Adventures in Chicago

So, Wednesday I arrived in Chicago. I was kind of planning on taking a cab into the city from O'Hare (which is 17 miles)... but then as I was walking out of the airport I saw the public tranist maps and realized that was going to be a whole lot cheaper. So, I took the El/Subway to the fanciest hotel I've ever stayed at. So, I had tried to find a cheaper hotel downtown, but I couldn't find enough of a price difference that would make up for the hassle of having to find my way to the hotel by 7am each morning if I was staying somewhere else. So, alas, I ended up at the Hotel Inter-Continental where this conference was held. I go up to my room... and it looks nice... until I look at the bottle of water which informed me that if I drank it, $6.95 was being charged to my room. There was a nice basket of snacks too, but agian, it informed me that the regular sized bag of M&M's was $4 if I caved and ate it. Also, no free complementary toothpaste if you forget yours: agian, $4. I go to log onto the internet, agian... $13.95/day for internet access. You'd think a $240/ night hotel would suppy a few of these things for the cost? (thank goodness for a CME stipend from work and that I'm not paying for this) Anyway... next time, I'm finding a cheaper hotel. At the Holiday Inn Express (one of my favorites)... Free wireless internet, no taunting snacks (and a reasonably priced vending machine down the hall), and often times a mini-fridge to keep my Diet Coke cold. No more fancy hotels. Screw this. And there was a banging noise in the wall every time the fan turned on. Anyway... enough about the hotel.

Wednesday night before the conference started... I went walking around and started getting cold, so I decided I had to do something inside. I decided to go to the Shedd Aquarium. It was kind of fun, but not the coolest aquarium I've been at. Maybe something to do with the fact that the outdoor part with the dolphins is cosed for renovation. :( Also, my camera was apparently not fully charged, so I didn't get many pics before it died. Also, that resluted in only one picture of the bean mirror in Millenium Park. They were busy setting up for the Chicago Marathon in Grant Park, so on my walk I saw the most big white tents and the most port-a-potties I've seen in one place in a very long time. Before I went back to the hotel, I went to Walgreens and bought my Diet Coke, granola bars, pretzles, and E.L. Fudge cookies at a NORMAL price to ward off any inclination to even TOUCH the super expensive snacks taunting me. Then I went shopping. I mean, my hotel was on the "Magnificant Mile"... how could I NOT go shopping? I got my first pair of LUCKY jeans ($30 of normal price - YAY!) and so far I love them. I also got 2 pairs of good shoes that I've been drooling over and I FOUDN THEM ON SALE! YAY! Big city shopping is awesome, lots of sales. Then I hung out in my room for a bit and attempted to sleep. I sleep like crap in new places.

Thursday... 7 hours of continuing education lectures with psych topics... un-interesting to most of you, so I'll leave that out. At lunch I went wandering a bit and took some fun pictures. After we were done... I went over to the Sears Tower, the tallest building in the United States and saw Chicago from up high. When I was in Chicago for my rotation, Alison and I went to the Hanckcok Tower that time, so I decided to do the other this time. Then I went to a show "No Country for Old White Men" which is essentially a sketch comedy show at Second City comedy club. A lot of the famous people on SNL, MadTV, and some movies trained here before they were "discovered." It was actually quite awesome. Then I went home late and slept.

Friday... 7 more hours of continuing education lectures with psych topics. Then I walked down to Navy Pier. Much more going on down there than there was when I was here for 6 weeks in February and March... Took a 30 minute boat ride tour of the Chicago Skyline. Pretty cool new view. Ate some food. Took some pictures. Then I went to another comedy club called: iO (improv olympics)... this is by Wrigly Field. Pretty much all the famous comedians who didn't train at Second City trained here (including Tina Fey). This was pretty funny too, totally worth it. :) Then I packed and went to bed!

Saturday... 5 more hours of continuing education... this just finished... now I will be heading to find some Chicago Style Pizza before heading to the airport... agian on public transportation. Hooray! Back in MN tonight!

Pictures will be uploaded later tonight or tomorrow (I hope).