There and back again.

Chicago was lovely. Wicked was fabulous, and if those were the understudies, I can’t imagine what it’s like with the principals.
Ruth’s Chris on Dearborn for dinner Sunday night was also superlative. Our server Allen was fantastic. Ask for him if you go. I’m not just a stockholder, I’m a satisfied customer.
We had a very nice walk Sunday morning, too. We had breakfast at a place we stumbled upon while looking for a cheap place to eat — it’s called Ronny’s Original Chicago Steak House and it’s at Dearborn and Randolph. Steak and eggs, fried potatoes and Texas toast for $4.99 (beverage extra). This is not a tourist place, at least not in my opinion — it’s where regular Chicagoans stop in for a bite to eat. All I can say is “yum”, and so did Sally.
Then we walked all the way over to Millennium Park (via the Chicago River, so we took quite a circuitous route) and back, which is a long way for these old knees.
Every time I go to Chicago I want to stay. This time was no different.
Oh…did I mention that we paid next to nothing for the trip?
The rental car? Free. (They’d screwed up an earlier rental for Sally and wanted to make it right.) Chrysler 300. *drool*
The five-star hotel? Free. (Loads and loads of Marriott points I’d built up.)
Dinner at Ruth’s Chris? Free. (The boss gave me a gift card to thank me for some extra work I did a couple of months ago.)
Other than the Wicked tickets (Row G, seats 1 and 3 in the orchestra — and those are side by side, I guess the even numbers are on the other side of the theatre) which were not cheap, and a couple of meals we ate in the hotel, this trip was very, very inexpensive for the level of service we got.
And on top of all that, I still earned about 2K Marriott points — even though it was a rewards stay.
A very nice weekend indeed. Glad to be back but wish it had been longer.
EDIT TO ADD: It was such a busy weekend that I forgot entirely to mention the Potbelly Sandwich Works — where we ate lunch BOTH days, and which needs to build a restaurant on a certain empty restaurant pad at 86th and Ditch — and the fact that we went shopping at MARSHALL FIELDS’ on State Street. (Bought new towels for our master bathroom.)
MARSHALL FIELDS’ is capitalized because we will never consent to its being renamed as part of the evil Macy’s clan.

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Never give up. Never surrender.