Sunday March 8th - Tuesday Mach10th - Chicago and the trip home

Monday was going to be a long day.  We had to leave our hotel around 10 (both because that is checkout time and because we had an architecture tour that started at noon) and from then until our 9:30 pm train, we had to find something to do and someplace to do it. We left all our bags except 1 backback at the hotel.  The hotel overall was a little disappointing.  The air conditioning (and even the fan) wouldn't come on and the wi-fi was randomly very slow at times.  We also could hear almost everything going on outside and in the interior hallways because despite being a historic building, it just isn't set up to block sounds very well.  Thankfully, some parts of the hotel were great.  The tub in our room was perfect for soaking, quite deep and well shaped.  The jacuzzi part worked well but like most of those things, it was kind of noisy and I valued watching a TV show on my laptop more than the bubbles.

We arrived at the dock for the architecture tour about 30 minutes before the noon start time as recommended.  That left us with enough time to grab a breakfast from Peet's coffee inside the Wrigley building.  The building and the plaza created by it are both gorgeous.  We stood around waiting for the boat to arrive for a few minutes after a cursory security screening but it was sunny and actually pretty warm which helped.  Our tour guide was really funny and had a handful of dad jokes thrown in to keep people laughing amid the 90-minute-long flurry of facts and figures about the many buildings we passed along the Chicago river.  I did a walking architecture tour of Chicago many years ago and both it and the boat tour were super enjoyable.  Our boat tour group didn't have any bratty children or annoying people and the upper deck (where everybody sits unless maybe the weather is really awful) was only about 2/3 full.

After the boat got back to dock we had an indulgent lunch at 'Legal Sea Foods' which we spotted on the tour itself.  Legal Sea Foods is a favorite we try to visit every time we are in Boston.  Every 2 or 3 years I order a lobster roll just so see if somehow I missed the magic with all the others I had over the years.  This one was warm and very generously sized.  If I'd looked more carefully at the table-top lunch special thing I could have had a mini roll and saved some cash.  I still don't really 'get' Lobster Rolls. They are always so painfully plain.  Lobster is a nice treat but, to me, it begs for some acid or mayonnaise or something and they are almost always served without.  Lobster soaked in butter on a grilled buttery hot dog roll (not exactly but pretty close) just seems like fat on fat to me. So I'm good on lobster rolls until 2028.  While my lobster roll didn't rock my world, the atmosphere at this particular location was special.  It is located at the base of the iconic Marina City towers and very upscale in decor.  The colors and finishes in the dining room were really beautiful and honestly it felt like a really special place to be, helped by fine views of the Chicago river we'd just gone up and down on our architecture tour.

Brian asked what he could bring back from Chicago for his team at work.  My immediate thought was 'Nuts on Clark' because it's an iconic Chicago place and they sell a variety of popcorns and candy that have wide appeal to people.  Brian looked up the nearest location and we headed out to walk to it.  We were still a few blocks away when I realized where this Nuts on Clark was... it was at Union station, which we were going to be back at later that same day to catch our train home.  So we had a laugh and a groan and soldiered into the train station just because we'd made the effort to get there.  After walking OVER 10 miles the day before, more walking wasn't really on our to-do list.  There was a bus that went from right outside the train station almost back to our hotel (much less walking than the nearest L station, 2 trains and .75 miles of walking at the far end to get to the hotel) so we waited (and waited) for that bus.  It took a meandering weird route through the museum campus of Chicago but eventually got where we needed to be and it was clean and crazy person free.

While I knew we wouldn't want to spend 5 hours there, the hotel lobby was my choice for where to at least start our waiting for the train.  Really we could have gone almost anywhere in Chicago and found something to do but it was 3 pm on a Monday, too late to really do a good museum visit somewhere and too early for dinner or a bar visit.  So we passed about 2 hours in the lobby watching videos on our devices and almost falling asleep a few times.  Finally, Brian was getting antsy so around 5 we walked around the far northern end of Broadway where it joins up with Halsted near the IHOP which is somehow still there after all these years.  It was basically Boystown still but the far northern bits of it.  There were very few places to eat that were open so we walked quite a distance up and down Broadway and part of Halsted but eventually went to 'Good Times' which is a brewpub for a light dinner.

With less than 2 hours before train departure left we took a Lyft down to the train station.  Our driver had a really lovely Tesla Model Y which is only the 2nd Tesla I've been in.  He moved to the US several years ago from Ukraine and seemed to really enjoy the life he has been able to put together here with a CDL trucking day job and Lyft or Uber when he wants extra income.  He was super interesting to talk to and a very good driver.

The train station in Chicago is just perfect.  The main hall is monumental and stunning and very well maintained.  We dropped our luggage at the baggage drop then headed into the Metropolatin Lounge (where all sleeper or first class passengers wait for their trains) and hung out for about 90 minutes until boarding started.  They had snacks and soft drinks and a huge multi floor space with comfortable lounge chairs and tables so everybody can find a space that appeals to them.  Our train was the last train out that evening so it was pretty quiet.

Our train boarded pretty early and departed exactly on time.  Actually, it was on-time or early the entire journey.  At one point I woke up in the middle of the night and wasn't sure where we were but we were obviously stopped at some station.  I stayed in my little roomette bed for a while but eventually decided I should go to the bathroom and when I got back into my bed I dug out the phone to see what time it was and looked up where we were supposed to be at that time etc.  Turned out we were stopped in Dayton Ohio for kind of a long time but that was just because we arrived in Dayton way ahead of schedule.  When I woke up again it was around 7 am and we were near Erie PA, just as it is supposed to be and as it has been every time we've taken the Lakeshore Limited train.  Its not a bucket list journey by any means and for us it's almost all traversed in the dark but as a way to get to or from Chicago it's actually pretty useful.  This isn't to say we had a blissful night sleeping on the train because we didn't.  Our sleeper car was just behind the locomotive so there was a LOT of honking to listen to and for whatever reason this particular sleeper car didn't have the mattress topper things they usually put down on top of the folded down seats.  So it was kind of a firm bed and my back was very unhappy.  But we arrived almost precisely at 10 am in Rochester and it was wonderful seeing almost no snow on the ground and warm spring like conditions.

The car was parked at the airport so we took 1 last Lyft ride between the train station and ROC airport to get the car.  All 3 of our Lyft rides this trip were really good with personable drivers and reasonable rates.  Pricing on those on-demand ride places can vary wildly and they aren't very transparent as to what accounts for the variations but by luck or whatever none of our rides were more than 30 dollars and that included a tip.  We got home in no time and set about unpacking and reconnecting with the cat.  It was one of the best trips overall we've had in years.  The family part of the trip in Oregon was mostly 'business' in that we were there for specific reasons and had limited time but we still enjoyed seeing everybody.  Madison was almost dreamily beautiful and fun including a much-needed night out with the gays which we almost never get here.  Most of our big transportation pieces (flights, rental cars etc) were great.  Some of the transit in Chicago was a little tedious but even there every CTA vehicle we rode was super clean even if some of the people on it weren't.  The train home was workman like and not very coddling but worked well.