Tuesday August 18 & Wednesday August 19 (Last days)

Tuesday
It was another warm day but we did get some fairly heavy rain towards evening, maybe it will clear the air!
Today was a very quiet day, I had a bit of a sleep in and then it was time to do my ironing. Packing was the next item on the agenda and does not are me long these days, lol, I am so experienced!! I also spent some time re-arranging my next trip a wee bit as well as booking a shuttle to take me from my hotel to O'Hare on Thursday morning.

We also had news from the vet, Semi was a bit scared but was eating well and that is a good sign. I am sure he will improve a bit with people talking to him and feeding him.

I also took a few more photos including catching the Woodchuck that comes every evening.

Wednesday
I was up early today and checked the train to see that it was running on time. I said my farewells to Fluffy, Lucky and Fuggly and then we were off to the railway station. Rick was on the early shift so Barbara drove me. There was quite a crowd waiting to board and just after 7.40 am, a train started hooting from down the track, everyone moved towards the track but it was a freight train. I knew Amtrak would not be that early so .i had not moved, lol! It was a very long train so took ages to go past.

However, the train did pull up seven minutes early but needed all of that time to board everyone. I found an empty seat but it meant I travelled backwards, lol!

I caught a taxi from the station to my hotel in E Harrison Street, it was too early to check in so I left my bag and went for a coffee to a nearby Starbucks. 

I then wandered back past the hotel to Grant Park and the beautiful Buckingham Fountain. 

I took photos from various views and was about to take one more when a couple of people wandered across, took some selfies, spent time looking at them and finally moved on, lol!! The Chicago downtown  skyline is really becoming very familiar to me now, lol!!!

I walked through the rest of the park and it was quite breezy, there was a rose garden and although it was obviously irrigated, it was showing the effects of the heat. I finally made it onto Michigan Avenue and headed north.

It was very busy and the two water walls were in great use! I did think about going to join in but thought better of it! I passed a billboard with a photo of Lydia Ko, top female golfer and from New Zealand! 

A lot of retail development is taking place and all I seemed to pass were places to eat and/or drink.

By the time I found the Starbucks in the Intercontinental Hotel, I was hot and tired. A bottle of water, an egg sandwich and a cup of coffee restored my equilibrium. I had walked between two and two and a half miles, lol!! I thought I might catch a taxi back to the hotel.

A couple of seats away from me were a couple of young guys, talking very loudly. One of them was very full of himself, how good he was and how poor the older people were. He is in the IT field and I guess it is not unusual. There were quite a few "F" words flying around, lol! They then started talking about working with kids as the guy's girlfriend is a teacher. They were discussing working with kids on an individual basis and possibly on-line so I had to mention I had taught on-line, lol! We then exchanged a few pleasantries.

After I was somewhat refreshed I walked on further to the Disney store and found some items. I also found something I needed in a Wallgreens. By this time I was ready to return to the hotel and get to my room. I crossed the road and decided to ask the police if they knew which bus would take me back in the right direction. I was told route 3 and I only had to wait a few minutes, much cheaper than a taxi especially as traffic was beginning to build up.

 I was finally deposited right at the bottom of my road, phew!! It was very cloudy and humid again by this time. On the way back I passed a sign on a lamppost with the magic words "RUGBY" on it. The Eagles are to play the Wallabies at Soldier Field sometime in the near future, possibly a World Cup warm-up game.

It was good to finally check in but it appears the trains go close by, hope I manage to get some sleep!

After I had sorted my travel clothes out and tided my bag I thougth it was time to continue my long running saga with United over a refudn due February 2014 and never received. I ring every time I come over and have even written a letter but still no joy. I keep being sent in circles and it is driving me mad!!!! I had a less then useful supervisor today who seemed totally disinterested. After waiting 30 minutes to get through to her and wasting 20 more minutes with her I told her straight that she was not at all helpful!! I have wasted hours on this issue an just want it resolved. I found the email of the CEO of United so sent an email to him, lol, I wonder if he will respond.

After all this, I decided to go out for an ice cream, Dunkin Donuts is just over the road from the hotel. Well that ended up with a bit of an adventure. I got the ice cream deciding to have one scoop on a small waffle cone. Well, the scoop was rather large, I went out of the shop and walked up the street and whoopsy, I lost the ice cream, it toppled off the cone. Oh boy!!! There were three guys sitting on a bench and one of them, I think he might have been Puerto Rican, charged off back to DD with me in his wake, went inside and told the sad tale. They replaced the ice cream and this tie I got the large cone, lol!!! I could not thank the guy enough and held up the cone to them all as I left DD for the second time, lol!!!

On the spur of the moment, I decided I needed to walk and eat so I wondered if the Buckingham Fountain was lit up at night. Of course, I did not have my camera, grrrrrr!!!! It was absolutely stunning, pastel shades on the top layer and striking colours on the the other levels. I stood and watched the colours change for some time and a person in the group beside me made conversation, she then asked if I was from England and I said yes but now New Zealand, She said they live here but had not visited the park and fountain before, she said she just loved my accent, I have heard that somewhere else before, LOL!!!

I wandered back to the hotel, very tired but happy with the end to the day!!!