Spirit of Columbus / Wedding Anniversary Weekend Recap

We had a brief glimpse of fall weather last week. It was really nice and reminded me of the time period when Laela and I started dating. We just celebrated two anniversaries over the weekend. Our 16th wedding anniversary was last Friday and the 19th anniversary of our first date was on Sunday. (Yes, of course they are that close together for a reason). We celebrated on Friday by doing the same thing that we've done for the past eighteen years; we have dinner at the Clarmont. The night that I proposed to Laela, we dined at the Clarmont and we went to see "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" at the Ohio Theater as part of their summer classic movie series. Unfortunately this year the Ohio Theater had a production of Wicked going on and I did not have the foresight to either A) order tickets or B) make our dinner reservations at a time conducive to attending the production. Instead, after dinner we travelled East on Broad Street to Franklin Park and took an evening stroll around the grounds. In my haste to get the evening underway, I had not warned Laela beforehand that that was my plan so her footwear was not chosen accordingly. There weren't any movies going on that we wanted to see, so we made our way home and finished watching the Cincinnati Reds put the finishing touches on a 7-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs. Miranda was out of the house, so it was nice to be able to just relax on the sofa watching the game with no commitments or plans. It was the perfect way to spend the evening.

On Saturday I picked Miranda up from her friend's house and my mother came up to visit from Cincinnati. It was a restful, uneventful day. We went out to lunch at Skyline, had subs for dinner, and watched the Reds game. Unfortunately, after the Reds game my mother and I got sucked into watching Remember the Titans. She had the will power to tear herself away from it at 11:00. Me, not so much and stayed up until 12:30 watching it. Ordinarily that wouldn't be an issue but Sunday morning I needed to be up at the crack of dawn because I was participating in the Spirit of Columbus Half-Marathon.

2010 was the third annual running of the Spirit of Columbus Half-Marathon and Relay. It is also the third year I have participated. In 2008, when I started running I had set my goal as being able to run the SoC. In 2009, the SoC dove-tailed nicely with my training for the Columbus Marathon which was being held in October. This year though was a little different. I knew that I wouldn't be able to run the whole thing, so I set my mind on at least participating as a walker. I also enlisted some of my friends to be renegade participants and walk with me for a few miles each. To that end, my mother walked from mile marker one to mile marker three with me, my friend Sarah Cofer walked from mile four to mile five with me, my friends Adam Swickard and Dan Michalec walked from mile marker seven until the finish line. Kristi Hittepole doubled back after completing the entire half-marathon as a runner and met me at mile marker 11 and of course Laela and Miranda met me at mile 12.5 and we finished the race as team Speed Walrus rollin' six deep. I'm really grateful for all of the support that everyone gave me. Those last two miles were tough. I did finish as one of the last ten participants but I finished it nonetheless. It was very bittersweet because I have a feeling that is the last half-marathon that I'll be participating in. Who knows though. Fortune favors the brave, right? Maybe I'll be foolhardy and strong enough to do something else, but we'll just take it one day at a time.

Bukkit Tour: Windy City Day 4

August 23, 2010 - Alarm set 7:55am, girls actually up by 8:20am. We had to get a jump on things this morning because we were headed back to Wrigley Field. On non-game days at Wrigley there are tours available of the facility. You do have to plan ahead and order tickets, so we ordered ours to pick up at will call when we got to town on Friday. We were out of the hotel and onto the subway before 9:00, record time for us. A quick nine stops later found us back at Addison and we were right back at the ballpark. We took a couple of photos outside that we didn't get on game day because there were too many people about and grabbed our tickets. We had plenty of time before the tour started so we walked across the street to the golden arches and got ourselves some breakfast. Who knew you could feed three people in Chicago for under $20. It was the first time we had done so since arriving. The McDonalds was actually kind of cool because there it had Cubs and Wrigley memorabilia all over the place. On more than one occasion I caught myself forgetting my meal and staring at something on the wall.

