July 2011
Erika and I were invited by the Madison C.A.R.E.S. program to go to Chicago for a System of Care Conference. It was to be an all expense paid, six day trip with two days of touring and four days of classes, meetings and dinners. The classes were much better than I had ever expected and both Erika and I were very grateful for the opportunity to go. It was also a first time privilege for Erika and I to have a week with just the two of us, no home or family responsibilities. We had a wonderful time sharing with each other what we learned in the classes and touring around Chicago on our free time. Erika was asked to read her poem "Picture Perfect Girl" at the final assembly after which she received a standing ovation and a fan club. The director of the conference pulled Erika aside and asked if he could put her poem in a book of stories, poems and songs they had collected from survivors of crime, abuse, depression, and anxiety.
On our way to Chicago we met Gaylynn and Jaron Bean traveling from the Sugar City School and they became our touring budddies.
Gaylynn, Jaron, Erika, Kimberly
The first day we were there we took a three hour segway tour of Chicago. That's the way to go!! Those motorized segways were FUN and it saved us from miles and miles of walking in the heat. We saw great architecture, learned a bit of history, waded in Lake Michigan and lost a few pounds sweating away in the humidity. At the Abraham Lincoln statue our tour guide wanted us to go rub Abe's foot for good luck. We did it for the picture and to see how huge the statue was up close but didn't give much thought to the "good luck" part. However, luck was coming our way!
We didn't want to pass up the opportunity to have Chicago deep dish pizza so after a few referrals from locals we wandered our way to a popular hangout. Erika and I were both a bit disappointed in the pizza but the air conditioning was top notch!
We wandered around a few popular places that we had seen in movies. We felt pretty special visiting "The Bean" with the Beans. Erika and Jaron were a bit giddy as they raced around a wooded area catching fireflies while Gaylynn and I parked it on a bench in the shade. We completely left our comfort zone to take an evening walk through Millennium Park. By the time we left I'm pretty sure we were a little bit high from the haze of drugs and nicotine that lingered in the air. We were impressed with the acoustics of the park with a rather small stage covering such a large listening audience and no matter where we went around the park we could hear the numbing drone of the lifeless band that had everyone hypnotized . . . or again, it could have been the drugs.
We tried to get out of the park before dark but had wandered quite a distance to see a couple of beautiful water fountains shown on our map of must-see places. Because we were in a hurry to get out of the area so foreign to our Idahoan and LDS nature, we followed Jaron's suggestion and quickly went under the freeway to get to the other side of town where our hotel was. I have never hung on to one of my children so tightly or been afraid for our lives like that. It was the creepiest feeling ever to wonder if beyond any pillar someone would grab us and we would end up on some Dateline unsolved mystery episode. Once we made it back to a safer part of town - our hotel ROOM - we had time to review what we saw and I have to say the conditions that the homeless people under the freeway were living in and what they looked like nearly broke my heart. I can't imagine living in that fear on a daily basis and can almost understand why they try to numb themselves through drugs and alcohol.
Our favorite safe place to wander was Navy Pier. The indoor Crystal Gardens smelled like a fresh garden instead of an ash tray and had fans blowing a perfect air conditioned breeze around us. It was hard not to drag a pillow there and ditch the hotel. We had a good laugh at all the Forrest Gump stuff and found LeRoy's birthday present at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant and souvenir shop. We cringed at a really bad karaoke act and giggled like little girls at the funny clown doing magic tricks with an audience of wide eyed kids. For a while we just sat in the garden and people watched. It felt like we were visiting a foreign country - or a mixture of foreign countries.
After nearly suffocating us with deadly heat and humidity for the week, Chicago decided to give us another show. The rain started on Friday which left an even muggier feeling in the air but that didn't stop us from using up all of our touring time. We figured out (or rather, asked a lot of strangers about) the bus system and managed to only get lost once as we headed to the Shedd Aquarium for an air conditioned, relaxing tour of water creatures. The bus dropped us of about two blocks from the Aquarium but in that two blocks we ended up looking like water-logged rats. I have never seen rain like that before! We stopped for about ten minutes under a bridge but could tell that the rain was not letting up so we took off our shoes (Erika actually had shoes on) and we ran as fast as we could on wet concrete sidewalks to the next bridge.
The first bridge:
The second bridge was so crowded with people that there was hardly room for us and we decided that we couldn't get much more wet than we already were so we ran all the way to the front door of the aquarium. The doorman laughed and shook his head as we splashed into the building. With clothes sticking to us, barefoot, dripping wet we walked up to the ticket counter as if it was normal to look that way and laughed right along with the ladies behind the counter as Erika animatedly retold our last 20 minutes. Our favorite exhibits in the aquarium were the trained sea-lion, the waddling penguins and the dolphin show. By the time we were done with our three hour tour of creatures from around the world we were nearly dry.
Shedd Aquarium t-shirt for Justin:
With weather that had drained us of every ounce of energy we could muster and a VERY early flight home the next morning, we headed to bed early. After tossing and turning for a few hours (both from excitement of the past week and anxiety of our flights the next day) we agreed to just get up and get going. We went to the lobby to catch the earliest shuttle to the airport so we would at least be there awake instead of attempting to sleep with the worries of not being there on time. We left the hotel at 3am and what was supposed to be a 45 minute ride turned into a 3 hour detour. The rain throughout the night had flooded all the freeways leading into the airport and flights had all been delayed for the entire night and early morning. Luckily, our shuttle driver was born and raised in Chicago and one of the women that we picked up on our way to the airport was a flight attendant. Between the two of them they led our shuttle through back streets and scary neighborhoods to bypass the closed freeways and drop us out fairly close to the airport and at 6am they dumped us out to defend ourselves in complete airport chaos.
The airport looked like a winter holiday rush of canceled flights like I have only seen on the news. It was so packed full of people who had been delayed. It was a mess! There were lines everywhere but we didn't know what line to stand in and when we asked those standing in line they weren't sure what line they were in either. We stood back and observed for about a half hour and then weaseled our way to where we thought we should go. As we made our way to our gate and found our 8am flight on time we had to acknowledge that we were truly "led by the spirit, not knowing beforehand the things we should do". What could have turned into a two-day trip home with changed flights and multiple complications was simple and easy with minor inconveniences along the way. The craziness of it only added a good story to end our Chicago adventures rather than smother out the fun memories we made together.
So, how did Abe Lincoln's lucky foot live up to it's reputation? We were VERY lucky to make great friends! We were lucky that we didn't die in the heat and humidity that was causing such an uproar on the news and had people hospitalized. We certainly lucked out as we ran in fear from the terrors of the dark, creepy, homeless, substance abuse filled underpass. We were lucky to make it to the airport and very lucky to make it onto our ticketed flight. We were lucky to have the time together.
OR
We were very, very blessed by our Heavenly Father for the opportunity to spend mother/daughter time together to build funny, scary, happy memories and getting to know each other.
When we landed in Idaho Falls and they opened the plane door we could NOT stop smiling and breathing in the clean, humidity free 90 degree weather. It was a lung of fresh air after the 116 degree heat index that we had just survived. We loved our time in the big city but we were happy to walk off the plane in little hometown Idaho.
