Tuesday, 6/21

We're back!!

After four glorious days in Chicago (and an extra bonus day off for Juneteenth) it's back to reality, at least for a little while.  We had an amazing time in our second favorite place in the US, eating, walking, eating, walking, and, uhm, eating & walking.  Seriously--we must have hiked at least 10 miles a day Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, so we were able to justify all the pizza, Mexican food, cookies, baked goods, and chocolate we devoured.

Add to that that it was at least 80 (or felt like 80) every day we were, and we had a great time.

With all the walking we did we were actually able to visit a lot of places we had not yet visited before, so that was kind of a bonus for the whole trip.  One of the hikes we took was on a bike/walking path that extends the entire length of the lake shore.  In fact, there were great views when we started--

And even better views once we reached where we were going--

We also checked out a plethora of parks, including Grant Park, which has perhaps the most famous fountain in the midwest--

We walked through genteel neighborhoods, where you could see some of the houses built over a century ago out of Marquette sandstone--

But two things really stood out on this trip.  One is that Chicago has one of the biggest communities of Ukrainian immigrants in the country, which manifested itself in stores--

At construction sites--

And, most importantly, outside the Ukrainian Consulate just a few blocks from our hotel--

As cool as that was, that was nothing compared to a group staying at our hotel.  When Loraine and I went down to breakfast Saturday we noticed a bunch of guys wearing the same shirt with a suspiciously familiar logo on them.

Believe it or not, we had a Bundesliga team on a US tour staying in our very hotel--

Loraine was in heaven, getting her picture taken with several players.  We also had a nice elevator conversation with one of the coaches, who was surprised we knew anything about SC Paderborn and was even more surprised when we professed our fandom of RB Leipzig.

So who would have thought--a German soccer team spent the same weekend at the same hotel in Chicago as we did.  That just made a fantastic trip even more incredible.

(jim@wmqt.com)