Don’t plan it all. Let life surprise you a little.

Julia Alvarez

Awoke Sunday morning and able to see the beginning marathon runners on street below. It was just shy of 2 hours from start and we were at mile 24.wow! Turns out a lady from Kenya set the world women’s record, in seconds below 2 hours 10 minutes. As one friend said those elite levels levitate.

We proceed to work our way down to street side , and partake of he energy emanating from the crowd. 50,000 runners and massively more than that, spectators.

For security reasons, after Boston, could not go to finish line but we walked about. Turns out we walked about 8 miles just meandering about. Did the river walk, along river through town stopping for a beer along the way. Ended up at the mouth of river where dam lock is to keep Lake Michigan from coming into the river which creates some sort of problem. Checked out union station underneath for next days departure.

It was starting to feel like we were walking just to kill time, deciding to return to hotel for an hour or two before the “light on the mart” show. At 7:30. Originally had planned to go to the Shed Aquarium but tickets had her doubled in price for the marathon weekend, again demand pricing. We opted not to fall for it.

Took a Lyft back to the light show which was good,but lasted repeated same 5 minute show for 30 minutes. The side of building is 2 1/2 acres (1+ hectare), across the river. Fairly spectacular. Sometimes free things are the best.

Monday continued our tour of Chicago, this time the museum of science and industry, which I remembered from the trip as a kid. I remembered nothing specific except one piece of artwork on wall, which I did not see his time.

As with all museums, no matter how good, my brain gets full after a couple hours and one must return, hence we planned it that way. A leisurely morning, laundry at hotel – lunch and Lyft to the museum. And as expected overwhelmed with options of different things. We hit the ground running, concentrating on the world warII captured German u-boat submarine, the 505. And the “blue paradox” about plastics in the ocean and water. We had to go back and forth between events as tour timing. In the end we wanted more, the exhibits covered the basics, which already known, but as one said, they have to dumb it down for the masses. But the presentation was spectacular with lots of special effects.

Never did figure out the mass transit. Got the app and it would say we needed the green line. Go to get tickets for green line, but no green line option but 15-20 other options. just gave up too easy.

This train the lake shore express running along he Great Lakes to Albany then down to New York City. Surprised us at how different this train is. Whereas on the empire builder we had a roomette, this roomette is taller, due to only one level on this train. Hence upper bunk has sitting headroom and a window. And this roomette has a toilet and sink, but no closet, as if the 3” closet was great. We wish we had the community toilet as something about the toilet right next to bed, just is off. Funny how you beat best be careful,why you wish for.

And this train only has a dining car and no lounge observation car. We feel like bad kids being sent to our room, as no common area to mingle and meet others. But it is faster, usually going between 70 and 80 mph and rarely getting stopped by freight trains.

Colors are coming out nicely here although difficult to photograph when traveling at speed.