If the train should jump the track, do you want your money back?

Yeah yeah I know - I've been lax about blogging but that doesn't mean nothing has happened. Au contraire. There were places to go and things to see! My kids and I took a weekendish trip to Chicago; officially, the reason was for Daughter to interview at the Greek consulate for her student visa. That all-important visit took a whole 5 minutes, if that long. The rest of our time was spent sightseeing. Our hotel was out close to O'Hare airport, which was much cheaper than downtown hotels; we took the Amtrak from St. Louis - another new experience. The pic is Daniel and myself (with knitting and everyone's "here Mom, carry this for me please" in that huge bag!) at the Frank Gehry band shell thingie in Millenium Park.

There was a blues festival in one of the parks... Grant maybe? Walked around there on Saturday evening and heard some awesome music. Took in Field's natural history museum, the art museum, and the museum of science and industry, and we all went up in the Sears tower. It was great having Anna along to fill us in on various architectural points including designers and techniques. I got lots of knitting done on the CTA each morning as well - finished Daniel's socks and made several rounds on the Feather and Fan (denim blue) shawl.

Coming home was quite an experience. The train was held up because of some problems, and they were trying to get things fixed. It didn't help that one of the conductors jokingly crossed himself when directing us to our car. Unfortunately, the problems weren't solved, and the whole way home the power kept going on and off. No lights, no toilet flushing, no cooking in the food coach when it was off. A couple times, we came to a dead stop in the middle of nowhere so they could power off everything and reboot the entire electrical system. Needless to say, we were quite late getting back to St. Louis. But the ride was enjoyable, and there were several folks on board that I knew... folks I went to high school with, and a prof and his wife. Strange how that happens.

But now it's back to work... changes are already being made with the coming of the new boss, and they seem to be mostly for the good of the Center. Woohoo!