Saturday, October 31, 2009

10_28-31 Back to Chicago!

Work took me back to Chicago. This time I was armed with a camera - and I even used it! I was scheduled to fly out of Denver on an 11am flight. The day before leaving, the weather forecast deteriorated. A huge winter weather front was coming in and MANY inches of snow were forecast. So, I ended up on the 6:40am flight out of Denver.

6:40 am?

Yes.

Recall that we live an hour from the airport, I need to be there an hour before the flight, and I need to get up to get ready. In other words, I was up at an obscene hour - I left the house in the dark and in the snow.

The changing of the flight was clearly the right thing to have done. My flight was delayed for over an hour while we sat on-board during the de-icing. I began to wonder if I'd get out of town even on this early flight. The flight was able to get out just in time. The official snow totals back home were big. Boulder 'officially' got about 20", and Eldorado Springs got at least 31"! It was a mess.

Before I knew it I was back in Chicago. It was warm. It wasn't snowing. It was great!While walking to and from the office, I passed several of the cool sights in the city. It's a beautiful place.

The hotel I stay in is at the corner of State and Washington which offers a view of the very nearby Millenium Park sculpture/structure/thingy.

Not only are the surrounding sights awesome, the actual hotel I stay in is. It is the Burnham Hotel which is located in the Reliance Building (architect Daniel Burnham). The hotel is on the history building registry and has a rich architectural history (as do pretty much every building in the downtown Chicago area!). Google "Reliance Building" and "Daniel Burnham" for more fun.

Work went well. I finally managed to go to the Sears Tower. (yeah, yeah, it's now officially the Willis Tower, but I think it'll always be the Sears Tower to me). It was for work, but it was still very cool. I accomplished a lot regrading my Chicago business and I had plenty of time to work on some of my own research. In addition, I gorged on HGTV since we don't have a signal at the house. Sadly I couldn't find any worse TV like Wifeswap so I could completely go flatline.

I flew back to Boulder this morning. As we got further west, the snow on the ground was obvious. Some of the views from the plane look like something a person might thing resulted from an alien invasion - all those green circles! Aliens! Ha!


I got home to some happy birds and a lonely cat. Henri, as usual, passed out when I got home. He's always so happy to see me that it messes with his heart. I wish that wouldn't happen. And the other birds were chatty. Grace and Clover both had a lot to say - "Hi Girl!" "Hi Girl" "What 'cha doing?." Then both of them started mimicking Henri's laughter (which is a mimic of my own laughter). It was hilarious.

I sit here tonight with a cat firmly affixed to me. I know she's looking forward to seeing Dave when he gets home from Indian Creek tomorrow. I am too!

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