Monday, April 26th - Indianpolis to Chicago
This morning we met for breakfast in the lobby of the Hampton Inn:
Free breakfast is a good feature of Hampton Inns -- but not as delightful as free broadband internet! Tonight we'll be at the Hyatt Printer's Row in Chicago -- and no high-speed internet at any price. Bummer.
We hit the road at 10:15am and made good time up I-65 until Buzz noticed in the rearview that I'd neglected to put on my sexy red bra this morning. We stopped at the first rest area and took care of that.
Indiana expressways are not all that pleasant to drive on; the variations in weather here translate to bumpy and rough effects on the pavement. At least the noise and jouncing kept us alert!
And, Illinois highways were worse! Oh well, y'gotta do what y'gotta do.
We arrived in Chicago about noon and decided to take in the John G. Shedd Aquarium. I'm a big fan of aquaria and I'd heard this one was tops. It is!
We parked the twin CEs at parking meters nearby. But since we had a dearth of quarters among us, I had to beg for change from passers-by. Worked out fine and we came up with enough to get two hours on each meter.
The aquarium and planetarium are right there on Lake Michigan; from where we parked this is the view of the Chicago skyline:
Looks like a picture postcard, doesn't it? But I swear I took it.
Just outside the entrance is a sculpture that I don't really understand. Its title is "Man with Fish" and I guess that's fairly descriptive:
We met on the steps:
.. went inside and easily filled the two hours viewing the vast collection of fish from all parts of the world. The best part, we agreed, was seeing the Beluga Whales. They have six of them there and they're amazing:
We rescued the cars from their metered spots and made our way to our hotel in downtown Chicago. We learned that they'd happily valet-park our cars at a nearby garage -- for only $32/day. We demurred and found that we could park them in the same garage ourselves for $18/day. Still outrageous but at least we could do the parking ourselves. And so we did.
Earlier we'd made arrangements to meet Bill and Emi Koopman (Corvette friends from years ago):
.. for drinks and dinner. We had a great time:
Tomorrow morning we'll take a cab to Lou Mitchell's Restaurant for breakfast and then rescue the cars from the garage and make our way to Adams & Michigan for a photo op and the beginning of the first leg of the Route 66 1953 Commemorative Corvette Twin Tour 2004!
Watch for more tomorrow, Day #1 on the Mother Road!
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