We made it back across the street and met up with the tour group at the front gate. They led us back into a bar that had a bunch of television sets mounted on the wall and we watched a 10 minute movie about the park. They then proceeded to take us up to the bleachers to relate some of the park's history (and more importantly the rules of the tour). From the bleachers, we made our way back down to the ground level and they took us out into right field. As long as we stayed on the crushed red brick of the warning track we were in good shape, but woe be to he that actually set foot on the grass. (Friendly confines my a$$...) We got to take a bunch of pictures by the brick outfield wall and Wrigley Fields legendary ivy. Interesting historical note. That ivy was installed over the course of a weekend and the ivy that is there are the original ivy that were planted back in 1937. After being on the field, we were walked up to the press box and the luxury suites. We were unable to go to the visitors clubhouse that day because the field had been rented by a private company for an event and there were actually people using it and playing on the field. The tour concluded with a visit to the Cubs clubhouse. Our tour guide had warned us how small it was several times through the tour. We finally we led down into it and boy, was he right. It is a tiny tiny facility for 25 players plus coaches (never mind the additional 15 players who are called up to the bigs in September). We snapped a few photographs and were on our way.

We boarded the subway to take it back into the city. Our plan was to go to the Field Museum next. Laela wanted to go back to the hotel and then grab a cab to go to the museum, but I figured there had to be a subway stop near it and I found one. So I convinced everyone to take the L all the way to the museum. We got off of the train and we didn't really know where we were, so I got out my GPS and punched in the Field Museum's address. We started walking in the direction it told us to. I must've done something wrong because we ended up walking about a mile in the EXACT opposite direction of the museum. We stopped and asked a meter maid where it was and she said that it was about two miles back the other way. Well, I'd had us walking around in the sun for too long at this point to we went ahead and hailed a cab who then dropped us off at the museum.

We got there and went inside and were greeted by Dinosaur Sue. Sue is the most complete, best preserved, Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever discovered. I believe she is the unofficial mascot of the Field Museum and is quite an impressive specimen. The rest of the Field Museum (aside from being in an amazing building) is just like any other natural history museum that you've ever been to. Lot's of dioramas and taxidermied animals. One exhibit that we went into that was rather cool was "Robosue: The T. rex Experience" Robotics and facial recognition technology combined to make animatronic velociraptors, triceratops, and of course a T. rex. Although it is a small exhibit, the technology behind it is pretty amazing. After we went through that we went and had lunch in the basement. It was getting to be mid-afternoon at this point and I was starting to get tuckered out. After lunch we all went to go explore the third floor and I just needed to sit for a while. There were some very comfortable living room style chairs upstairs and I just plopped myself down in one while the girls checked out the rest of the museum. We left at about 4:00PM so we could get back to the hotel, pick up our bags, and then take the subway back to the airport.

We arrived at O'Hare, got checked in, had a quick dinner at the airport Chili's and went to our gate. We were there an hour and a half early, no thanks to the TSA. Since I had finished the book I was reading the day before and Laela had a dead tree edition of what she was reading, she graciously let me borrow her Nook and purchased for me "Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman" So I was able to wile away my time at the terminal reading (although CNN blaring in my ear made it a tad difficult to concentrate). We finally boarded our flight back to Columbus which was very uneventful.

Once on the ground, we grabbed the shuttle back to the red lot and made our way home. Indy was very pleased to see us this time and didn't "cool guy" us at all like she did when we came home from our vacation in July. Vacation time is now all wrapped up. Miranda started back to school last Wednesday and I start round two of my treatment. Looks like it's time to settle back into a normal life.

Bukkit Tour: Windy City Day 3

Sunday August 22, 2010 - Today was the big day, the whole reason we went to Chicago. I wanted to make sure I got a chance to go to a Cubs game to experience "The Friendly Confines" of Wrigley Field. We made sure to wake up around 9:00am on Sunday. I arose with butterflies in my stomach because i was so excited. I was dressed in about ten minutes (after tending to my feet....again) and impatiently waited for the girls to follow suit. We wanted to make sure that we were on the subway bright and early so that we weren't late for the game. We didn't want to have a repeat of New York, where the train broke down and made everyone get off and back onto another train which caused us to be late for the game. So with the girls finally primped and prettied up, we set out for breakfast.

Right on the corner by the hotel was a Corner Bakery Cafe. We had eaten in one in Philadelphia and Miranda had French toast that was out of this world. We were all eager to eat there again and had decided on Friday that we would do so on Sunday. So here we were two days later all primed up and ready to go. Fortunately it wasn't terribly busy for a Sunday morning, but it was definitely full. All three of us ordered the same entrée: the French Toast. The only variation in our orders was beverage. Disappointingly, the Chicago Corner Bakery Cafe's French Toast was not nearly as good as Philly's. In Philadelphia they used cinnamon raisin toast and it was almost like a little loaf of bread. Not so in Chi-town. Not only that, but it was barely warm. Don't get me wrong, it was good but it wasn't what we all remembered from Philadelphia.

