The Windy City

This weekend I took a small vacation to Chicago to visit my long time high school friend, Courtenay. It's been a couple years since I have seen her there, so the visit was long overdue. The entire trip had some interesting surprises... mostly for Courtenay.

To start off, my plane arrived earlier than any other flight to Chicago she has flown. So she wasn't quite there to pick me up right away. She was shocked I had gotten there so early. I didn't fret, instead I had fun watching people as I waited.
Friday, was the first time, in a long time, I got to sleep in. It felt great, my friend, however didn't have the same restful feeling. We decided to go to Six Flags that day. We waited until just little before noon to go. Traffic near the park was to a slow crawl, but we got there. The park was very busy. I have never seen sooo many people at a park! We were there for 8 1/2 hours and managed to get on only five rides. Five!! We went on the rides that I haven't done before, like the Ultimate Superman. As you can see from the picture above, you are seated as if you were flying. Oh and we were! While we waited in line for this, we saw a guy wearing a belt with a huge buckle that had an actually screen with scrolling text on it. "It's going down" was the message. Very nice, loser.

Another ride we went on, was made so you would be standing through it. That was another weird feeling zipping through the tracks standing up. The next two I would have to say were my favorite. The American Eagle and the Raging Bull. The Eagle was a wood roller coaster and was very fast. The Raging Bull was longer and had all of these funky twists and what not. At one point I thought we were slowing down and then WHOMP! We went sailing around some more! Courtenay was amused by this.

After a long day and only a few rides, it was time for funnel cake before we headed home. How long does it take to get funnel cake? For us it was at least an hour. Some brilliant person decided to get ten orders while they were in line and we were not happy. Our luck for lines that day, sucked. But we still had a good time.
Saturday, we spent most of the day lounging, which is what we both needed. Both of us have been so stressed out lately that we needed to be lazy. We eventually got up and got ready to see the Broadway Show play Wicked. On our way, Courtenay points out that never has she ever had good traffic coming into the city. Ever. Looks like the karma has turned around on us. We parked a block and half away from the show over an hour early. So we spent the time having a drink and checking out a variety of people. Once the play started I couldn't handle myself. I loved it! I was like a little girl seeing things for the first time. Everything was wonderful. The music, dancing, the story and the good looking guys. Sadly most of them are gay. No matter, it was still entertaining to watch.

Afterwards we started looking for a cab to take us to the Hancock Building. Looks like the luck ran out and we traveled the magnificent mile to get there. The walk was worth it because once we got up to the Signature Lounge and got our drink, you see this view:
Gorgeous isn't it? We did make a new friend who took a liking to Courtenay. His name was Olie and he was from Turkey, apparently, and very much drunk. He would get about two inches from our faces telling us little tid bits of everything, asking us questions and how fantastic Chicago is. His family behind him claims he does this all the time. He was very friendly.

Sadly I had to go home on Sunday. Even though the trip was short, it was nice and relaxing. I'm hoping to make more trips in the future and not wait so long this time. Thanks Courtenay for the good time! Hope your first week back to work went well! Talk to you soon!