Year 7 Day 5

Today was our last day in Wisconsin. What a disappointing state. I had these visions of fields full of milk cows and tiny cheese shops. Friendly people with smiles on their faces because of all the cheese they eat. Nope. From what we saw, the state is mostly big industry / shipping and silos full of whatever it is they are shipping. Corn we believe as it is everywhere. I think we saw a total of 200 cows. The first cheese place had two incredibly rude ladies. The second was closed and the third was mediocre. Glad I didn't plan to be in Wisconsin for too long.

When you drive down the west side of Lake Michigan you enter Chicago from the North. About 50 miles before you can even see the city, you find traffic. Lanes and lanes and lanes of traffic. We were coming in around 3pm and the traffic never stopped. One freeway to the next that's all there is. Insane that people do this every day. As the city came into view it became clear just how big it was. Ive been to San Francisco multiple times, and always thought about how giant it was. I have no idea about the statistics, but Chicago seemed to be triple that size. Our hotel was at the top of the magnificent mile...that meant we had to go IN there. After stopping on a side street and looking completely lost, a man came to the window and helped us...he said to pull up 10 feet and get out at the hotel. Its amazing how much they pack in such a little space.

Sam greeted us at our car door. He opened all of our doors, instructed a man to take our car, said "welcome to the world" when I told him that we were from a town of 1000 people, and followed us inside. He chatted with Becca while I checked in and then said he would see us at our room with our luggage. At the elevators we got in the wrong one and he quickly came over and gathered us like ducklings and said "Oh no, not this one. Come on with me over here". He deposited us in the right place and was shortly at our door. Unloading our items, he wanted to know if we were satisfied with the room and the view and then asked if he could bring us some ice since it was on floor 28 and we were on 25. He didn't want us to be inconvenienced. Do people actually have people like Sam do this? Get ice for them? He literally said to call if we needed ice or anything else and he would come. Strange place.

The city is pretty. No doubt about it. We walked the magnificent mile and took the boat tour down the river and through the locks. So many beautiful buildings. Afterward some dear friends treated us to dinner at an amazing restaurant. We were WAY under dressed, but were treated like kings anyway. At the end our waiter Kevin simply said, "its taken care of tonight". What an incredible thing that was. The restaurant was next to the Sothebys real estate office and The Drake Hotel. Swanky! Our our way out, we saw the filming crew setup at The Drake filming The Exorcist. CRAZY Night.

This morning we will take a walk to the Bean and then head out to Springfield. There is no way to see everything in this town even in 3 days much less one, but we had a good time at it anyhow.