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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Chicago and Many Modes of Transportation

This past weekend I was in Chicago for work. I thought I would share the plethora of different transportation that I ended up using during the weekend.

1) We flew by airplane to Chicago (US Airways to be exact - this caused me some confusion as we normally fly American Airlines and I did not read my email regarding flight information clearly enough. I ended up trying to check in with 3 different airlines before finding the proper one.


2) We landed at O'hare in Chicago and proceeded to get on the Metra - the commuter rail train that took us from the airport to downtown Chicago.


3) We got off of the Metra at Lake and Clark and proceeded to walk at least 3 city blocks with all of our luggage to 505 Michigan Avenue. This was an interesting way to see the city. However the day was warm and the blocks were long. I was thankful to be carrying a backpack instead of a suitcase. Our hotel was the
InterContinental - extremely nice and I had a great view from my room.

4) After checking in, we (around 40 of us) got on a city bus to ride to the convention center. It took awhile to get that many people loaded onto the bus.


5) After the convention center, I was one of the last to leave and ended up riding in my boss' rental car back to the hotel.


6) More walking - several blocks to our Friday night dinner. On the way back to the hotel (at 11 p.m.) the person who I was walking with and I were so engrossed in conversation that we missed our turn and had to do some backtracking - oops.


7) Saturday morning, the company had rented 2 limos for the casting call. Normally we film our finalists at the convention center. I don't know the details, but for some reason they could not film at the convention center and chose to film at the hotel. Therefore the limos were used to move finalists back and forth. They were also used to transport us to the convention center at 6 a.m. Saturday morning. This was actually my first ride in a limo.


8) Another ride in the limo at the end of the day - I brought a group of 9 inventor finalists back to the hotel for filming. I enjoy talking with the different inventors - it can be an interesting process.


9) Sunday morning, we ended up riding in taxis back to the airport.


All in all, I think that I just needed to ride on a boat, on a bike, maybe a horse and buggy and I would have covered about every mode of possible transportation in one weekend.


I wish I had actually had time to see Chicago - I will definitely have to go back in the future - and take Daniel with me.

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