Weekend Review Chicago to Oak Park to Berwyn Part III

Saturday, later that day, Berwyn, IL

After being terribly late to my friends' home, I finally arrived around 12:30 pm

Ed and John are friends I know from Ohio.  Ed and I go well back in time.  He was always like my big brother.  He'll tell it like it is, but you know if you have a friend in Ed, you have a friend for life.  I followed them up until about ten years ago when they lived in D.C. and while there with family, I saw them for a short time.  I wasn't able to ever see them again until this last weekend. 

After that, I became terrible at returning emails and that 's when the Illinois bubble ate me, but I tracked them back down and living so close to Oak Park, since I was there, I practically invited myself over.

Weekend Review Chicago to Oak Park to Berwyn Part II

Saturday, Oak Park, May 21, 2011
The next morning, I woke and checked the website for the Hemingway museum in Oak Park.  I made the mistake of thinking they opened at 8.  I had made plans to be in Berwyn by 10 that morning to meet friends who live there, but that’s when the museum opened.  I had to call them and tell them I was going to be late because I screwed up the museum time. 

Weekend Review Chicago to Oak Park to Berwyn Part I

Part I: Friday, Chicago, May 20, 2011

So I drove into Chicago this past Friday morning to meet a writer friend at Union Station.  They have been in the states since Feb and was riding the train up from Southern Illinois to catch their flight from O’Hare, back to Germany.  Their train got in at 1 pm, their flight left at 1030 pm. 

We met and had lunch and just killed time really.  Not much to do in that time span that won’t have you fighting traffic, getting lost, or missing a flight; so we stayed in the general down town area.  We took a cab to the Hard Rock Café, then a cab to Poag Mahone’s, where we had a drink and some food (lil two bite baby cheeseburgers… I did ask for them well done, which to me means NO PINK, yet they were pink, but the Cosmopolitan made up for it… I guess).

My friend actually met a friend of a friend and his friends there and they chatted for a while.  Before long, it was time to hoof it back to the Union Station parking garage and head out to the airport.  I figured it was going to be about an hour drive, maybe 45 minutes from downtown to O’Hare and I was right.  Traffic was stop and go; and more stop and go.

I wasn’t even really sure what terminal or parking I would need.  I was going to drop my friend off in the departure area, but once we got close, I didn’t know what exit to really take, knew it was the International Terminal we needed, and it just seemed easier to park in short term parking and get her inside.  Besides, her bags were heavy and I wouldn’t have felt right just dropping off at a curb and saying see ya!

We went into terminal one and that was the wrong one.  We then took the train, yeah, the train that goes just around the airport, to terminal 5.  After getting my friend checked in and to the area where she’d go through security, I headed back down to terminal one and the parking lot.

From there, I made my way to my hotel for the night.  It was nice, quiet, and soon I was asleep.  My feet hurt from walking around all day.  I wore the cutest sandals, but they had no soles, so I might have been barefoot walking around Chicago all day. 

I had made the comment in an earlier post I think, that I loved the sound and sites of the big city.  I used to want to live in Chicago.  I decided after visiting it a few times that I was better off just visiting; I seem to appreciate it more.  I wouldn't mind living there if I could work there; but to work there and commute... uh no.  I don't think I could hack it.  

Part II TBC

The true writer's life: blogging on the run!

Wi fi, such a cool thing! Lets you blog and sip raspberry mochas at the same time. Ah, times have come a long way since the days of college.

I'm at the Caribou coffee shop now, on the corner of Oak Park Av and Lake St. The Hemingway museum is just down the street, opens at ten. I thought it was eight!

Regardless, soaking in the atmosphere of a Saturday morning in this charming Chicago suburb.

Have a photo of the famous Hard Rock sign, and one of the corner at the coffee shop, but blogger seems to be sticking!  I'll try one more time before heading to the museum, otherwise, will post them when I return home this evening.

P.S.

THEE best thing about this moment?  I'm totally happy and content, alone, with me, with the strangers on the street.  I am... me.

Writers and the City

Spent the day in Chicago. I met a fellow writer at Union Station. Two meals, a few iced mochas, one Cosmopolitan, and a few pieces of Hard Rock gear and she is on her way to Germany and I'm tucked in a pretty decent Holiday Inn Express room, preparing to rest up for my day tomorrow to Hemingway's birth home and then the rest of the day with friends.

I really like Chicago. I fell in love it the first time I visited, which was years ago. I drove out here one summer with my parents and friends of the family to see the Cubs play and tour the city.

I returned again a few years after that with a friend and we spent our time getting drunk at the Navy Pier and trying to figure out what subway to get on to get back to our hotel.

The next time I was in Chicago, was in 2006, when I came up here to shop on Michigan Ave for a dress to wear when I got married. Another trip was just this past summer when I came up with a friend to go to a Cubs game. We rode the train back and that was different.

This trip might just be my last for a while, like the other trips were oh so close together; but really, I won't be back here for a long time, so in one short afternoon, I tried to absorb all I could.

I like the traffic, the horns, the people on the street, the cops on the ATVs. I couldn't live here though, work here. I'd get run over, the people move so fast! You have to, I suppose. It just moves that fast here. I guess every really big city is like that.

O'Hare is truly a masterpiece of an airport. That place is so big that if you blink, you'll forget where you are.

My company was great for the day. Theresa, my new writer friend is really just a gem. I wish we'd had more time to chat and explore the city, but she said she wasn't much of a big city gal, and I guess I could be a bit but more so just in the moment, since I'm there, I want to see it all, but eh, I'd seen my share of the town more than once. I hope I was able to make her trip to her plane as smooth as possible.

I miss Daisy, she's at home with the ex. I'm sure she's fine, and truth be told, I needed a night out of there. While the end of June will be here soon, I just needed to get away. I would have left a while back, but circumstances prompted otherwise. Regardless, it's nice to get away. There won't be much getting away for a while to come once I do move, so I guess it's okay to do it know.

I always loved traveling. We traveled very often when I was a kid. I loved staying in hotels. Each place we went was new and exciting. I'll have to think about some favorite places I've been and get back to you.

I'll be reconnecting with some old friends tomorrow and maybe they can become an option for coming out to visit the area again. I also reconnected with a few family members this week. They might just be on the summer "who to visit" list. Okay, so maybe that getting away thing was false. I might just have some places to go this summer, but visiting family and friends, I mean, you don't have to stay in a hotel, you have a place to sleep if they are kind enough to have you. But I guess that's still "getting away."

Long day, early day tomorrow. I'll post about Hemingway's museum for anyone who might be a fan of his. Maybe more on the whole travel thing. I like writing about the places I've been, the things I've seen. It reminds me of the good things life and this country have to offer.