and Ilona returned home, Jeanne and I deciding to walk the 2.5 miles back to hotel. Turns out a great walk. The sidewalks were energetic with people. The police were out getting barriers set up for the marathon on Sunday. It was like setting up for a party. The pedicabs with music blasting, sirens, signs, barriers, people busy on the streets. One fellow we had seen in the morning near our hotel, who had asked for help getting some bottled water came up and said he wished to apologize to us for what he thought scared us. We had a nice conversation and he asked again for help getting some bottled water. Again we turned him down.

Stopped in randomly at a restaurant for dinner and it was incredible food. As the the waitress said, we would not tell the difference between the calamari and the pasta, and we could not. It was delicious. I had a mediterranean bass over a bed of green olives and carmelized fennel. Delicious.