Monday, October 16, 2006

Chicago! 7th & 8th October


After negotiating a bit of slightly pre rushhour traffic in the northern suburbs surrounding Chicago, I arrived & was welcomed to the Theosophical Society's HQ at Wheaton. I awoke the next day to a free weekend (I'm working half-days here for my lodgings). Being excited at the prospect of venturing into the big city (USA'a 3rd biggest?), I set aside both Sat & Sun to journey in on the Metra train - a 50 minute ride to the east.

The weather was brilliant - crystal clear fall days, so the view from the 103rd floor of the Sears Tower (previously the world's tallest) was incredible. The usual queues to the skydeck weren't so bad, even including the obligatory security check that pervade most public locations today. The streets of downtown Chicago are remarkably clean - which make the numerous seemingly genuine beggars and apparently obvious opportunists scamming for cash seem out of place (!) The array of stores in the shopping district along Michigan Ave is VAST, although shopping was not on my mind - apart from the compulsory visit to the cool Apple Computer store to insert this blogsite onto as many stylish Macs as possible - I had some boozing to do - my friends Chris & Lydia from California were in town, so we sampled a couple of bars. I ended up having to run to make the 10.40pm train - they only run every 2 hours that time of night.

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