Chicago

We arrived in Chicago a few minutes early around 8:30am after a fitful night's sleep. Someone had told us that it cost $20 to lock up our luggage, so we weren't sure what to do, but when we looked at the lockers, it was only $3 an hour for up to $9 a day. Not cheap, but a whole lot better than $20, so we decided it was worth it not to have to lug our stuff around Chicago. We finally got in touch with my friend, Amanda, and decided to meet up for lunch around noon, so we set out exploring. We walked over to Millennium Park/Grant Park area and saw the "Bean" and lots of pretty flowers.



The 'Bean' is a big silvery object that resembles a kidney bean from outer space, as seen in a couple of photos we took.









We walked over to the lake, but it was really windy and chilly so we didn't stay there long.



We met Amanda at a restaurant called, "Greek Islands" and we caught up on each other's lives over some yummy Greek food. It was fun, but all too short as we had to get back to the train station to catch our ride to Portland. Lots of Amish on this train including an adorable baby that Chris fell in love with. We struck up a conversation with 3 of the boys and they told us about their beef farm and a visit from a Samoan who gave them necklaces similar to the one Chris wears that's from Fiji. We saw some deer and red winged black birds and had a gorgeous sunset over the Mississippi river as we passed from Wisconsin into Minnesota.