Arriving in Chicago ~ September 20, 2016

Despite the general expectation that "Amtrak is always late," we arrived at Union Station in Chicago just a bit early at 3:40 p.m. on Tuesday, September 20th.  The interesting thing about our trip from Alaska to Chicago is that we gradually traveled through time zones, so there was no sudden 4 hour time change.  As we traveled from Alaska to Victoria, we moved our clock ahead an hour; then as we traveled from Seattle into Montana, we entered mountain time and moved our clock ahead another hour; and then the next day we entered North Dakota and moved our clock ahead to central time.

Anyway, we gathered our belongings and grabbed a taxi to take us to the apartment I had found on VRBO.com over on Lakeshore Drive.  

Our apartment was lovely, in a quiet neighborhood within walking distance to Wrigley Field, the Navy Pier, and Belmont Harbor.  It was half a block to the bus stop where we could catch a bus to downtown or to the transit system.  We got ourselves settled in, and then walked about 4 blocks to Broadway where we found Marianos, a Wegman-like grocery store, where we could buy prepared food or groceries.  We decided that we would get a pizza there, so we each ordered a personal thin crust pizza.  While we waited, Jeff walked across the store where you could also purchase wine by the glass.  When our pizza was ready, Jeff discovered that there was a special - pizza and a Coke product for five dollars!  Such a deal!  The pizza was really good too.  After we ate we went upstairs to shop for cereal, milk, and the ingredients for me to cook dinner for us the next day.  I was really looking forward to cooking after nearly two weeks of eating out.  The only drawback about the apartment was that it really wasn't set up for any fancy cooking -- no baking or roasting pans at all, so I had to select things that could be made in a skillet.  I had my trusty Pepperplate recipe app and had made a plan for the week, so all was well.