Chicago, Part 1

Friday, May 17, CHF and I flew to Chicago.  Getting through security here in town was pretty easy; the airport was not crowded and the staff were all friendly, including the TSA (who have been...less than helpful previously).  The flight itself went well until the last 15 minutes or so when the sugar in the treats I had purchased CHF kicked in.  Fortunately, the other passengers were tolerant of CHF peering at them and saying things like "Hey Mister, what's your name?" at the top of his lungs.  Uncle Patrick met us almost immediately and we got our stuff and were on our way.

We checked into the hotel and checked it out.  We were in a suite at Hotel Monaco, which was a very nice centrally located hotel.  The best part was that each window had a spacious alcove with lots of pillows and a soft mattress so you could sit and read right in the window.  Apparently, these spaces can also be made up into beds for people which the hotel staff offered to do for CHF.  Since these alcoves were 4-5 feet off the ground, I declined and he just slept in the bed with me while Uncle Patrick had the other room (where he was not bound by our 9 o'clock bedtime!). 

After an uninspiring lunch, we went to the Shedd aquarium.  Naturally, we saw many cool creatures.

 This is a spider crab, CHF's stated favorite animal at the aquarium.

He also liked this lobster.

 The jellyfish exhibit was pretty neat as well.

The penguins did not impress.

As we were in an elevator, CHF looked up at a gentleman who was riding with us.  This man happened to be eating a brownie.  CHF said "I want a treat".  All eyes turned to this man, who looked at us sheepishly and said "uh, sorry about that" while brownie crumbs dribbled out of his mouth.  After that, we stopped on the outdoor balcony area and had a snack.

 A very kind lady offered to take our picture.  She couldn't figure my camera out, so we only got one picture, and in the original, we were almost all black.  So we look a little funny here because I had to really do a lot to get our faces visible.  Shortly after this, CHF took a tumble off the chair he was sitting in (that's sort of a pattern, isn't it).

We finished off the day with watching Nick Jr. in the room and ordering room service for dinner.  CHF was pretty intrigued by the food being brought to us, though mostly he was interested in the cookies one of Patrick's friends had made for us.  We went to bed fairly early (late if you count the time difference) and even though I had planned to sneak out once he was asleep and watch some TV, I also fell asleep early.