So with our bellies now full and me with a cup of coffee, we set out for the red line subway. Wrigley Field is a short nine stops away from where we were staying downtown and fortunately we got on our way early enough that there wasn't a crush of Cubs fans trying to get on the train. It certainly got more crowded the closer we got, but it wasn't terrible.

We got off of the train at the Addison stop and could see Wrigley Field as soon as we stepped onto the platform. I was giddy as a school girl. We made our way onto the street and snapped a few photos across the street so we had the obligatory Wrigley Field sign in the background. We crossed the street and walked into the stadium and there was quite the buzz about the place. You could just feel that it was a different place to watch a game than all of the newer stadiums. It was very similar to how it felt walking to Fenway Park. I was expecting the fans to be a little more rabid than they were, but it was also nice not having non-baseball-know-it-all-guy sitting right behind me telling the person he's with everything about baseball (but being wrong about things more than half of the time).

Our seats were in the fourth row of section 226 so we had a fantastic view. It was also nice that the seats were in the shade. It was the most comfortable ball game I'd been to all year. I was actually wishing I had a sweatshirt and was a little envious of the one Miranda had on. Unbeknown to us prior to arriving at the stadium, we were about to witness history. It was Sweet Lou Pinella's last game before retiring and the last time that Bobby Cox would visit Wrigley Field as the manager of the Atlanta Braves (due to his impending retirement at the end of the season). As a Cubs fan for the day, the game was laughable. The final score was 16-5 and I swear, if that was the best effort that Cubs 3rd baseman Aramis Ramierez is capable of, he is a complete piece of crap. I've seen rec league girls softball players put in more effort to field a ball than he did. It was absolutely disgraceful. Wrigley Field is an absolutely gorgeous ballpark and I'm ecstatic that I had an opportunity to see a game there. At least my streak continues. If I come to your ballpark and I'm rooting for your team, you are going to lose and lose bad. The only exception to this rule that I've during the 2010 baseball season is the New York Yankees. They are the only team that I've rooted for that won. I don't think that really counts though because although I was rooting for them on the outside, in my heart of hearts I wanted them to lose.

When the game was over, we boarded the red line and left Wrigleyville. We got back to the hotel and as usual, it was time for me to take a little nap before we went out and did anything else. When napping time was over, Laela had decided that we should eat dinner at the Weber Grill Restaurant. It was Sunday evening and it was absolutely packed. It was a 45 minute wait to get a table, but it was well worth it in the end. All three of us had the same three things on the menu that we couldn't decide on so each of us ordered one of them and we all shared. We ordered the following: the hickory smoked prime rib, the filet mignon, and the skirt steak. The skirt steak is marinaded in a ginger-soy sauce and then topped with smokey grilled onions and peppers. All three steaks were delicious and they were all served with garlic roasted mashed potatoes. I asked to have my mashed potatoes substituted by a baked one. It was quite honestly the largest potato I have ever seen in my life. It was the size of a pee-wee league football and could have been two meals all by itself.

Having sufficiently stuffed our gullets again, we had one more adventure to embark upon for the evening. We wanted to use our City Passes to visit the Skydeck in the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower). We arrived at about 9:20 and the observation deck closed at 10:00 so we had made it just in time. Coincidentally, this was the same time and day that we visited the observation deck of the Empire State Building so we were expecting long lines. Much to our surprise there were not that many people there. The lobby was under renovation, so it was kind of beat but after a quick elevator ride up to the 103rd floor, the view was incredible. I love getting to go to the tops of tall buildings at night and getting to see the cityscapes all lit up. The Skydeck also has a unique feature for visitors. It is "The Ledge" which is a glass cube which extends off of the side of the building. You can step out onto it and see right through the glass floor to the street 103 floors below. It is quite the experience. Miranda was really nervous about going into it. We walked in together and her knees were completely wobbly and it took her a minute to adjust to it but she finally gained some confidence that she wouldn't be plummeting to her untimely death, relaxed and enjoyed it. It was a really weird feeling being out there. Don't get me wrong, I had to back into it while looking at the exit sign and then turn around and look down or else I might not have done it either. 10:00 rolled around a little quicker than I would have liked and thus concluded our last full day in Chicago. We went back to the Palmer House, set our alarm for 7:55am Monday morning and went to sleep.

