The following day we did our usual morning at an RV park routine and hit the road after noon. We stopped along the way to have some lunch and then headed on to Chicago. We caught a bit of rush hour traffic which actually worked out in our favour as we reached the Debnars house about 5 minutes before Jo came home. The Debnars are Emer's cousins and were very excited to have us come visit them while we were in Chicago. We parked the RV outside the house and came into the house. Jo started cooking and instructed us to sit down and relax which we did. We chatted as the various members of the family started coming home - first Mike Jr. from a job interview, then Brian from Work and Mike Snr. arrived home sometime later that night. Before he got home we had sloppy joes for dinner, chatted for ages and looked at some of our photos from where we have been. The lads are around our age and had plenty of things planned for us for the preceeding few days so we went to bed (in a house, a strange sensation) safe in the knowledge that we would get to see a good bit of the city.
The following day Mike Snr. was aff work so he brought us downtown. First though we had cinnamon rolls for breakfast which were very good, despite my dislike of nearly all things cinnamon. Our first stop downtown was Navy Pier which juts out into Lake Michigan and was the scene for the World Fair back in the 30's. It is very touristy and has mini golf and a ferris wheel (which was invented in Chicago for said World Fair) and lots of shops and places to take a boat out onto the lake and other touristy things. A very nice place full of life and colour. After this we drove to Michigan Avenue (Chicago's 5th Avenue) and then headed over to Soldier Field. This is where the football team, the Chicago Bears, play and also there are museums and a aquarium and other things like that, again all of it on the lakeshore. Another very nice place with a great view of downtowns skyline. We headed back after this, got caught in some more of Chicago's chronic traffic and made it back early evening. Mike Jnr.'s laptop had a pretty nasty virus on it so Emer got to work fixing it while the BBQ was fired up. We had amazing steaks for dinner out in the garden and played bag toss afterwards. Myself and Emer beat Brian and Mike 2-0 in games to take the crown. The lads weren't happy losing to a couple of beginners so we were sure to play a rematch at some stage. Emer continued fixing the computer after dinner while I opened up one of the wooden puzzles I bought in Bonnaroo and spent the next hour or two trying to solve. Nobody thought that I could do it but I prevailed and proved them all wrong.
We were woken the following morning to the sound of rain. Really heavy rain at that. In fact, over 6 inches of rain fell in less than 2 hours as we watched the streets fill with water up to our exhaust. Thankfully it stopped by the time we had to leave to collect Peter who was coming back from college. Mike Jnr. drove myself and Emer out of the city to where the bus dropped Peter off at a mall. We grabbed some lunch and had a look around the mall at suburban America and all the 15 year old girls that hang around there. We headed back and had to take a detour due to the crazy traffic on the freeway that just wasn't moving. We made it back in time to quickly change and head back out to the subarbs to Larry's house, Mike's brother. We all went out for some deep dish Chicago style pizzas which were incredibly filling. Really good but I struggled to finish my third slice. It just meant that there was plenty to bring home with us. We went back to Larry's house and went to the basement where he has a bar and a pool table and we had some beers here and laughed and chatted. We had to leave before the tequila was brought out as we had an early start in the morning.
The alarm had me up at 8 in the morning and I turned on the computer to try and watch the first Lions test online. I found a site that was streaming it and watched the Lions almost snatch the victory at the death. At 10 the crew started arriving and we headed off to get the bus to bring us to Wrigley Field to go and see the Chicago Cubs play baseball against the Cleveland Indians. Wrigley Field is one of the oldest fields in baseball and probably one of the most iconic. Brian got a crew of 8 together and treated us to tickets for the game which was an absolute blast. It started just after noon with the singing of the national anthem, the first pitch by George Lopez (a TV star over here) and then the game. The sun was splitting the stones so thankfully we were in the shade. The stadium is so old it reminds me of Landsdowne Road before they knocked it. We had beers, hot dogs and cheered the Cubs as they fought in the tight game. It finished 4-4 after 9 innings but American sports don't end in ties so extra innings were needed. In the 13th innings Cleveland scored a run so the Cubs needed to score to avoid losing the game. At this stage loads of people had left their seats down behind the dugout so I walked in as if I had a ticket and sat down about 10 rows from the field. A few people followed me down and some others got caught. The Cubs went out in the bottom of the 13th innings against one of their former pitchers, and Brian's favourite player, Kerrie Wood. He preceeded to choke and threw a wild pitch that the catcher couldn't catch to allow the Cubs win the game 6-5.
