Illinois.......Again

First we rode to Glenview from Milwaukee on a day that was filled with great weather and TERRIBLE potholed roads. We had breakfast provided by the S.C. Johnson Company, makers of Ziploc, Raid, and stuff. They were very nice and provided a great meal about 2 hours into the ride. Our arrival was at Saturn and once again, they came through with a great meal. We stayed at a YMCA and had a dinner friendship visit that went well. For the evening a bunch of us watched the new Pirates of the Carribean movie. All together, this stop was pretty uneventful so I chose to keep it short.The ride in to Chicago was really fast, urban riding with much of it along the shores of Lake Michigan. As we rode into Chicago I was pretty impressed by the incredible skyline. Notice to the left our team as we are stopped at a red light in downtown Chicago. We arrived at the Palace Grill, a diner founded in 1938, for lunch then headed on over to the Palmer House for lodging. This very historic hotel was pretty immaculate. At left is a photo of me standing in the main lobby of the hotel. For the afternoon we were recommended by the concierge to make a visit to the new Millenium Park that was built within the last 5 years and was only a block away. Ben and I took a walk through the park to check it out and were pretty impressed. One of the coolest sculptures I have ever seen is shown in the third picture. It reminded me of a large mercury orb. The angles of reflection were awesome as you can see the city in the reflection at left. Another attraction at the park was the two tower fountains. These towers spilled water over the top edges which spilled down on children below who were running around splashing and playing. The towers face each other and have human portraits of Chicago citizens who will occasionally "spit" water from their mouths. That's Ben Luster in the photo at left standing in front of one of the towers. For the evening we were once again treated to a feast at ESPN Zone that was quickly followed by some fun gaming at their arcade. The best game that I played was the street luge game that Scott and I played, pretty cool stuff.



The day off started with a breakfast of Dunkin' Donuts and coffee before heading to a children's day camp via school buses. The camp was on Lake Michigan and included kayaking, swimming, lunch, and just hanging out with the kids. I spent most of the day with a 2nd grader named Anthony. He was a very smart kid who was so full of energy and a tons of fun to be around. A lot of the kids at this camp, including Anthony, were missing some sort of limb or hand but were otherwise very highly functioning. Everyone had a great time on the water and a few of us even came away with bad sun burns, what a deal! For the evening we had a sponsored dinner at a Chicago style pizza parlor called Lou Minnoti's. The food was once again great. In case you havn't noticed by now, the food has been amazing on this trip! On the walk to dinner we got DOUSED with rain so afterwards I hit up a huge, 3 story Old Navy store for a rain jacket. At the time I am writing this I have yet to use the jacket. Go figure.