Bukkit Tour: Windy City Day 2

Here we are for our second day in Chicago. As usual, I was the early riser and got dressed. As I was going to leave to get coffee, Laela stirred and asked what I was doing. To my surprise, she hopped up and got dressed to join me. I wasn't going to do anything fancy, just run down to the Starbucks that is in the lobby. So that's what we did. We got coffee, a hot chocolate, and a starbucks milkshake for Miranda. I think she calls it a "cream based caramel frappuccino." I guess it's not as hip to say milkshake. We also grabbed a blueberry muffin, apple fritter, and a cinnamon roll which we all shared. Now that we were all nourished, we were able to get our day started.

Our first stop of the day was the Navy Pier. We decided to walk from the hotel because it's pretty easy to get to. Walk to the Lake Michigan, take a left and follow the path to the Pier. We decided to take the "alternative route" and walk down Michigan Avenue. Well we ended up overshooting the Navy Pier by about 3/4 of a mile and ended up on Northwestern University's campus. After getting ourselves turned around, we finally made it to the Pier. Our friends the Brannaman family relocated to Chicago about a week or two ago and we were meeting them at the pier. They had taken the Metra train into the city. So we up with Brad, Ann, Ellie, Ginnie, and Marty on the pier and started walking. I'd liken Navy Pier to a "cleaned up" smaller version of the Coney Island Board Walk. There are lots of simialar things to do but it's just not as dirty. The first thing we did was walk to the end of the pier and get some photos and after all of the walking, everyone decided they were hungry. We had lunch at the Billy Goat Tavern. Apparently there was a Saturday Night Live sketch in the 70's that made fun of it, but I don't remember it. Something about someone yelling "Cheezborger, Cheezborger,Cheezborger!" and that's exactly what they do as you walk in. It was okay, but it wasn't fantastic. That's alright though, I washed it down with a couple of margaritas to get my afternoon going. On the pier there are also a bunch of lake tours available by boat. They looked interesting and it was beautiful weather so we decided to take one of the boat tours. The tour that we decided to take was cash only so we needed to get some money. While Brad and I went to go knock over an ATM the women and children bought some ride tickets at Pier Park went to the giant Navy Pier Ferris wheel. Miranda and Ginnie rode in their own car while Laela, Ann, Ellie and Mary rode in another. We met back up at the end of the ride and went to board our boat. I somehow managed to turn myself around (which became a recurring theme for the entire trip to Chicago) and started walking the wrong way toward the boat. It was about 1:15 and the boat departed at 1:30. Once we realized that we needed to turn around we hastened our pace to get to the boat and made it with just a couple of minutes to spare.

The boat tour was about 45 minutes long and went out on Lake Michigan and strafed the city so that you could get a view of the Chicago skyline. The tour guide was decent but you could tell he'd done it a million times. He provided lots of factual information about the city and the pier but nothing that you couldn't pick up by reading the City of Chicago or the Navy Pier Wikipedia page. It was a real nice boat ride though.

The kids still had some ride tickets left after we did the boat tour, so we went back to Pier Park and the kids rode the Wave Swinger. That had pretty much exhausted the quick things to do at Navy Pier. So with the afternoon still being young the group decided that we'd walk over to Millennium Park and then stop to get something to drink. Turns out that Millennium Park is about 1.75 miles from the Navy Pier. I had underestimated how long the walk was. I got us turned around (again...remember the theme) and had to resort to my GPS to get my bearings. I guess that's the lousy part about visiting a city that you aren't familiar with. We finally made it to Millennium Park and there was a little fountain that you could dip your feet in so everyone sat down to take five. We hung out there for a few minutes but it was pretty crowded and the park rangers made it anything but stress free. Feet only! Sit down! You can't be in the fountain! Relax grandpa, it's just people putting their feet in the water. It's not like they were performing some kind of precision task like open hear surgery.

