First Day In Chicago: Check

I have to admit that flying isn’t one of my favorite activities. I have a fear of flying because I have a HUGE fear of crashing, even though I know the odds of a plane crashing are smaller than those of a car. However, this morning I put my fears aside as we boarded our first plane headed to the Twin Cities, Minnesota. From there we flew to Chicago to start off out ILC adventure.

We landed around two o’clock local time and were greeted by the sticky, warm air of the O’Hare Airport. After one of the smoothest baggage claim claiming I have ever experience we moseyed our way over to the CTA station to get the feel for the subway system here in Chicago. I must say the CTA trains reminded me of the Muni trains in San Francisco minus the slow and frequent lurking that Muni is known for. So we made it to our exit smoothly, and then walked 3 plus blocks to our BEAUTIFUL hotel--the Drake.

The weather was, well not California weather. Having family in Texas, I have learned that I am very lucky on the weather front and that fact was reiterated today walking to our hotel. Which made walking into the air-conditioned lobby heaven. After we changed out of sticky, wet clothes we met in the lobby to walk to dinner. We were accompanied by two West Contra County grads who currently live in Chicago. While we waited the 45 minutes to be seated the two grads explained what brought them to Chicago.

After dinner we attempted a tour of Michigan Street but were defeated by thunderstorms and rain. I was honestly not expecting rain, even though Don had sent us the forecast. I would have to say that the weather that created us in the airport and out of the subway station did not suggest that it would rain later in the day.

I have to admit that the brevity of the blog is due to my lack of sleep. As many of my cohorts mentioned we met outside of El Cerrito High School this morning at 3:15 and now it is 10:40pm local time. I am not a plane sleeper so I am running on very little sleep. Tomorrow the great 8 (my fellow cohorts and myself) will be attending a Northwestern University tour and info session followed by a dinner with the admissions officer for California, so I am signing out of the night.

Until tomorrow, over and out blog readers