A Giant Silver Bean! And Laine's Awesome Aunt and Uncle

Navy Pier!

24 hours in Chicago! Jaime requested that Uncle Andy and Aunt Nancy show us the best of the windy city in five hours or so. They performed admirably.

We explored the expanding Old Town School of Folk Music (and got a free five-minute guitar lesson), ate a delicious meal in (the real) Chinatown, took lots of pictures of the giant bean in Millenium Park, got sprayed by Buckingham Fountain, checked out Navy Pier, and made it to the top of the John Hancock tower in just one evening. Clearly we deserved a slice of coconut cream pie before bed.

Jaime and I woke up the next morning intending to head out for Saint Louis, but Chicago just wouldn't let us go. We ran a bunch of errands Thursday morning, testing and confirming our theory that folks in the Midwest are just plain nicer than they are in other parts of the country (ahem, Boston). The good people at Showtime Audio fixed our broken stereo right away for a grand total of $20, then some equally fine folks at Rotofugi and Uncle Fun sold us some toys to spice up our dash. This may not seem particularly exciting to most of you, but a functioning stereo and a couple of zombie friends can do a lot to enhance a 10-hour drive.