Chicago, Conference and St. Louis

---

My trip to Chicago began with a request by my Department Head to submit an Abstract for the 2012 Railroad Environmental Conference back in May. I submitted an abstract based on my Thesis and hadn’t really given it too much thought. I had assumed that we were not accepted until we received a request on September 19 to present. I was about to leave on vacation for New York on September 23 when my company approved the attendance of the conference, which meant I had to prepare and submit a presentation by October 7 (during my vacation). I spent several days of my vacation working on it and got the draft in for senior review by October 6. Unfortunately the variety of responses meant I would not complete it on time but the Conference gave me an extension which helped. Even so, I had only had the opportunity to practice the presentation once before a group of peers before it was time to leave for Chicago.



The one brilliant part of my rushed Conference trip was the two extra days I had added to give me a chance to look around Chicago. So on a Saturday morning on October 22, I caught a direct flight to O’Hare Airport, picked up my rental car and headed to the city. As I had added extra days to the trip, I had booked a hostel in Chicago at my own expense. It was really cheap (less than $30) and located right in the heart of the city. I had been warned that the highways in Chicago were confusing and my route was supposed to be an easy exit straight down the road to my hostel, but when I got there, the exit was closed for construction. I got off the highway and tried to circle back over the railroad tracks towards the hostel. When I got close and was looking for parking, I found a street with no street sign and what appeared to be free parking. Based on my abhorrence for paying for parking and my greater tolerance for risk taking on vacation (which you’ll hear more about later), I chanced the free parking spot. There were also two paid lots on either side of the street so it seemed unusual to me. I gathered that during road construction on the street they had removed the signs and not yet replaced them. During the rest of the day and the following day, I must have checked on my car a half dozen time to make sure it was still there. As I was staying in a hostel, I decided to leave my laptop, suits and valuables in the car trunk and only took my packsack and sleeping bag to the hostel. IT was one of the fanciest hostels I had ever stayed at. A huge receiving area, upstairs restaurant with pool tables, volunteer information desk, key-swipe secured entry to the rest of the hostel, the floor and to the room! If I wasn’t sharing a room with 5 other guys it would have been perfect. I checked in and figured out what to for my Saturday night.



I ended up wandering around the downtown area below all the high rails, past the theatre district and up to the Magnificent Mile. I was getting hungry, so stopped in at an Irish Pub for dinner. The building looked kinda quite and small on the outside but revealed a huge two floored modern up-to-date pub with the traditional Irish fittings on the inside. I walked the two floors and grabbed the last seat available, at the bar. I was sitting down between two couples and people were leaning over next to me to order drinks. I ordered the bangers and mash (with lots of gravy) and a Strongbow to get me started. I started conversations with both couples and one of the couples from northern Wisconsin told me about a really cool bar in Milwaukee called The Safe House that has a secret entrance to get in. We also talked about Chicago and the things to see and do. They gave me some great ideas for the following day. We sat and drank well past midnight and I took off when the rugby fans came in at 3am to watch the world final. I drunken stumbled my way back across town. Somehow I ended up in an underground crossing that came out next to Millennium Park. I took photos of myself acting foolishly as no one was around. I didn’t even realise that I was right next to the Art Institute of Chicago. Fortunately I made it back to the hostel with no incidents and no police contact.



Sunday – Chicago – I slept in the next morning, then checked on the car and went to get pizza at one of the famous restaurants – Lou Malnati’s. I walked down to the park and ate the pizza which wasn’t as good as I had hoped. I continued walking down to the Fields Museum but decided I wasn’t in the mood for another natural history museum after the one in NYC last month) and didn’t want to pay the $20. I wanted to stay outside in the sunshine and enjoy the city some more. I walked over to the Shedd Aquarium which had a long line up (I never figured out why), and decided to rent a bicycle so that I could cover more ground. I rode over to the Northerly Island Park and rode all the way down to the southern tip. I saw a local catch a good size fish. I had great views of the marina, the skyline of Chicago, Soldier Field and McCormick Place. I rode back up the other side to view Lake Michigan, see the 12^th Street Beach and the Adler Planetarium. Riding around the Planetarium, I came across half a dozen wedding parties and a tour group of segways who had all stopped to take photos. This viewpoint from the end of East Solidarity Drive is unilaterally considered the best view of the city. The city of Chicago has a great bike lane all the way along the coast, and I started riding up along the Lakefront Trail in Grant Park. I stopped for a smoothie at Buckingham Fountain, then continued north across the River Esplanade to the Navy Pier. I got off my bike ad walked along beside it due to the throngs of people. I saw camels and llamas at the children’s zoo, tons of stores and eateries, the stained glass museum and carnival rides. I was almost done biking so I looked for the closest drop-off point to Millennium Park but it wasn’t easy to find. It turns out that I had to drop it off at a different rental place and they didn’t even want any information from me as to when I had picked it up or how long I had rented it. Fortunately when I got the bill, it was only for $20 which wasn’t bad for 3 hours of rental. I also saw a ton of kids around who were waiting for the latest teen sensation who was reported to be in the building next to the Jay Pritzker Pavilion.



I walked through the Millennium Park, visited the mirrored ‘bean’ and tried to cross the bridge to the Art Institute of Chicago but was turned away by a security lady because I had a drink in my hand. I learned my lesson and did not disclose the contents of my day bag when asked by the Institute’s coat check girls. Wandering through the institute reminded me of the movie ‘Ferris Bueler’ where the kids look at all the paintings including Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, Grant Wood’s, American Gothic and Georges-Pierre Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. I was allowed to cross the bridge back out of the art gallery and stopped by the Crown Fountain (large faces on TV screens), then headed back to the hostel. I talked to the gentlemen at the hostel information booth who volunteered his time to provide young visitors with information about the city. He recommended I see Mary Poppins (a former Broadway show) that sometimes released extra tickets the day of the show. I stopped by the check on the car, and then headed over to the theatre district. I helped a mother and daughter with directions to the theatre and saw them later inside as I managed to secure a single ticket with little effort. I enjoyed the show and thought they did a creative job of bringing the more fantastic elements of the story to life. I bought a copy of the original story for Ann and donated some money to get her a ‘Practically Perfect’ wristband. As I had been rushing about so much, I had not had time to have dinner, so grabbed snacks from 7-11, the only store open in the downtown core. I ate my snacks at the hostel and decided that I did not want to push my luck with the ‘free parking’ into the week so moved my car to a meter knowing that I would have to get up at 7am to start paying for parking.



Monday – The morning was mostly spent on Keystone emails and work. I ended up extending my parking twice so that I could finish up work tasks and last minute requests. I decided I needed to get a daytime look at the Magnificent Mile before I left town. I parked near the north end and walked down to the Sears Tower, Water Tower, Marilyn Statue, Michigan Avenue Bridge and lucked across the famous Billy Goat Tavern & Grill. Racing the parking meter, I headed back north to see the Oak St Beach before wrapping up my visit to Chicago. It was an uneventful 2 hour drive to Champaign with a little changing landscape. I had to pull over at one point to find internet and send one last document to work. I had dinner at an old fashioned diner in Champaign.



Tuesday, Wednesday – The next two days consisted of the 2011 Railroad Environmental Conference in Champaign, IL. Plenty of seminars, panel discussions, lunch, the trade show, a walk around campus, bumping into old friends, poster sessions and finally the presentation of topic of ‘the benefits and drawbacks of groundwater contouring on LNAPL recovery’. The last evening I went for great sushi at Fusion Sushi in the heart of Champaign and wandered around the central part of town.



Thursday – I wasn’t really sure where to go the next day. I had considered driving over to Indianapolis and then down to Louisville and the Mammoth Caves but figured it would be too late to go exploring to settled on driving to Springfield. Springfield is famous for the time that Abraham Lincoln lived there with his family. I visited the Lincoln Family Home and a several blocks of town that they had turned into a museum of the early pioneer days (Lincoln Home National Historic Site,). I also visited the Lincoln Library, the Illinois State Capital Building and the Old State Building where Lincoln served his final term as a state lawmaker. The Old State Building has had some other distinguished guests (besides me); in February 2007 then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama officially announced his candidacy there for President of the United States. I also drove out to visit the Lincoln Tomb State Historic Site where he, his wife and three of their sons were buried.



Next, I headed to St Louis. I could see the famous gateway to the west, ‘the ST Louis Arch’ from miles out of town. I didn’t really know much about the city but saw they had a huge park and zoo (Forest Park) so drove over there first. After taking a couple wrong turns, I figured out my way to the park (not having a map of the city or anything useful). I stopped by the Grand Basin, the ST. Louis Art Museum and then headed for the St. Louis Zoo. The zoo was open to the public for free (though donations were appreciated). I had a fabulous time visiting all the wild and woolly animals, a particular favourite were the underwater antics of the hippopotamuses. I also saw lions, tiger, bears (oh my), monkeys, hyenas, elephants, a puma, butterflies, snakes, penguins and more. I even got a free parking spot about 12 inches longer than my car – perfect fit! Before it got dark I wanted to go see the arch, I found a parkade between Eads Bridge and Martin Luther King Bridge but had to pay $10 because the Cardinals were playing game six in the World Series (which they went on to win). Unfortunately in my rush to go see the arch, I hopped a fence which caused me a sprained ankle. I spent the rest of the trip and the next month recovering, but had a pretty bruise which drained sown into my toes – weird. Anyways, I hobble to the arch and took some photos but was too late to go up the elevator inside. I hobbled to the Old Courthouse, down Broadway, then back to the car, took pain killers and drove the remaining two hours to my hotel in Hannibal, Missouri.



Friday – The next day I had to take slowly but I had lots of miles to cover for the next day so it wasn’t too bad. As soon as it opened I visited the Mark Twain (Samuel Clements) Museum in Hannibal and realised that I owned a first copy of Adventures of Tom Sawyer in my collection. Next, I drove four blocks and hobbled out to see Mark Twain’s boyhood home, and some of the other restored buildings – character homes, then visited the paddlewheeler on the Mississippi. Later, I took the Mark Twain Memorial Bridge back to Illinois and drove to Starved Rock State Park. I managed to make it up to the top of the rock but not out to any of the other sites. I could see the Starved Rock Lock and Dam facility along the Illinois River and miles of greenery in all directions. I took a quick drive up to the lodge above the main park area and saw wedding reception in the great lodge main room – really a ginormous log cabin. I stayed the night at a hotel in Joliet (just outside Chicago) and had a great dinner at a diner recommended by the hotel clerk.



Saturday – I had decided to stay in Joliet because it was close enough for me to visit the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and make it back to Chicago O’Hare Airport in time for my flight. I drove along the rim of the lake and finally found the most famous dune called Mount Baldy and made an effort to limp-climb it. I could almost see all the way to Chicago across Lake Michigan. I had just enough time to stop by Legoland next to the airport and buy some souvenirs and eat lunch, and then I was on my flight back to Vancouver.

---