chi-town fun

view of chicago from the bean

bethany and me in grant park

a little kiss for al roker

towing the jeep

woohoo for vacation! bethany and i went to chicago for a mini-vacation and we had so much fun! we drove from indy, stayed at a great hotel right across from the hancock building (and the cheesecake factory!), and spent hours walking around town, shopping, and drinking coffee. i love that scene from "the wedding planner" where they watch an old movie in the park and begin dancing. well, we got to watch "double indemnity" in the park with thousands of others. we brought picnic blankets, popcorn from garrett's, and just enjoyed ourselves for a couple hours. we also went to a concert in the park and listened to classical music for an hour. ravel's "bolero" was incredible. we also tried to go to the today show, but were too late, tried to find greektown, but found oprah's studio instead. the icing on the cake though was when i made the mistake of paying our parking fee hours before we were going to leave and as we got in the car to move it, it wouldn't start. we spent over an hour in the dark, hot parking plaza and finally were able to charge the battery. we had no choice though but to take me to the airport 5 hours early, so we wouldn't have to turn off the car again and run the chance of it not starting again.

so, we're on michigan ave - getting ready to turn on to lake shore (both very busy streets) when the car begins lurching and every dashboard light begins flashing. a little freaking out follows, but we managed to park the car in a tow zone/bus stop. not good. we went to barnes and noble (thank God for books and coffee!) and asked if they knew of any tow companies and bethy ended up walking a mile to a gas station. 4 hours after this whole ordeal began, a middle eastern man shows up with a tow truck, drives us through town, and drops up off at a shell station where we find out the jeeps needs a new alternator and battery. the L was right across the road from the station, so i even had a way to get to the airport in time. good memories.