Up in the “Windy City”!

Sunday
This morning we drove up to Chicago ready to meet Laura at the airport tomorrow, flying home from Kuwait. Normally, she would take a connecting flight to Cincinnati, but since she is leaving for good, and has been there four years, she had a lot of baggage, and the internal Delta flight had said they couldn’t guarantee they could get extra bags on the flight, and of course it would cost quite a bit more money, so we said we would go and meet her in Chicago - I’m always glad of an excuse to visit Chicago! On a good day, the drive takes about four and a half hours. We didn’t get off till gone 10 am and we had a couple of stops to stretch our legs and for restroom breaks, so I think it was about 3.30 when we reached our hotel in downtown Chicago. We checked in and parked our car, then walked to the Riverwalk, just 4-5 blocks away. The riverwalk, recently developed, is a great way to see some of the city’s magnificent architecture. As you can see from my blip, it was an overcast afternoon, and we did have a few sprinkles, but fortunately they didn’t last long. At the point where my blip was taken, we were on the phone with Laura, who was calling us from Kuwait airport, all emotional, it finally having sunk in that this time she was leaving, not just for a vacation, but for good, and that phase of her life was over. Whilst she is not sad to be leaving Kuwait, the country, or her school, she has made some good friends over four years, and actually some of the best ones in just the last year or two. So we talked with her for a while as she calmed down, and then went off in search of somewhere to eat, and we chose well, using Trip Advisor and Yelp, and picked a very nice Italian restaurant, a bit more pricey than we’d usually pay, but then it was Fathers Day! Meanwhile, Laura flies to Abu Dhabi and then to Chicago by Etihad airlines.
Step count: 12, 716