Meredith is currently in Timisoara, Romania, having arrived there today (tonight for her). She has gone to help out some missionary friends, and will be gone for ten days. When we went to buy her tickets to get to Romania, they routed her through Chicago, but with less than an hour-and-a-half to get from her domestic flight to her international one. Neither of us liked that, so we decided to have Mer fly out of Chicago and back into Cleveland, which you can do. Since we had to go to Chicago, we made the decision to make it a vacation, and we would try to do as many tourist things as we could. We lived in Chicago for five years back in the nineties, but you tend not to do touristy things in the city in which you live, which is odd. Anyway, I took four days off, and we would have four-and-a-half days in Chicago in which to tromp around.

We left last Sunday, after a very leisurely morning of packing and getting ready. I think we got on the road about 1:30 or so, but we were unhurried about it. We were aiming to get to Mom and Marc’s place in western Michigan, which is roughly two hours from Shannon and Jolene’s apartment in Chicago. It makes for a great stopping place, and we get to visit with Mom and Marc, so we almost never go straight to Chicago anymore. Our trip was efficient since we had eaten before we left, so we never had to stop for food. We did get gas and used the restroom once, but we got to Mom’s in about five hours, which is very good time for us. Mom and Marc were both there waiting for us, and Marc soon got going on grilling some of his very excellent burgers. Mom threw in some corn, and we had quite a good meal. The rest of the evening was spent talking, taking in the sunset very quickly and hearing taps played at the beach (a nightly tradition there), and we made use of Mom having internet at her house for the first time in five years to look up weather, things to do in Chicago, and so on.

We were on the road mid-afternoon the next day, having spent the now-hot day walking down to the beach and back to the house, and then stayed indoors where it was cool. The ride to Chicago was not quite so smooth as the ride to Michigan had been – it was Sunday afternoon of a holiday weekend, which, combined with construction on the interstate, backed things up considerably. I got off the highway and we made our way along a road that followed the lake. We could not see the lake, which was too bad, and the road was much slower, but it was not so frustrating as sitting in traffic. We rejoined the interstate after a particularity uninspiring stretch of the road we were on, near Gary. We made it the rest of the way to Chicago without any real trouble.

Shannon and Jolene moved about two months ago, so we got to see their new apartment. It is in a great neighborhood, near Foster Avenue, and is next to a park. There is a ton of available parking (thanks to the park), which is a nice perk in Chicago. All week long we were able to find a parking space right in front of the apartment building, and I was to use the park twice to run in during our stay. The apartment has an entrance that is only used by two apartments – the first floor and the second floor, which means Shannon and Jolene could turn their second-floor landing into a small mud room, and leave shoes and jackets out there. We never once heard the neighbors at all, so the apartment is very quiet. Shannon and Jolene speak highly of all the neighbors in the building, and seem to be very friendly with the landlady and the downstairs neighbors.

The apartment had the usual Chicago style – long apartment, with two bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen, and a living room/dining room that is pretty large. It has a ton of windows, high ceilings, and freshly redone wooden floors. Jolene and Shannon had painted, so the walls looked good and were a variety of colors.

Shannon had not expected us until Tuesday (my fault – I had told him Tuesday at some point), so had not really prepared anything. He offered us a cold bean salad, but that did not really suit me. Since Shannon lived roughly in our old neighborhood, Mer and I walked the three blocks to Charcoal Delights, a burger place we fondly called “The Charcoal Pit” or simply “The Pit.” We both got sandwiches and I got fries and a shake, and was very content.

Back at the apartment, we talked a bit and poked around on the internet, and then got ready for bed. Shannon and Jo do not have a bed for the second bedroom yet, so I slept on the couch and Mer slept on the futon. It was very hot in the apartment, which was to be the case all week long (Mer and I hope to get back there in cooler weather so we can erase the association of the apartment with feeling sweaty and hot). Shannon turned on the window air conditioner for us, but it was not really up to the task of cooling such a large space when it was so hot. I slept fitfully all night, and drank a 20+ oz bottle of water through the night. Happily, we were able to make arrangements to move the futon mattress into the back bedroom for the rest for the stay, where the air conditioner was able to keep up, and so I was able to sleep quite well the rest of the time. This was good, because Tuesday saw the start of the real tourism, and it involved a lot of walking for the rest of the week.