Chicago!
October 13, 2010
Let’s start with the ugly-money, shall we?
Transportation
PiC paid a little over $400 for each of our tickets. *urk*
Other costs: $66 for shuttles, $107 for taxis. *urrkkk*
* The cabs were because we chose not to destroy me trying to walk 3+ miles round trip to and from our various destinations. He could have done it easily, but I would have been wrecked. The subway and buses didn’t really service the areas and times we needed, unfortunately.
Lodgings
Our hotel for a two-night stay and with an extra hour late checkout (requested at the last minute when I realized PiC wasn’t going to make it back from the marathon in time: Free (thanks to points redemption)
Food
Friday was our travel day and we subsisted on travel snacks we packed, plane snacks and then had a dinner covered by his gift card, tip not included: $68/$11 out of pocket.
Saturday – we had a free breakfast provided by the hotel (PiC had two), and a really late lunch that basically became dinner from 3:00 to 4:30 pm. Again, covered by the gift card: $92/$10 out of pocket. Yes, tip was far less because service was absolutely awful that day. Food was still good, but the server was terrible.
Sunday – it was free breakfast again separately and a nice lunch outdoors together after the race: $33/$6 tip.
Entertainment
We walked the park everyday, watched tv in the evenings while stretching and recovering from the very long walks, and to rest up for the race, there was a big ole country music festival going on in Millenium Park all weekend: all free (minus the cabs to get us the rest of the way to the convention center). All free.
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| We’re in love with this heirloom tomato salad accompanied by burrata cheese, smoked sea salt & aged balsamic vinegar. |
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| Mediterranean octopus … something. It was good. |
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| Best sea scallop appetizer I’ve had in years. Perfectly cooked! |
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| Marathon food: Walleye pike on kale. |
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| Not Marathon Food: Turkey burger and a thousand french fries. |
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| Also Not Marathon Food: asparagus and caramelized onion pizza. |
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| Tagliatelle! |
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| What you can’t read at the top: Hot Asian Buns. *snicker* |
Food is making me hungry and I JUST ATE.
Mmmmm… scallops.
Oh man, your food photos are making me HUNGRY! It all looks so good!
Wow! Looks like you had a blast!
I love Chicago. It sounds like you had a pretty good trip and some great food.
The food looks great! i’m glad you two enjoyed your trip!
I never thought much about Chicago until we passed through the airport one journey. When chance took us to visit new found (genealogy) family members in Michigan and Minnesota, we spent a few days walking around Chicago and it’s one of my favourite cities now. I wrote about it a lot in July/Aug 2009. The sign about the sandwich shop disguised as a construction site has something to do with saving money. The materials covering some of the older buildings aren’t as secure as they should be. Scaffolding protects people below, and that ‘project’ has been going on for years and years because the building owner is too mean to finish the job. According to the architecture tour guide anyhow.