Trip to the Near South - Chicago (day 5)

My coffee woes continued this morning at the EconoLodge. The staff member in charge of the continental breakfast thought that recycling coffee grounds was an okay thing to do. I decided to make coffee in my room, but housekeeping hadn't removed the last used coffee sachet. I don't know how many days it had been there, but it appeared slightly mouldy. Sigh.
The good news is that soon after the day began to heat up, we passed a lemonade stand. Leora and Anwyn have had many stands over the years and are always excited when someone from outside the family purchases their lemonade. We paid it forward by giving these cute kids some international customers.

Traffic started to look a bit crazy, but never really got out of control and we got into Chicago without incident, aside from a couple of skipped toll booths. I wasn't really sure how they worked and I quickly ran out of change. They'll have to bill me, I guess.

It took us a couple of times around the airport to find the international arrivals at Terminal 5. Wendy had landed and cleared customs before we even got there and hence forward joined our merry gathering.
It was recommended that we visit the fabulous Millennium Park which is right against Lake Michigan. Being noon, we stopped at a deli for sandwiches. Since Wendy was now with us, the deli was researched in advance and thus we were able to have the best meal of our trip. I guess this "planning" thing has it's advantages. Pastoral was indeed fabulous.
We toured the park, including this wonderful sculpture entitled "Cloud Gate", which will make a bit more sense if you look at the classic image from the park's website.
The park was very beautiful, though Wendy was not impressed with their vaunted xeriscape project, Lurie Garden. I didn't take any pictures of it, but I think it can be cut some slack on account of the drought that the eastern US has been suffering.

We pressed on but only managed to get to Teela's well after dark.

Pictures continue in this album, as usual.

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