Hear ~ Speak ~ See

Friday, October 5, 2018

The annual AJG trip took us to Chicago, Illinois this year. Glenn & I drove to Birmingham, AL on Saturday, September 29th to spend the night since we had an early flight Sunday morning.

We met Wayne & Sandra, David & Darvi & Ron at the airport. Surprise! Glenn & I were "Preapproved TSA" passengers...smooth sailing through the checkpoints.

You never know what you will see at an airport.

The weather in Chicago was a bit cool, and it was a nice welcome. With prearranged Airport Shuttle and a quick pick up of our luggage, we were on our way to The Drake.

The flowers on the left are changed out every 7-10 days.

The ones at the top of the stairs are artificial.

flower change before we left

Wayne~Sandra~Mel~Glenn~Ron

Staying at The Drake and being close to Michigan Avenue afforded us the convenience of walking to the many shops and restaurants. A favorite store from our last visit was Filene's Basement. I was saddened to hear that it had closed.

On Sunday evening Glenn & Wayne went walking in a different direction from Sandra and me. They found a restaurant advertising a morning brunch so we decided that we would eat there the next day.

Upon arriving at the restaurant the next morning we found out it was for the weekend only.

But...this little gem right here...every day...breakfast for us!!!

The conference includes members and their guests/spouses from an area covering seven states. This is the second time for Glenn & I to visit Chicago. We began attending these conferences in 2003 and have only missed three. We have made many friends.

For one of our conference evening meals we all walked to Ditka's where Mike Ditka showed up and greeted us.

Wednesday afternoon all of our group loaded two buses and traveled to the Chicago River point where we boarded a sightseeing boat for an Architectural Tour. First, we headed out onto Lake Michigan and then back to the Chicago River.