After the last night ended at 4am, Jenn and I got back in
the car (a bit begrudgingly), for the 4 hour drive to Chicago. The roads of
Wisconsin looked a bit like ribbon candy: rolling hills in front of you with
the road in a perfectly straight line over each curve, dotting the candy. The
sky looked like an egg crate, with gray covering the sky and clumps evenly
distributed. Neat! We grabbed a quick lunch at a gas station as we were trying to
make a 2pm musical in Chicago. It became evident the closer we got to the city
as the number of lanes, potholes, and tolls increased. We could see the Chicago
skyline and were either just going to make the show, or be a half hour late
depending on traffic. Luckily with our GPS, it wasn’t too hard to navigate in
the city, we found our parking garage, and ran (as fast I could in 4 inch
heels) the 3 blocks to the show.
The broadway show, the Book of Mormon, was funny, and as the
creators of South Park often do, once you start to feel uncomfortable, they
push the joke further until you are cringing and can no longer look. They do so
with wit, amazing songs, great dancing, intelligent lyrics, but the end result
is always laughing turned to uncomfortable chuckles. I enjoyed it, but I’m not
sure I could in good conscience recommend it, though the conclusion was
humorous: the totally crazy things they said were metaphors and anyone who
couldn’t get that was a moron. The crazy things they said though did make you stop
and take notice and consider what they had to say: that your specific religion
doesn’t matter, only being a good person, finding inner peace, and doing good
things for the world, an agnostic’s message I think.
Then Jenn and I walked a few blocks through 50 story high
rises with a store or two at the bottom, to meet my aunt and uncle. We got in
their fancy car and had a lovely driving tour of downtown Chicago. They showed
us the ‘bean’ (a 3d reflective mirror 2 stories high in the shape of a bean), all
the museums, water towers, Buckingham fountain (renamed Bundy fountain because
of it’s appearance on ‘Married with Children’), and all kinds of neat
buildings. It was especially great because when I was driving, I was too
focused on the craziness of drivers to consider any of the incredible sights.
My Aunt Mona and Uncle John took us to the 67th
floor of the Sears tower, to a nice club where they are members for cocktails.
We had to pass security and my heavy necklace and shoes kept setting off the
metal detectors. I have never had to plan my wardrobe before expecting metal
detectors…. The club had a spectacular view and we had an even nicer
conversation. Jenn was excited as well because Stedman (Oprah’s man) was on the
Board of Directors of the club so she took a picture with his picture, haha.
We then took a cab to the Atwood Café, a quaint restaurant
inside a historic building that had been converted to a hotel. The menu was
full of seafood and the dishes all served with small portions but very rich and
beautifully decorated. Needless to say, I was not hungry after my plate of
ceviche with a red pepper sorbet, followed by whitefish from the local harbor
with crabmeat cream sauce, and a scrumptious dessert. The meal ended much too
quickly as we were enjoying the company but as it was getting late and we had
just finished driving 36 hours in 2 and a bit days, we were ready for bed. We
walked with Mona and John part of the way, bid them goodnight and headed to the
parking garage to retrieve our bags from the car.
We then went to check into our hostel – a really nice
looking family establishment right downtown, only to learn that our room was
oversold so a very nice attendant took us to the University housing down the
street, where we stayed. Yes, we stayed in the dorm for the night. A terrible
mattress (actually worse than the Kenyan mattresses) but with a beautiful view
from the 14th floor. Also, we shared a bathroom with the neighbors,
causing frustrations on more than one occasion. All in all a fun night, and
gosh did those 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep feel nice!
The next morning, I headed to the lounge to catch up on
email, as my phone had been turned off since entering the States, and was
amazed at the view. There were 180 degrees of windows overlooking the city.
There are a number of universities that use this center for their housing, and
I wonder how many days it takes for the view to become blasé. I was in awe. We
had a lazy morning reading and resting, then wandered around Chicago with our
light luggage. We went by the park, saw the enormous sky-scrapers, and wandered
down to the water. My mom suggested we go look for a boat in the harbor, and
sure enough, the Abegweit, the PEI ferry, was docked there permanently! This is
the boat my grandfather worked on for most of his career and here it was in
Chicago! A really neat find!
Jenn and I (not very enthusiastically) climbed back into the
car and started the drive to Toronto, happy to be nearly done of driving, but a
bit sad as our adventure was clearly coming to a close. Now no longer on a
tight schedule we could stop at interesting places along the way, and came
across an outlet mall in Indiana. We actually ate in a restaurant (instead of
takeout) and I enjoyed some Fiesta Lime Chicken and buckets of ice tea from
Applebees. By the time we got near the border, it was already 11pm, so we
decided to stop in Ann Arbor, where hotels were still inexpensive before
entering Canada.
We stayed at the nicest Motel 6 you have ever seen! I’m not
being facetious either. This little $50 room was 60’s retro themed with a
massive flat-screen tv, hardwood floors, neat lighting, two comfortable beds,
fancy comforters, and even one of those round shower holders in the bathroom.
We’re not talking 4-star, but I’m telling you we were impressed! We had a nice
long sleep, got up the next morning, found a Sonic Drive-In so I could get my ‘fix’
before leaving the country, and headed the last 4 hours to Toronto. We drove
through the sad barren wasteland that is Detroit, through an underground tunnel
to Canada, before entering Windsor. While in Detroit, I tried to find a Motown station
to get in the spirit, but there was nothing! I was very saddened. You could
tell once we entered Canada (aside from the ‘Welcome to Canada’, customs, and
lack of street signs) by the green landscape. Detroit is such a concrete
monster with dilapidated buildings, Windsor was a lush green contrast. The four-hour
drive to Toronto crept by, one second at a time, but eventually we arrived at
Jenn’s sisters’ house. We had a lovely eating relaxing, chatting, eating pizza,
and watching a bonfire before retiring. Tomorrow is our last full day and Jenn
and her sister have much wedding planning to do while I’ll be visiting friends
and relatives around Toronto. We’ll have to enjoy this last day of our big
tour!
No comments:
Post a Comment