The Last Few Days

Well, the last few days in Chicago were a blast.

Thursday: We went to the Adler Planetarium, which kicked behind. It was so fricken cool. I'm in love with it. Although, the planetarium eerily reminds me of the movie Contact. Then we stopped by the Art Institute, mainly to see American Gothic, a peculiarly intruiging painting. We hung around there for about an hour. When we got home, we went to the beach and laid out for a bit, then swam, then laid out for a bit more. The we went home, showered and started cooking. We had shells, which by the way, went over very well, thank you very much, because Uncle Bill's awesome friend, Walter, came over for dinner. He reminds me of Thomas Haden Church. He's a cool dude. The we played the ever infamous, Trouble, in which Uncle Bill lets his inner bitch out to play. Its so much fun. And each one of us won one game.

Friday: We went to the Field Museum...which was very educational. Nuff said. Then we just hung out for the remainder of our time. But of course we ordered Barry's Pizza again.

Saturday: We woke up somewhat early to go to the beach and not get yelled at by the bitch lifeguards. Then we went home and showered and finished packing up. Then we just sat around like hippies and listened to music. "I'm throwin' up my baby bumble bee/Won't my bulemic past life be so proud of me" Then we boarded the train, only to find that there were no seats next to eachother in business class. Lifes a fucking bitch sometimes. After about an hour and a half, we went back to the cafe car and watched 4 or 5 episodes of Will & Grace on my laptop, then found seats next to eachother minutes after my battery died...with a plug next to them. Score! So we watched Real Women Have Curves. Good movie.

Anyhoo, Chicago Rocks. Thanks Uncle Bill.

Chicago By Boat... Who knew? Day 5

This morning we got up bright and early for an architectural boat tour of Chicago. It was sexy, but the lady talking was both nasal and boring, so I stopped listening half way through and we all went downstairs because it had a much better view of it all. Oh, and they had free Starbucks coffee and lemonade and muffins. FREE BREAKFAST! Haha. Then we went to the biggest, kid friendliest place on the planet. The Museum Of Science and Industry. Woah, its huge. And we had to see the Human Body IMAX because the others were sold out...sorry Cat... The museum would have been great if I was about 11 years old, but it was still pretty interesting. The IMAX on the other hand, was quite disturbing, I only recall seeing a gigantic pimple being popped on a dome screen that was about 5 stories high and surrounding us. It was a pimple the size of a small pool. It was disgusting. I wish we could have seen the Nile movie, that looked cool.
Oh, and Cat and I are really getting the hang of this L system, you could put us anywhere in
Chicago and we could get back to Bill's house without any effort what so ever.

Woot! When we got home today, we decided to go swimming and there was actually waves. It was like a mini ocean. Yay. We were most definitely on the gay beach though, there was 15o gay men, a pair of lesbians, me and Cat (no, we weren't the pair of lesbians), and a family of four, who must have gotten lost. There was an old man in a lime green speedo thong...quite a sight, let me tell you. And the lifeguards are stupid, they put the bouys in 25 feet of water, but you're only allowed to go about boob high. Wft? We got yelled at about 50 times.

I Will Never Go To The Sears Tower Again... Day 4

The Sears Tower has to be the most boring place on the planet. I hate it. A lot. The Hancock Observatory, on the other hand, is pretty interesting. And the views are spectacular. We could see the shadows cast by the clouds on the city and it look like Earth was gonna be invaded, ie Independence Day. It was freaky. We also went down Michigan Avenue...The Mag Mile for short and we found a 4 story Borders! And we thought 3 stories was huge. I bought a single book, but its an awesome one If I Should Die Before I Wake. We took a gander at Shedd's Aquarium today as well. I'm in love with that place, if for no other reason than the dolphin show. I love dolphin shows. The aquarium itself is pretty good, saw some weird little sea animals and they had this gigantic tank, called the Wild Reef, that had some awesome animals in it, it was like a mini ocean. Then, on the way home, we got off the L at Belmont and went to the Army Navy Surplus store. It's pretty awesome but uber expensive. We both bought British Flag buttons and Cat was adamant about buying one that said "Fuck Off"...but they were all sold out. Darn. I fell asleep on the L today. I hear that I rubber necked the whole way.

Sometimes You Should Identify Street Names... Day 3

Today we woke up and ambled over to Navy Pier to buy IMAX tickets, we saw some movie about sharks...I fell asleep, not because I was bored, just out of sleep deprivation. Anyhoo, it was in 3D. Anyway, that's not the point, we went to Navy Pier and walked all the way down and it was pretty neat, however, I paid $5 for a lemonade that was mostly ice...it did come with a souvenir cup though. After walking around the pier, we caught a free trolley to State Street, where a Marshall Fields is. Across the street, we found a Borders books that was 3 stories high!! Yay! Whilst shopping and finding 3 awesome guides for Anatomy, Med Terms and Med Abbreviations, my uncle called and asked where we were. I told him at the Borders across from Marshall Fields. To bad theres another Borders in town across from another Marshall Fields. He gave us directions to a place for lunch...but it was quite a catastrophe. We ended up making it to lunch eventually and ran to a bus. By the way, we got pelted with sand while running towards the bus, it was windy. We took the bus to the IMAX. The movie was pretty good and the whole 3D thing made my head spin.