We all met up again and headed out of the stadium and went to Wrigleyville, a street of bars right by the ball park. We went into a bar where we got a round table that sat us all. Here we ordered some food and a tower of beer, basically a big tall glass tower of beer with a tap on the end which allows you pour your own beers. It's 180 oz big (which is about 12 pints I think) and is quite gimmicky but was cheaper than buying individual beers. We stayed here for a while and then headed to another bar across the road. This bar wasn't as good as the last one but we hung around and had a couple more drinks before we all started fading. We got the bus back home and headed off to bed after a long day. In the bar we made plans to go to the beach the next day with great intentions of leaving around 11 in the morning.
Surprisingly enough, nobody was up by that time. Around 1pm we were good to go and myself, Emer, Brian, Peter, Amanda and Brian all squeezed into Brian's Honda and we headed down to Lakeshore Drive, the address to have in Chicago. We found parking and walked down to the beach on Lake Michigan and realxed and messed about on the beach throwing various flying toys and just chilling out. It wasn't too hot so none of us went swimming as the lake was really cold. I call it a lake but it really feels like an ocean, it is absolutely massive - you can't see the other side of it at all and that's just looking across the narrow section. We left the beach in the late afternoon and headed back to the house. Dinner was been prepared when we got back, we were having BBQ again which I was very happy about. We had chicken and beef skewers and chicken breasts as well with a mix of vegetables. We had ice-cream and home grown peaches and pears for dessert and were well and truly stuffed afterwards. We were challenged to another game of bag toss, this time by the twins Peter and Mike. The first game was really close and we lost in a nailbiter 21-20 and lost the second game to relinquish our crown. The mosquitos were out in force so we retreated inside where we watched Benjamin Button before heading off to bed as we had an early start in the morning.
Mike Snr. and Jo had Monday off work so after a quick stop off to drop Peter back for work we headed on to Springfield, the capital of Illinois. This was also where Abraham Lincoln lived before he left for the White House and there are plenty of museums and memorials in the town as a result of that. We started off at the Abraham Lincoln museum which chartered his humble beginnings, his time as a lawyer and early years as a politician and then his time in the White House all the way to when we was assassinated. It was a very good museum with plenty of information and plenty of Abraham Lincoln memorabilia, including the iconic hat. From here we went to the old capitol building in the square which is where Barack Obama announced he was running for president. Abraham Lincoln practiced law here alot before he became a politician. From here we drove to his tomb which is very large and grand. It has a big monument inside of which he is buried along with his family. There is a metal bust of him outside the tomb where everyone rubs his nose as it is supposed to bring good luck. The last stop for the day was a visit to his house but we made a quick detour to Cozy Dog on Route 66, the birthplace of the Corn Dog. A corn dog is a hot dog surrounded in dough on a stick. They are quite popular over here (as is alot of fast food to be honest) and it was nice to have one at it's birthplace but I didn't care too much for it. We headed to the house and got tickets to the last viewing. It was quite a nice house and was well decorated as he lived a comfortable life as a lawyer. We then headed back to meet Peter and his girlfriend and had a bite to eat before hitting the road back to Chicago. Along the way myself, Emer and Mike Jnr. watched The Departed on the in-car DVD system (with built-in flip-down screen just like an airplane) which made the journey go alot quicker. We got back to Chicago after 11pm and it was nice to see that traffic dies down at some stage. We were all knackered by the time we made it back and headed straight to bed after a long day.
