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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Day 2 in Chicago………

I awoke around 8am and went straight out for a run over by the lake. Last time i ran in Gravenhurst a couple of days go i was still a bit jet lagged and went a little dizzy. This morning i felt great, still took it steady though and ran over to the lake then followed the path down past Soldier Filed and around by the aquarium. I heard a shout out of “ hey, how's the run?” i looked over and it was Anders and his friend from Sweden out walking off their hangover! Got back to the hotel and ran a steady 4 miles in 36:20 which wasn't too bad, the main thing was i felt great and didn't get dizzy.

Walked in the door of the hotel and bumped into Philippe and Thomas, Thomas was another one nursing a pretty bad hangover and this just made me even more thankful  returned from the bar early!

Kim was still asleep in the room with a hangover and said she wasn't gonna move for the rest of the day and was just gonna sleep. I showered and headed over to see Gina and Maria. We met at their hotel and the 3 of us walked down to Millennium Park and to see a few sights.

Picture from Gina and Marias room, Gina and Maria’s reflection in the “bean” and The Bean

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 DSCF2259 (Large)Picture to the left is an art sculpture from Millennium park, there's two of these standing opposite each other and the faces change every 2 seconds or so. Water cascades down the side of them and pools on the floor before draining away and getting recycled all over again.

 

We stopped for lunch at the outside restaurant in the park and had some appetizers between the three of us. Then headed back to the Hotel to chill out for an hour and rest up before going out to the Crossroads bar and grill where everyone was meeting up a couple of hours before the start of the show.

 

 

It was 5pm when we all met in the lobby of the hotel, about nine of us were all staying here and another four or five [people were a few blocks down the street at another hotel. It was as cheap to get a car as it was to get 4 or 5 cabs to get to the bar so we asked at the front desk and 15 minutes later we jumped into the limo.

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Again it was great to see everyone from the night before plus a few other people who weren't able to make the first night. Was great to see Scott franks, Paul Bridgeman, PikoJoe, Wendy, Jessica and a couple of others.

      Gina & Wendy        Michael, Kim & Pikojoe  Wendy, Marco & Col     Marcia, Suzanne & Jens

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We had a great time at the bar, sat and ate some awesome nachos and had the first Long Island Iced tea of the night(i only had the 2 two) Beth had an amazing Mud Pie dessert and both Col & I took great pleasure in helping her eat it!

Not much left after Col and I attacked it!

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The bar had their own shuttle bus that took people to the venue and went back and forth till everyone that was going to the show had gone. We got the first shuttle and arrived around 7:15pm.

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Outside the United centre for the first Chicago show, Jessica, Wendy and Ron at their first show:

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More pictures below of the pre show meet up at The Crossroads: