Back to Chicago

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We arrived at the Cincinnati train station on Friday shortly after 3:00 pm, to await a train which would arrive at 1:31 am, knowing we would be pretty much left alone and unable to leave without being locked out. Certainly, we wouldn't be the only people planning to take the same train to Chicago, but how and when would they arrive, and how would it all work?

Well, it all worked nicely. I wrote and published yesterday's entry, with Natalie's editorial approval, of course. Then we read and napped until about 8:30, when a nice lady arrived to join us and we had a pleasant conversation getting acquainted. Over the next few hours several more people arrived to catch the same train. Apparently, the Museum security staff is on duty 24/7 to take care of the 3 museums in the building. They will open the waiting room door for people who will be taking the train and give them all the same speech about staying in the waiting room until the Amtrak attendant arrives.

The train arrived a few minutes early, we boarded just fine, found seats together, and settled in to try to catch some sleep. It was not the same as sleeping in a nice bed, but we did sleep much better than the first night of our trip. We must be getting used to this train thing.

An interesting note about this particular Amtrak route is the last stop before Chicago. We'll let you guess why it's interesting. It was daylight when we stopped there, so Natalie took a photo and coerced a fellow passenger to take one of us while there.

We arrived in Chicago about 10:20 or so, essentially on time. The Uber took us to the same hotel as last time, and our room was ready, so we checked in and took a little nap.

The concierge, Wallace, is an awesome guy who loves his city, loves his job, and is exuberant in his happiness to tell us all about it so we can get the most from our stay. It is really a pleasure just hearing him describe the things we can do.

One of the things he mentioned last time was a hop on, hop off tour, and we decided to try that out. Wallace suggested we take the whole tour today so we can spend tomorrow stopping at the places we want to see the most. So that's what we did.

After the architectural boat tour we took last time, this was a nice view from the other side of things and a very nice addition to the story of Chicago. This was also a nice overview of the tourist stuff to see and do. Tomorrow, we'll write about some of the things we'll look at more closely, and include a few photos, weather permitting. (Today was the first time we've been rained on this whole trip, not counting rain while on the train, of course.)

It's important to recognize just how much we're enjoying this whole experience. Almost everything about this vacation is completely new to us. We've never before taken this long of a vacation before, where we spend almost the entire time together doing the same things. And we are really enjoying everything about it.

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Photos

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Interesting city name

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And we're there

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Trump tower

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The river from the bus

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Fountain in Grant Park