My Feet Hurt. Part One.

I was a little nervous about Laura’s visit.  Mostly because I’m quite the planner.  And I had no idea until pretty much the day before when she was coming, if anyone was coming with her, etc.  I figured, if anything, we could just take the metra into the city Friday night and wander for awhile.  It’s pretty easy to keep yourself entertained while doing that.  So Laura found her way to my humble little apartment.  Hugs.  And we got ready and were off.  We made it downtown before 7:30.  Originally, I had hoped to get to a spot to catch the sunset over the skyline.  Of course, we were surrounded by buildings and it was cloudy- so that happened at some point as we were walking toward Millenium Park.  We weren’t going to stop at the Bean, but when we saw it, we figured we might as well.  And I got to see the two temporary Pavilion sculptures.  One was being worked on and gated off.  The one that was open was kind of neat.  We took pictures and were going to walk away.  Then the colors changed to pink and we jumped back in to try and catch it.  I was amused for a little while with that one.  Unfortunately when I pulled out my camera, I realized it was dead.  Crap! I have absolutely no idea how I let that happen.  I’m the one person who always has the camera within reach and fully charged.  It was a mystery.  Laura had hers, though.  No worries!

We walked up Michigan and then I realized we had gone a little too far and already passed up Navy Pier.  So back we went.  We made it.  After quite a lot of walking.  But we were both ok with it.  That was my exercise of the day and Laura got to see a little bit of the fabulous Magnificent Mile and Northwestern University.  I actually remember randomly walking past it once when I was lost with Annie.  Weird how random things pop back into my head from a couple years ago.  Deja Vu.

Once we got to Navy Pier, we had to make a quick decision about if we wanted to see the view by starlight boat tour or ferris wheel.  We took the cheaper option- and I couldn’t remember the last time I had been in a ferris wheel…  Apparently Laura and I interrupted date night down there.  And I learned, from the couple waiting in  line in front of us, pink fishnet is not a fashion statement.  It’s just down right trashy.  Oh wait… I already knew that.  The $6 single-rotation ride was fun.  You go up much higher than you first realize.  The lights along the pier and lake were gorgeous.  Laura took enough pics for the both of us…

We had walked a really long time.  And it had been a long day.  We needed a cocktail.  Badly.  I was on the verge of getting cranky otherwise…  So we looked around the pier.  I really wanted to check out Harry Caray’s.  But it’s not opening until later this fall.  Damn.  So we settled on Charlie’s Ale House.  Cocktail numero uno.  It felt pretty good.  Probably because we were slightly dehydrated from walking for so long without eating or drinking anything.  We looked at the time and decided to slowly walk back to the train station.  The plan was to stop in a couple places and wherever we were at midnight, we were going to take a cab the rest of the way.

We ended up making it to one spot.  PJ Clarke’s on Illinois Street.  I liked it.  Another one of those places where you couldn’t see much of the wall because it was lined with crappy headshots from the 80′s and 90′s.  Quaint.  Laura and I sat and drank and took some shots.  We got to catch up and get a little silly.  We stayed longer than planned.  So that was the only stop.  But it was a good one!

We took the cab at midnight (it’s like we’re Cinderella, really…).  And got to the train station reasonably early.  Early enough, actually, to take a soco lime shot in The News Room at the station.  I doubt the bartender there liked us.  I showed my unsatisfaction when he said he didn’t make red-headed sluts.  I thought by now that was a staple in the shot lists of any bars that serve women?  Not quite…  We got on the train kind of early.  Unhappy about the overwhelming smell of Arby’s surrounding us.  I swear half the people on the train had it.  And we wanted it.  Damn curly fries… how I love you so! 

We both woke up the next day still tired from all the walking we had done the night before.  It’s what we spent half of our night doing!  I was concerned about my planned outting to the city that night… we were exhausted…