It's not as if you people are posting anything...
This past weekend, Ms. Flea and I had tickets to see Regina Spektor in concert on Sunday night. Since it was a Sunday, our original plans were to get into the city a little early, kick around bit and then see the show. However, I was feeling in rare form and actually managed to plan a weekend.
We started off on Saturday night with a hotel room in the Hyatt Lodge in Oakbrook (town names added for the local folks). The hotel is a nifty place -- McDonald's has their corporate headquarters in Oakbrook and owns a large expanse of wooded property with ponds, a lake, creeks, walking paths, etc. They have part of it set off for corporate buildings and "Hamburger U" (their manager training school) and part contains the Hyatt with some large event rooms and lots of great views. We've been in the Hyatt numerous times on business but never spent a night there. The room was probably one of the best rooms we've stayed in (well, our room in Vegas was snazzier) but we didn't have time to hit the pool or anything.
Moving onward, we had Saturday night reservations at a little restaurant in Glen Ellyn called Mykah's which is some French-Vietnamese joint. A cozy little place (it seats about 50) with good staffing and wonderful food. The presentation was simply fantastic with food arranged to resemble a pond, a waterfall, much use of flower blooms in the food, etc. Highly recommended to anyone in the area. Bring money and make reservations.
Back to the hotel and bed, then breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Then off to the city proper where we had tickets for an architectural boat cruise along the Chicago River. Although it got cold at times, we had access to hot chocolate and coffee and learned a bajillion tidbits of trivia, most of which I've forgotten. And I got to say "***** you, St. Louis!" when the guide explained how early city engineers reversed the flow of the Chicago River so that, instead of flowing into Lake Michigan, it would now carry the city's human waste into the Mississippi.
A whole bunch of buildings later, I took the ladyfriend to the Signature Lounge atop the Hancock building for lunch and drinks. Not a whole lot to say there except that, should you be seated by the window overlooking downtown, be prepared to have a whole lot of tourists walk over and block your view of the window. Few people, on the other hand, wanted to stare out over the west side of the city. Lunch was followed by a stroll through the Water Tower Place mall where we bought Jophiel Jr a rubber ball full of worms and Flea bought some lotion or something made of hemp because she's a dirty hippy chick. Before you know it she'll be buying ferrets and listening to Phish.
Finally it was concert time and we headed off to the Park West. After some roadway adventures, I found legal street parking a mere block or so from the venue. Go me! We went inside and found some seats on the dance floor which was both good and useless. It was useless because everyone on the dance floor was standing anyway so you couldn't see anything sitting. But it was good because we were in an alcove formed by the table and stairwall so we could stand comfortably without a crush of people around us, see Ms. Spektor and even had a wall lean against. Regina Spektor was a great show -- she was full of giggles and blushes and seemed in awe that she had a sold out club full of people of who paid money to see her. The only minor downside was the Regina Spektor Drunken Fangrrl Choir off to my left. For those who said they found Regina's vocal gymnastics annoying, you should hear a 22 year old soused on rum and pineapple juice attempt them. But, ignoring them, Regina was cute as a button and played everything you'd hope she'd play off her list.
So, that was the weekend. Traffic home was a breeze (go figure for 10:30 on a Sunday night) and we all slept soundly. Oh, and back on Saturday night in the restaurant, I asked Flea for her hand in marriage and she said yes. So we had that going for us.