to Chicago, Illinois

We both have the entire week of Thanksgiving off from school and work so there is no way we sitting around the house all week.  Colin has requested to be home so he can have a real Thanksgiving meal so we only have a few days.  So we are setting off on an adventure to Chicago!  This is like no other adventure I have planned when it comes to transportation so hopefully all goes well.  We have never been to Chicago, and our ski/sea travel friends live close by so we get to check two blocks!  Marilyn knows we are coming but going to try and surprise the girls!  I know visiting Chicago this time of year could be interesting weather wise, but we are up for the challenge!  I picked Colin up from school 30 minutes early so we could make the 4:00pm flight; of course the flight was late so he could have stayed at school but at least we were on our way!  Thankfully, I had booked a later flight from DFW so we had a two hour window to deal with delays out of our small airport.  As luck would have it, we had another delay in DFW but no big deal because we were upgraded to First Class so no worries.  As we waited at our gate, one of the pilots came and sat next to me.  He engaged in a conversation and we chatted a bit about Chicago.  I held back with a million questions but asked for some recommendations.  You know what is weird?  And I am totally guilty of this too . . . people don't seem to 'travel' to their hometowns . . . he had a few recommendations but we laughed about how you never really explore your own city and when someone asks about your city; well, you can't give good solid advice.  He was super nice and safely got us to Chicago.  Since it was an evening flight, dinner was served.  Colin proclaimed this was the second best airplane meal he has ever had . . .

. . . I was just shocked he ate some of it!  It was Chicken Tiki Masala which is apparently an Indian dish; we don't eat much of that in Texas.  I ordered the same since the other option was all gone . . . he even ate part of my chicken too.  As you can see, he skipped the salad and vegetables and ate the chicken and roll.  If you are curious his absolute favorite was on our return flight from London where we flew Business Class and they served the most awesome steak.  Yes, he ate mine too but I did have a couple of bites and must admit it was pretty tasty especially for an airplane meal!  He still talks about it today even though it was 2 years ago.  We arrived in Chicago and made a quick walk to the Hilton Chicago O'Hare Airport Hotel where we would sleep before heading into the city tomorrow morning.  It was late, and I am tired.