Wicked Weekend In The Windy City

I arrived at O'Hare last Friday morning. I was meeting Megan and Chris for a late Birthday celebration for Megan. We had been planning on doing something like this for about two years. I got on the train at the airport and headed for downtown Chicago because Megan and Chris were still on their way. As I sat on the train looking out at the city scape I noticed something terribly wrong with the trees. They were discolored and losing leaves. I was contemplating what terrible disease was spreading and how the arborists were going to handle the blight and how the tree services were possibly going to be cutting down affected trees, when it occurred to me that it was just autumn and leaves fall off trees in autumn. I had just flown in from Dallas where we don't experience leaf change until December so I was in the wrong paradigm.

 

Whats up with the sickly trees?

 

Chris is just a lucky guy! We went to Barnes and Noble and put our names in the witches hat to see if we could win the lottery to buy front row seats for $25. Chris's name was pulled out of the hat. Having seen Wicked twice, he was not anxious to see it again. He allowed me and Megan to go to the show while he opted to watch the Michigan Game at the ESPN Game Zone. I just love this musical! My only criticism was that Fiaro was too short. It just doesn't seem right when Fiaro is a Munchkin. I want a tall, good-looking, Fiaro with a lot of charisma.

 

We went out on a boat ride on Lake Michigan and up the river. On the lake the temp dropped a good ten degrees. I was prepared with three coats so I didn't freeze. We brought a lunch with us and had a picnic while on our 90 minute cruise. Chris was some what hesitant about the picnic, but the bacon, bagel, and cream cheese sandwiches were fresh. The chips were BBQ Kettle. How can you go wrong with bottled water and bananas? I even packed donuts for dessert. The guide provided us with lots of Chicago historical and architectural information. At first I went to placate Chris. He had suffered through two days of shopping on Michigan Avenue without a complaint. What a trooper. I have to say that the boat ride was one of the more fun things we did on the trip. Not that shopping wasn't fun. It seems like every major retailer has a flagship store on the Miracle Mile.

 

Chris and I are standing next to each other near the bean in a downtown Chicago park. The bean is highly polished and very reflective and you can actually go inside of it.

Another highlight of the trip was the Hershey Store. They make the most incredibly delicious cupcakes. We bought one almost everyday and split it between us. When you buy this cupcake you are getting a cupcake and a show because the Hersheyizer has a cute but somewhat sadistic personality which comes out when she makes a cupcake.


I carried the cupcakes home for Joe and Bob. Joe has decided that I am not going to Chicago without him in the future. Joe made his cupcake last 4 days. That boy has been seriously deprived of sweets.