Day 1

Day 1 has come to a close; it was a great success. We (MaryAnn, Cheryl, Debbie & I) arrived in Chicago and Nancy picked us up. We checked in to DoubleTree and did an impromptu (accidental) tour of downtown Chicago thanks to Nancy's TomTom navigation system (i.e., we got a little lost trying to get to our destination). :-)

We had original Chicago style pizza at Giordano's. It was INCREDIBLE. Afterward, we walked Millennium Park and walked down to Lake Michigan. It was stunning. We went past Grant Park (which was hosting Taste of Chicago). The temp was beautiful, sunny, sometimes chilly!

We had a tapas dinner at Emilio's then went to the top of the John Hancock tower, 96th floor, for cocktails. The night view of the city was stunning. Note: the wait staff was beyond rude. We actually saw another patron having a heated discussion about the service with the manager. They automatically embed an 18% gratuity in the bill...so what's their incentive to do a good job? Our server was beyond rude. If the manager wasn't busy with another customer, we would have shared out insight with him. Aside from that, the view made it all worth it.

It was a great first day; we had lots of laughs. Looking forward to Day 2. :-)