Windy City Trip...

Me sandwiched between a bear and some mung. Ab-Fab.

I'm back in Vegas after my trip to Chicago and I have come to the conclusion that I will never EVER complain about federal travel regulations for government employees ever again. The local health district can kiss my arse with their travel policy. Other than the crap I had to deal with from SouthWorst, the trip was awesome. Here's a little recap.

Day 1 - I woke up Tuesday a bit early to try and head to the airport on time since I knew that there was the chance that traffic would be bad. I got to the airport on time and went to check my bag when I was caught in the worst line ever. Apparently there was a family who had overloaded their bags and the inept counter agent couldn't figure out how to multi-task and check baggage while waiting on the family of traveling idiots. Needless to say, my bag didn't make it to Chicago on my flight and SouthWorst refused to send it to my hotel for free so I had to wait a few hours for it to show up. Whatever. I finally made it to the hotel and ended up grabbing drinks with my college friend Mark that night.

Day 2 - SAS training was the order of the day but I did get to check out Millenium Park and "The Bean" at lunchtime. Pretty nifty little piece of art if I do say so myself. The highlight of the evening was meeting Mung out for dinner and drinks. Even though the Ethopian food ravaged my digestive system the next day, I would highly recommend Ras Dashen then next time you're in Chicago. It was some good stuff. Even the Bear was gracious enough to show up later that evening and brought along a nice piece of eye candy. Way to go Bear. I also did get to drive by The Golden Apple of This American Life fame. I didn't get to go in but I'm sure I'll hit it up next time. The key moment of the evening - Mung's wife offering to let me hump her leg. Ben, you've got a keeper there. Don't screw it up.

Day 3 - More SAS during the day but I did get to meet Mung for lunch and had my first Chicago Style Hot Dog. Not too shabby - although I could have done without the chili pepper or whatever that was that they stuck in there. The best part of the day was finding out that the Art Institute was free from 5-8 that evening! I couldn't believe how many great works they had in there. I was really looking forward to seeing the two prints that I have hanging on my office walls that are on display there. I got to see Seurat's "La Grande Jatte" but didn't realize that "The Nighthawks" was on loan to some museum in Boston. Boo. More drinks that night with Mung and my friend Mark.

Day 4 - Last day of training but what I was really looking forward to was lunch with Mung in the hopes of seeing hot CP girl. Alas, she wasn't around today but damn was the turkey sandwich that I had great! Chicago has to be one of the greatest cities I have ever visited and I could actually see myself living there. It's got everything that I'd want in a city that I could see myself settling down in. Oh and on the way home, SouthWorst struck again. I was flying back with a bachelor party heading to Vegas that was WAY overserved and obnoxious. To make things worse, everyone thought the plane was going to go down more than a few times during the flight. At least they didn't lose my luggage on the way back.

I uploaded my pics from the week onto Facebook. Click here to check them out. Ben and Mark, you guys were great hosts and it was great to see both of you. Bear, I wish you hadn't gone into hibernation the second night but it was great to see you too. Thanks to all of you for showing me a great time!