What a fantastic week-end!

Good Morning,

My husband and I had a fantastic week-end! We are exhausted, since we were on the go the entire time and my husband has the blisters on feet to prove it.

We arrived in Chicago and took a shuttle to Evanston (the shuttle was the only part of our week-end get-away that was disappointing). Our driver was a crazy big city driver and drove so fast that I had to hang onto the seat in front of me every time he rounded a corner. Cars were honking everywhere! Coming from a very small town, that was a real eye-opening experience and one that I hope to never repeat.

We arrived at the hotel (a renovated historic hotel with some of the hallways paved in marble and marble bathroom tops) hours before check-in, but we still were allowed to go to our room--that was something we had not expected. I introduced my husband to Chicago's reputation for great pizza at a very quaint cafe within walking distance of our hotel. There must have been 7-8 restaurants on every block and all of them, with the exception of Burger King (obviously designed for the college students at NW University) were very yuppy and expensive. It was hard to decide where to go to eat, so we began to mark them off our list by going to a different one each time. We hope to try them all (with the exception of the sushi bar--yuck) on our planned return visits.

After lunch, we hopped on the L-train and rode to Wilmette (the destination of our week-end get-away). We were obviously foreigners to the city and did not have a clue as to what to do that first time at the train station. I just stared at the ticket machines and read the directions until someone came up to us to help out. We became nearly experts by the time we left. We spent the rest of the day in Wilmette and when we came back to the hotel, we were too tired to do anything. We were also not hungry after eating a huge lunch, so we went down to the lounge to enjoy a couple of sodas and their snacks. We had talked about walking to a restaurant with jazz music, but opted for a quiet night at the hotel lounge--maybe next time.

The next morning, still on Eastern time, we awoke early and were back on the L-train by 9am to return to Wilmette to visit the Bahai Temple and have a personal tour. We thought we would be there for only part of the day, but, before we realized the time, we had spent our entire day there at the Temple. It was such an spiritually inspiring experience. We met a wonderful family and the mother and I became instantaneous friends Her young daughter has wanted to learn sign language for years and, when she met my husband who is deafblind, they spent nearly 2 hours together with him teaching her many signs. He was totally beat afterwards, but we all had a marvelous time. We ended our day with some fancy desserts back at the hotel (next time we should order room service) .

The next morning, we enjoyed another cafe with homemade pastries and fabulous coffee. We then walked to Lake Michigan's beachfront and around town and checked out the stores where we could never afford to buy anything. We had arranged for a taxi the day before and, when we were ready to leave, a luxury car (not a taxi) awaited us and we had a private ride back to the airport. That was pretty cool! Our driver was exceptionally friendly (and drove leisurely as he talked to us). We will call upon him again when we go back to Chicago.

Our plans were to spend time in downtown Chicago, but were too tired after our day in Wilmette. We returned home, with a renewed spark in our marriage, bearing gifts for family and friends.

We cannot wait to return (when it's warmer) .

dmc
PS
Emmy would not let me out of her sight once she saw me and she is still staying close by, just to make sure I don't go away again. She woke me up early (around 2:30am) just give me one of many welcome home kisses. She is so sweet .

Tmr, I should have the results of my CT scan (the funny thing is, I'm not even worried).