The following day myself and Emer decided to head downtown ourselves and have a look around and be tourists for the day. We were dropped to the train station and took the blue line all the way downtown. It was another hot day so it was nice to be on the air conditioned train. We walked along State Street for a bit where I bought a bag and Emer looked for a dress to replace her favourite one that got damaged at Bonnaroo. After a quick bite to eat we went to Michigan Avenue and onto Millenium Park where we got to see "The Bean". It's a metal sculpture and although The Bean isn't it's official name it's what everyone calls it. We then headed back to Michigan Avenue and walked along, stopping in various shops along the way. Along the way we found Emer's exact dress in a different colour which she was very happy about. We made it all the way to The Hancock Center where we went up to the Observation Deck on the 94th floor. Although it isn't as high as Sears Tower, the views are much better as it is right by the water and you can see all of downtown and see across the lake (but still not to the other side, it's crazy how big the lake is). We followed the audio tour and looked across the beautiful city and then had a drink up on the 96th floor which was nice. We then walked all the way back up to Millenium Park to have a look at the water features. They are tall rectangles with fountains in between them. They are covered in LED's which show various faces on them and every now and then water spurts out of the persons face on the screen which is funny to see. We hopped back on the blue line and were collected and headed back to the house.
The following day we just took it easy and caught up on some online stuff while Emer fixed Peter's computer which caught the same virus. Mike cooked burgers on the BBQ in his raincoat under an umbrella for lunch and I cooked my chicken dish for everyone as a thank you for all the hospitality they showed us. Jo, the mother, didn't know what to do as she nearly always does the cooking and found sitting down and doing nothing very hard to do. After dinner myself, Emer, Brian and Mike Jnr. went to Hala Kahiki, a really cheesy Hawaiian themed bar and had some cocktails which was great craic. Myself and Emer had some cocktail served in a massive, bright, porcealin bowl and the lads had different cocktails full of rum, kaluha and various fruit juices. We headed back, chatted for a while and then headed off to bed. The following day we decided to take Ita for a drive so we did some shopping at various places, including back at the mall we collected Peter at. It recharged the batteries ahead of us leaving and we got some presents to say thank you to the Debnars. We got Chinese for dinner and watched Little Miss Sunshine and took it easy for the evening, deciding to leave on Saturday (it being Thursday at the moment). Brian had Friday off so we headed off to bed so we could have the full day to enjoy before hitting the road again.
Peter was back from work for the weekend so Friday we left before lunch and headed back down to Lakeshore Drive, getting stuck in some horrible traffic on the freeway (again). We went to the Field Museum, home to the most complete T-Rex fossil in the world. They also have an Egyptian burial chamber with various mummies and other interesting exhibits. After seeing a good bit of the museum we walked under Lakeshore Drive and went into Grant Park where The Taste of Chicago had started today. We walked around the various stalls, all selling delicious foods, before deciding on having some BBQ Rib Tips. He handed over the tickets we had purchased and myself and Emer devoured them down. We strolled back to the car and home through more terrible traffic. We all grabbed showers before heading out for the night. First up was an all you can eat buffet in the casino. On Friday's they have crab legs so the lads had their fill of them. Neither of us are massive fish fans but they were pretty good. It's great fun cracking the shell and successfully extracting the full piece of meat. After we were all stuffed we headed into the casino to try out our lucky numbers from the night before. However, we were thwarted at the entrance as even though you only have to be 21 to get in, if you are using a passport as an ID you need to be 25 so Emer couldn't get in. A crazy rule which meant we didn't lose any money so we just headed off to the main event for the night.
Line dancing at Cadillac Ranch. Brian goes here the odd time but for the rest of us it was a new experience. And it was actually alot of fun. We all had a few beers while we watched and tried to pick up some of the moves. There were alot of people there in their denims, boots and cowboy hats strutting their moves. After a while we got involved in some of the group dances which were not too dissimlar to ceili's. We all had a great time, much more than I thought we would do to be honest. Around 3am Peter, who took one for the team being the designated driver, brought us all home and we got to bed sometime around 4.
The alarm went off at 8am so I could watch the rugby but there wasn't a chance I was getting up so I turned it off and slept in for a while. We got up later in the morning and I copied all my photos onto DVD's to have as a backup. When I started I realised the enormity of the task, so far I have taken over 40GB of photos which took 12 DVD's to backup. I also took advantage of the full kitchen and made another batch of curry to cook on the road. We cleaned some clothes and basically enjoyed our last few hours in a house before we hit the road in the afternoon. We gave everyone the presents we had for them as a thank you, it was the least we could do after the incredible hospitality that was shown to us over the last few days. They were very grateful and crazily felt bad for not getting us something. As if feeding us and showing us around and housing us for the last week and a bit wasn't enough. We took some group photos in the garden and by the RV before hitting the road for our next adventure.
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