Chicago spilled tulips across the sidewalks, particularly where the rich might trod. 

The U2 poster in the background decorates our hotel room. My face questions the need for day, for light itself. Later I got a haircut and trimmed my beard. No sense going to the U2 concert looking like a sea captain. 

When you wake up in a distant hotel, it takes a while for the color to return to your face. 

Sara is surprised to find a swimming pool advertised for our hotel. It is on the sixth floor. 

Here is the "before" picture of my beard. Beautiful woman with me put a glow in my cheeks. 

Sara wanted to dress up for a night out. We ended up Mike Ditka's restaurant, where there were a number of other couples dressed for the evening. Ironically, we sat next to a large table full of people from Colorado who dressed for a hay ride: flannel shirts and ripped jeans. This amused us, and it amused us more that Mike Ditka himself came out and only talked to one table of guests...the hay ride party. The Creme Brulee was the size of Lake Michigan. 

Sara and I were invited to step out on the windowasher's scaffold, 94 floors off the ground, for a picture. We kept our spirits up by not looking down. 

We rented the audio tour when we went to the 94th floor of the Hancock building on Michigan Ave. Most people we asked had not been up there, since it wasn't as tall as the Sears tower. 

More skyworks from the Hancock building observation deck. 

After a few days of rain we were greeted with this spectacular visit from the sun.  

Your basic Chicago cityscape. 

Another shot from the Hancock building. The old water works, which predate the great Chicago fire. I was fascinated by the color of the cars and the traffic tempo of the Miracle Mile. 

A solid brass Ronald McDonald pulling a wagon greets visitors to this enormous Mickey D's on Ohio Street. We stayed at the Best Western North River right across the street...you can see the hotel just above the golden arches. At night we could watch the stragglers, cops, waitresses, joyriders, street people and displaced burbers stream through the fat scented air. 

Navy Pier, from the Hancock building. It is about half a mile long, and has a ferris wheel built on the plans of the original Ferris wheel a the 1890 Chicago World Exposition. It is over 150 feet tall, and the seats are like small train cars hung horizontally between the rims of the wheel. 

Somebody was enjoying their audio tour. 

This is the view from the Hancock Building, which is north of downtown a ways. It is worth the trip, since you get a much better view of the lakefront and the city in general from here, than you do from the more famous Sears Tower. 

This was a typical Chicago Guy: short hair, casual dress, healthy looking. And did I mention on the phone? 

I felt a kinship with this pigeon on Michigan Ave. I am lookng for something among the urban debris that will nourish me, too. 

The old water tower across from the John Hancock building on Michigan Ave. 

Old and new in Chicago. 

Nona Cioe's gravestone, with the flowers and card from Sara's uncles and her mom. 

When Sara lost the U2 concert tickets a month before the concert, she was quite upset. I suggested we could party in the parking lot during the concert, with champagne and a cd of the band. This didn't console her, and we finally got the United Center to replace the lost tickets for her. Her son Cheney said he didn't know what was cooler, the idea of tailgating during the concert, or that his mom lost the tickets like some kind of stoner. We found this grave in the cemetary where Nona Cioe was buried, and couldn't resist. 

We had a harrowing time getting to our turn off at Roosevelt and Wolf aves to find Sara's Grandmother Sarah in her grave at Mt. Carmel cemetary, in Chicago's old Italian neighborhood. On the way we stopped for flowers, which we left in the car while we had lunch at this local cafe. The waitress grabbed some carnations from the flowers near the register and gave them to Sara as we left, saying ?Happy Mother's Day? even though she spoke no English. 

This is the old opera house in Woodstock Illinois, where the movie ?Groundhog Day? was filmed. We ate at a Greek restaurant across the street, and stayed in a motel about a mile away. It was a quaint, friendly stay.