I have to get my passport renewed and Chicago is the closest Aussie Consulate...Nashville doesn't have one, how crazy is that??? A major travel hub and no Australian Consulate. I have one client I need to attend to this morning, and then I'm heading to Eds, and we're driving up from there. It won't be a long trip, we'll get there some time tonight and he made reservations at a hotel not far from the Consulate. My appointment is late morning, and should be a half hour max. We may visit one of his friends, he's still trying to reach him. May do some sightseeing. Will definitely stop somewhere for pie...the famous Chicago deep dish!! Anyway, it hit me as I was browsing the forum this morning, that perhaps theres a forum member in Chicago somewhere, close enough that we could meet briefly for coffee or some such? I realize I may have left it too late to ask...doh! Those damn senior moments!
ronni, nothing like a good senior moment, sorry your going in the wrong direction. but if you ever have a travel heading to greensboro north carolina give me a heads up and yes we can have coffee. if you come in mid November will give a bucket of green gems to take home... my best harvest 61 lbs
We arrived safe and sound. No traffic issues whatever, thanks to Ed's good planning! New Louisville bridge. It's a toll bridge so we kept waiting to be stopped and to pay, but there was nuthin' Finally I looked it up, and discovered that we were automatically scanned and we'll get a bill in the mail!!!! Made me feel really, really old to not know that! Gorgeous sunset between Louisville and Merrillville IN, where we stopped for the night. It's about an hour outside of Chicago. Didn't want to deal with downtown Chicago traffic and trying to navigate in the dark. Portillos, a local famous eatery. We shared an Italian beef sandwich, a Chargrilled Maxwell Street Style Polish (just like the way it was done on historic Maxwell street apparently) and their walnut pecan salad. So freaking good...helped that we were starving! We'll head out from the hotel shortly, get some decent coffee (I hate hotel coffee!) and make our way to Chicago in plenty of time. There are numerous restaurants close to the consulate, so we'll grab a bite there, I'll have my appointment, and then we'll go in search of some of Chicago's famous deep dish pizza!
yum chicago style hot dogs... glad you made it safe.... dw makes jam,dries them,cooks with them. we give them away as holiday presents..eat a ton of them.....
What a nice trip this is. It has been a very long time since I was in Chicago. I enjoyed seeing your piccies. Good luck with your consulate visit. Boy, I would love to go back to Oz sometime.
Glad you got there safely!!! Our trip to Chicago last April was a 2 day drive, 1 day there and 2 days back home and the day we were there Randy was in business meetings and I was in the hotel so we didn't get to wander around. We did go a Portillos that first night there and were not very impressed, maybe we just caught them on a bad night. We have several toll roads and bridges here, our's don't have Toll Booths anymore either. If you don't have a Toll Tag then they just photograph your license plate, get your address from your states database and send a bill. Even if you do have a toll tag from your state some other states do not accept them and you get billed that way too. Have a safe trip back home.
So glad your journey was uneventful Ronni. I know what you mean about hotel coffee as it's not to my liking either. Hope you both have an equally pleasant trip home again. Thanks for all you lovely photographs.
The city of Chicago is just amazing! Excuse the photo dump, but man, so many photo ops!!! They have trains suspended above the roads! Who knew??? Y'know, I've seen movies or shows where cars are chasing each other and they're obviously under some kind of overpass, or the driving lanes are separated by poles that are suspending something overhead. I finally have a clear understanding of what that's all about!! I just never knew before.
My son recently visited Chicago and, strangely enough, took many of the same photographs as you did Ronni. Obviously it's a great place to be especially if you have a camera handy. Thanks for sharing Chicago with us.
