Chicago / Minnesota Trip

Chicago was awesome. As was Minnesota. You know what isn't awesome? Going back to work after a week of awesome. Oh well. Here're a few pickies.

Me, wife, city.

We loved Chicago. We had a great hotel about a block from Lake Michigan and right in the middle of the shopping and entertainment district. I went for a Society of Human Resource Management conference so I was gone for a good part of the three days we were there, but we still got out and saw quite a bit.

The conference was at the McCormick Place. This is a picture of the carpet in the McCormick Place. Let me show you pictures of the carpet in two other convention centers I've visited recently and see if you have the same question come to your mind that I had:



The Las Vegas Convention Center...


And the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City.

Did you get it? Are you asking: Why do they decide to build a facility that costs hundreds of millions of dollars (a billion in the case of McCormick Place) then put the ugliest carpet imaginable in there? Really, what's with this? Is there some unwritten rule, some clandestine agreement (or competition even) between cities as to who can get the ugliest carpet in their convention centers? Maybe in the 70's or 80's this would have been justifiable, but that picture of the Salt Palace is of a current remodeling. In other words, they're putting that vomit down ON PURPOSE.

Now I'm no interior designer, but here are five color recommendations just off the top of my head that I am positive would have been better:

1. Blue
2. Green
3. Tan
4. Gray
5. Chartuse

Also, Batman Symbol.

Ok, enough about carpet. I'm here to talk about Chicaaaago. Here's Amy at the beach just a couple blocks from the hotel. They have an awesome boardwalk that stretches for about 12 miles up and down Lake Michigan's coast. It's a cool beach: sand and immense body of water on one side, skyscrapers and cityscape on the other.

Different beach, different day.

This is the Shedd Aquarium, a huge place right on the lake that numerous people told us we had to go see. It didn't disappoint. The beluga whale did, however, as it didn't body slam one seal the whole time we were there. Shamu is shaking his giant, shiny head.

Um...I'm not sure how to explain this picture. They have a statue in front of the aquarium called Man and Fish. It depicts a man either holding, hugging, or slow dancing with a fish. I did what I thought was appropriate.

Best part of the Chicago trip? CUBS GAME. Here's me in the obligatory Yourself-in-Front-of-the-Wrigley-Field-Sign shot.

I'm going to see if I can't photoshop it to say "Save Ferris" instead of "Join past and present Cubs players at blah blah blah".



The game was awesome. I've been a Cubs fan since I was about 11, when I got my first Donruss 88 Rated Rookie Mark Grace baseball card (and before I knew their tortured past/present/likely future), so coming here was a great experience. Really, the history, the fans, the building itself (second oldest park in the Major League, just after Fenway) made it one of the greatest sports experiences of my life.

This is a vid of the seventh inning stretch where everyone sings "Take Me Out to the Ball-Game". My only regret is that there wasn't an irrascible, mildly inebriated Harry Caray there to lead it.



This is a 3-run homerun in the bottom of the seventh. I can't remember who hit it. The Cubs were down 7-1 just before this, but rallied back to 7-5. Then they blew a bases-loaded, no out bottom of the ninth at the top of their order to lose the game. Oh well. It was still awesome.

And can I just say, Cubs fans are amazing. Makes even the rabid Jazz fans at the Delta Center fans (that's right, I refuse to call it the ESA) seem languid by comparison. Though I'm sure the fact that 4 out of 5 people there are plastered has something to do with that.

Post game when you can sit in the rich people seats. After this game the Cubs went on a 6-game losing streak after having the best record in baseball. Part of me is convinced that I somehow jinxed them.

From Chicago we took a two-day jaunt over to Minneapolis to see Amy's brother Dave and his wife Alli. They were nice enough to endure the usual tourist destinations for us. One of which was...

SPACE ALIENS. That's right, Space Aliens, the best Alien-themed bar and grill this side of the currently overflowing Mississippi. Now, you're probably thinking that an Alien-themed bar and grill filled with ticket-redemption arcade games is weird and a little quirky. And you're right. That was what was so fun about it. Good food too.


Look at the little guy. All tuckered out.

Remember hearing about a large, metropolitan bridge spontaneously collapsing for no apparent reason and killing people a while back? This is the portion of freeway parallel to that bridge, the part that didn't collapse. Not a great pic, but see that big space where the river shows through? That should be a road.

I didn't know this, but my wife is a Dart Shark. Sure, she acts like she doesn't know what she's doing; will even bounce a few darts off the monitor and the walls to create the illusion of novice-ness, but truthfully? She's a killer. I think we played 5 games and she won 4 of them, including an astonishing 13, 18, and bulls-eye set to clear the rest of us out in 301.


Of all the tense moments of the trip: walking through Chicago around midnight, the taxi cab that slammed into the back of a minivan not 10 feet away from us the day before, the Cubs dropping a bases-loaded, no-out bottom of the ninth to the Orioles -- this was actually the scariest.

This is me in a stall in the men's restroom of the Minneapolis Airport. Just as I realized where I was, I saw a man's black, wing-tipped dress shoe in the stall next to me. I'm not kidding, I was legitimately scared. Not so scared I couldn't get a pic for my loyal blog-readers though.

If you don't know why this would be scary, google United States Senator, bathroom, and Minneapolis Airport. Or just click on the link.

The aforementioned Dave and Alli with their kids Adam and Emily.

Lest you think the only sights in Minneapolis have to do with Alien-themed restaurants, our nation's crumbling infrastructure, or the sordid sexual habits of our noble politicians, I am adding this short vid of the neighborhood we stayed in. Minnesota was great. Very open, very green, very fun place. Definitely on our short list of Places We'd Like To Live. It was also great to see Dave and Alli, who are fun to hang out with.

Next trip? Possibly San Francisco in October. It's easier to get through the monotony of office life if I know there's a trip coming up. In the mean time I think Sorro should start putting together a "Convention Center Carpets Across the World" collage to test my theory, as he is the best-traveled person I know.