We still hadn't gotten those drinks yet and after the death march that I led everyone on, the gang was thirsty. So we got back up, crossed Michigan Avenue and went to the Jamba Juice. I had never been in one of these establishments before so i didn't know what to expect. The place was packed. It stands to reason since it was a hot August afternoon in the middle of downtown. the staff was quite boisterous and there was a pretty sizable line. I had just planned on getting a water or a Coke. Well, no dice on the Coke in a Jamba Juice. I'm not really the adventurous type when it comes to fruit drinks or smoothie type things so I figured that I'd just stick with the tried and true orange juice. Little did I know that they'd pulverize a fresh bag of oranges to get me a 32oz OJ and I've got to admit, it was one of the best cups of juice I'd ever had and it wasn't even crazy pulpy. We managed to get a table and "collected" enough chairs so that most of us could sit. So we enjoyed our juices, the air conditioning, and and each other's company.

It had been a pretty long afternoon and as most of you who have been following the blog know, around 3:00 or 4:00 o'clock, I tend to get tired enough to need a nap. I was past due at this point so we all went back to the Palmer House for a bit so that the Brannaman's could look up how to get back to the Metra from where we were at and so that I could lay down. By the time we got back to the hotel we'd walked a solid five miles and I was plum tuckered out. The train left a little later in the afternoon so there was some time to kill. Most everyone went back over to Millennium Park to play in the Crown Fountain but I stayed behind to get some shut eye.

The Brannamans and Behlers parted ways at about 6:00 so that they could catch their train on time. It was great to see them and we're honored to have been their first guests in Chicago. Saturday was a really fun day and it was nice to be able to catch up.

All of that walking makes one hungry, so now that I was rested up we decided to find something to eat. We walked around downtown for a bit but really didn't see anything that caught our fancy that all three of us would eat. We finally happened upon and Italian restaurant called Pizano's. It was a pretty long wait to get a table but the food sounded delicious and the family was finished walking for the day. So while we were waiting we went to the bar. The place was wall to wall people and very loud. They finally called us to get our table and to our surprise they led us to a downstairs portion of the restaurant and it was MUCH quieter. Not only was it quieter, but we got a nice secluded table that was bordered by 2 1/2 walls. Chicago sports memorabilia covered the walls and the Chicago Bears pre-season football game was on television so it was kind of fun. All of us ended up having pasta. How I managed to not eat another Chicago style pizza is beyond me, but we were warned when we walked in that a pizza would take 45 minutes to make and I just didn't feel like waiting that long. I chose the fettuccine alfredo with chicken and it was out of this world. In fact, it was so good and the portion so large that both of my girls ended up sharing it with me. As the meal concluded we decided that we'd like to get a piece of cheesecake for dessert, but our lackwit waiter (terrible service and zero personality) informed us about 10 minutes later that they were out for the day. So sweet tooth unsatisfied we set off back to the hotel.

We went back to our room and started watching television when one of us and I don't remember who (it was probably Laela because she's always full of good ideas) decided that we should go to the hotel's restaurant to get our sweet on. The Lockwood Restaurant is the name of the hotel eatery and it is S-W-A-N-K-Y. I felt like a complete dirtbag walking in wearing my camo shorts and my Thrasher t-shirt, but hey...my money spends just as well as anyone else's. They sat us in a round booth that had a mesh divider right next to the hotel lobby. It was awesome because it gave us the opportunity to do some people watching while we had our dessert. Laela and Miranda each got tea to drink. Laela ordered Kahlua cheesecake and Miranda had some kind of apple and ice cream concoction. I ordered three freshly baked cookies. The were in ascending order of awesome: chocolate chip, macadamia nut, and oatmeal raisin and I washed them down with an icy cold glass of milk. We must've sat for nearly an hour people watching and enjoying each other's company. It was one of those perfect, spur of the moment, unplanned activities that ended up being my favorite non-baseball related experience of the trip. And with that, we made our way back to our room and called it a night.

Bukkit Tour Sequel: The Windy City Strikes Back

First off, I'd like to wish my daughter Miranda Behler a very happy 14th birthday. In this chapter the Bukkit Tour brings us to Chicago for a long weekend. We're here just to visit and take in Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field.

