Chicago - Part 1

So last week, my friend Marcy and I took a trip to Chicago. There was no special occasion, we just had some money saved up and time to spare, so we decided to check out a new city.

I think it took about 11 hours to get there, but with the time change it was like it took 10! The only noteworthy event on the way was the first time we stopped for gas and my car didn't want to start again. It took about 10 minutes, but the engine eventually turned over. Oh, also Ohio is the widest state ever. PA took a few hours to get through, and Indiana took no time at all, but Ohio was never ending. The city actually wasn't terrible to drive in, but there was a detour and my GPS started to beep at me... like a car horn beep.... It may have freaked me out. I probably cried a little. :-P

We finally got to the hostel (yes hostel, not hotel), and I pulled up out front so we could check in. As soon as I put my car in park, it shut off. Like, I didn't turn it off... it just gave up. Trying not to think about it, we checked in, got a parking space and a map of the area, and went back to move the car. It didn't start. Like, for a long time it didn't start. It got so bad that I looked under the hood, shrugged at it, and tried again. After about half an hour, the engine turned over and we got it to the parking lot before it could die again. I decided not to think about it for the next few days, and just prayed it would start again when it came time to leave.

After all the car drama, we unloaded and found our room. The hostel was actually pretty amazing. Downstairs there were a bunch of couches and chairs to hang out in, some computers to use, a full kitchen, pool table, music room, grill, dining tables... I could totally live there. Even the elevator was awesome:



The pads on the floor had colored oil and water inside, so when you step on them, it swirls and smooshes around. They provided many minutes of in-elevator entertainment.

Our room was hostel-sized, but big enough for the two of us, and we splurged on one with a private half-bath. We just had to use the communal showers, which were still fairly private and pretty clean. Our room had this awesome mural on one wall:



After we got settled in, we found a bar. We went to Frank's. It was a sports bar, but they had decent, fairly cheap drinks. After... a few... we found this Mexican place that was open until 3AM, so I got some tacos and Marcy got a burrito. It was de. licious. We headed back fairly early since we were exhausted from 11 hours of driving after an early start.

I know this is a fairly short post, but I figured I'd do a post for each day, so Part 2 will be our first full day in the city!