After the IMAX experience, we went to the Lincoln Park Conservatory and Zoo. I'm absolutely in love with the Lincoln Park Conservatory. It's so pretty. The Zoo was crap, half of the animals were dead, so it wasn't that exciting. We took the bus home and went down to the beach and swam. Whoopie! Anyways, later.

Fireworks make life amazing... Day 2

We woke up early today and went swimming at the beach and we were the only ones there. And the bouys went on forever...at our park, the water gets to be 5 feet deep...at this beach the water gets to be 25 feet! Anyhoo, we went for a walk down the coastline and it was so cool. I can't wait until after college so that I can live in Chicago...because I'm in love with it. Then we went with my uncle to the nursery to get some flowers...they were pretty, but there were no white lilies.

Early in the afternoon, we made our way downtown to get prepared for the fireworks. Along the way we stopped at Millenium Park. It's really cool, they have this gigantic pavillion by Frank Gehry (He did a lot of cool buildings, like the EMP in Seattle and the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain) and they do a lot of concerts and stuff there. They also had this really cool set of fountains that you could walk in and stuff. Then we went down to the Adler Planetarium area to watch the fireworks. Which were flippin' sweet, they sure upstaged Fishfly Festival Fireworks. Ha, try saying that one five times fast. I'll eventually post pictures and stuff...but I'm too busy now. Then we braved the subway on the way home. It was so packed, I think all of Chicago was on the L.
A la prochain fois~

The Worst Way To Start A Vacation.. Day 1

...Is definitely missing your train. Yep, we missed the train this morning. It felt bad. We were the most pathetic sight ever. But more on that later, first, lemme explain why we missed the train. Well, first off, my dad insisted that we go to Kroger to get us some snacks for the train. Then we missed our exit. Then we ran into about a million detours. Then we got onto the platform. Then, as we made our way to get on, it slowly but surely started moving away. Mind you, my mom was in the station telling them that we needed to get on, but the guy WOULD NOT tell the train to stop. Asshole. We were there at 5:15 am, which is on time.

Anyhoo, we had the most priceless/crushed expressions on our faces. If someone would have been videotaping, it would have won money. But we weren't the only ones to miss the train. We met Yvette and Kenneth. They were nice. So, on to the adventure. First, we're told that we have to go to Flint to catch a bus that will take us to Battle Creek so we can get on a train to Chicago. Ugh. There were easier options, but he failed to inform us of them. So, for the time being, we went home. Cat and I were a gigantic pathetic mess. I know both of us wanted to cry. But we held a stiff upper lip and collapsed onto the futon when we got home, all the while, discussing just how retarded we felt.

We left home around 7:00 am and made our way to Flint. On the way, we stopped at a Big Boy's for brekkie. Funny story. So we're sitting down for breakfast and I make the declaration that I have to pee, which is hardly uncommon, so Cat and I go to the bathroom (I know, we travel in packs, what can I say?) And I go for the handicap stall because theres something yucky in the other toilet. But Cat, being the brave one, goes to flush the toilet and use that one. As soon as I sit down, I hear a deafening sound and I hear Cat's voice calling me...she sounded like she was in pain. So I told her to hang on so that I could finish peeing. So I did. Then I open the door to discover the strangest sight. Cat on the floor with the bathroom door. She completely took out the door. Completely. Apparently the door was somewhat off its hinges and she went to close/open it and it came off and she and it crashed into the wall together. And she really hurt her shoulder...I had to pull on her arm to pop it somewhat back into place. I think that was worth missing the train. Then we had to recount the story to my parents and the waitress. We didn't file an accident report though...wimp.

Now that that exciting portion is over, we fell asleep on the way to Flint and drove around in Flint for a while until we woke up. When we woke up, my dad had pulled into this parking lot full of modular homes because he wanted to put one on the property up north. They're all a hell of a lot bigger and prettier, outside and in ;), than my house. The people there thought we were sisters. Thats probably because Cat has the habit of calling my parents mom and dad. Unusual and yet expected. But holy crap, these houses are HUGE, they have upstairs and everything. We finally got to the station and waited for our bus with our new friends, Yvette and Kenneth. We traveled with them the whole way to Chicago. It was nice. The remainder of our journey wasn't that exciting, it was pretty much: sleep, listen to music, talk, sleep, eat a cracker, listen to music, talk...

Then we got to Chicago. Finally. A few hours late. My uncle picked us up at Union Station and we took Lakeshore Drive, the coolest road in the world, almost all the way to his house. It runs along the coastline of Lake Michigan, which is all part of Chicago. I think Cat was in awe. We got home to his awesome condo, a few blocks from the lake, and oddly enouch, took a walk to the lake, it must be a swimmer thing...must identify water source, MUST IDENTIFY WATER SOURCE!!! Its such a pretty lake. I'm in love with it. Then we came back home and ordered Chicago Style deep dish pizza with yummy stuff in it, I believe it was Barry's Pizza. It was so good, though Cat and I, as mere amateurs, could only eat one piece each, while Uncle Bill could devour 2 or 3. Then we both kind of drifted off while watching What Lies Beneath. Then we went to bed and fell fast asleep.