We arose bright and early on Friday morning and got to the airport at about 7:30am. Getting my girls out of bed and motivated to get into the car is a task of monumental proportions so I'm very glad we made it to Port Columbus International airport on time. We're travelling light this time and all had carry-on bags. This is the second trip in a week that I've tossed my belongings in my new Seagull Bag and set out on a trip. It's kind of liberating being able to throw all of your stuff in one bag and just going. Port Columbus was pretty uneventful other than the fact that the TSA decided that one of our bags was "unattended" and then had to go through the whole thing. Bye bye shampoo, conditioner, sunscreen, and toothpaste. Our flight left Columbus promptly at 9:15am and we were safely on the ground at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago at 9:30. We were on a small commuter jet, only three seats wide. Miranda sat by herself and Laela sat next to me. It was an uneventful flight; although, leaving Columbus was kind of fun because we essentially followed I-270 and were able to see things like Hoover Reservoir, Zoombeezi Bay, and most of the North end of Columbus from the sky. When we made our travel plans, we made a conscious decision to not get a car and just use Chicago's mass transit system. I believe we made a good choice. We were able to take the subway from the airport to within three blocks the Palmer House Hilton which would be our home for the weekend. The subway ride provided us ample entertainment in the form of a group of six people who had been drinking since the early morning and were on their way to see the Cubs game on Friday. They swayed too and fro on the train like a field of wheat on a windy late summer day. They were loud, obnoxious, and truth be told, and ready to be cast in MTV's next reality show. One of the things that I really love about Laela is that after almost nineteen years, we can just look at each other and know from the look in one and other's eyes what the other is thinking. In this particular case, it was "dumb asses."

Since we had packed lightly, it didn't take long to get settled into our room and get going for the day. We promptly went back out the hotel entrance and got a cab to take us to Gino's East of Chicago. It was one of only two things that I HAD to do while we were in the windy city. Laela and I had travelled to Chicago not long after Miranda was born in order to see the Descendents on their 1996 tour in support of the album "Everything Sucks." One of my enduring memories from that trip was going to Gino's East and getting authentic Chicago Style pizza. What makes Gino's unique is that everywhere you look in the restaurant, people have graffitied their names. Every surface is covered by sharpie or paint marker. I had loved the food there and had vowed to return if I ever ended up in Chicago again.

After we finished lunch we decided to try to take in some of Chicago's sites in the time we had left for the day. We made our way to Shedd Aquarium. From wikipedia: "The John G. Shedd Aquarium is an indoor public aquarium in Chicago, Illinois in theUnited States that opened on May 30, 1930." It was Friday and it was PACKED with people. I'm not a person that is prone to feelings of clausterphobia, but I came pretty close on Friday. fortunately, when we made our way away from the exhibits on the main floor and went downstairs the crowd thinned out. The highlights of the aquarium were in reverse order of awesome: the beluga whales, the smile sharks (Pacific white-sided dolphins), and the sea otters. The penguins were pretty cute too, but the family's favorite was without question the sea otters (although I had an affinity for the sea lions myself). We bought tickets to their water show spectacular called "Fantasea" and it was "Fantacrap." The best part of it was when the lights came back on. Laela, Miranda, and I all had a good time making fun of it while it was going on though. We were smart enough to not sit by anyone who might have been seriously trying to watch it.

When the show was over, Shedd Aquarium was then closed. So we left the building and walked along the shoreline of Lake Michigan. We walked through Grant Park and saw the "Married with Children" fountain, and also stolled through Millennium Park. From their website, Millennium Park is described as: "Millennium Park is an award-winning center for art, music, architecture and landscape design. The result of a unique partnership between the City of Chicago and the philanthropic community, the 24.5-acre Park features the work of world-renowned architects, planners, artists and designers." The Crown Fountain was definitely the most interesting part of Millennium Park for me.

Went back to the hotel to freshen up and by this time we were pretty hungry. So we went out onto Monroe St. and just started walking with the idea that we would just stop at the first restaurant that caught our fancy. We passed a few and decided that we'd just double-back and go to the first one we passed. It was the Grill Room Chop House. It is a steak house that is close to our hotel and the food was amazing. Unfortunately, I had over done it at lunch and wasn't all that hungry so I had a Caesar salad, French onion soup, and crab cakes. Laela had tillapia, and Miranda had filet mingion with garlic mashed potatoes. When Miranda had finished her birthday dinner, she exclaimed that it was the best meal she had ever had.

So that pretty much ended our Friday in Chicago. We returned to the hotel, watched a comedy special and turned in for the night. It was a perfect day.