Extreme Shopping

One weekend a long, long time ago, before I was married, Wendy, another friend of ours and I went to Chicago for a girl's shopping weekend. We brought the Orange Vue (not the green one or the black one, as we had them in every color). As we started our long drive to Chicago (4 hours), we decided to stop in Michigan City, Indiana (honeymoon capitol of the South Siders) to do some outlet shopping. As we parked, we looked up to see a nuclear reactor as the scenery. After a bit of freaking out, someone screaming "It smells like nuclear energy. That can't be good for us!" we went about our shopping. 12 hours after we left Michigan, we arrived in Chicago to our ghetto Marriott far from downtown. Hey, we used points, what can we expect?

Off to Michigan Avenue and to do shopping. As we pushed our cart around TJ Maxx, it quickly became overburdened. We had too much stuff to use dressing rooms so we took turns guarding "base camp" (our cart) as we tried close on in the corner of the room. All was fine until a lady decided to start shopping from our cart. We nearly had a showdown but we let her leave with the ugly pumpkin sweater that we were carrying around and making fun of! By the time we left we needed a personal assistant to carry our bags. Just like P Diddy has an umbrella carrier, we needed a bag carrier and immediately thought of our friend Mike. Our boss Tom told us this is why people get married - good to know.

Off to a bookstore, where we found a woman bathing in the sink. We peed and ran out of there as quick as possible, When we told customer service, they said that they knew about here, she comes in often to shower. Really? Do you think that is wise?

After an exhausting day of shopping it was off to the bar where the drinks were flowing and we were an hour early for dinner. Apparently, we were having time zone issues as we rushed to Sugar to have dessert. At some point during the night, we called the Oreo hot line. Our oreos were defective and we need to check on their quality control standards.

As we cabbed back to the hotel, we realized just how lucky us single girls were and how much fun we had had!

Random Thoughts from 2009 - Day 9 aka The Top 10 Cities

Everyone knows I like to travel a lot. Shocking I know but there are so many interesting places to see, why would any one want to sit still? I still have a long list of places to visit - Italy, the Greek Isles, the Vatican to name a few but I have favorites already from the over 35 countries that I have already visited. Here we go:

10)Amsterdam - this city is awesome. There are canals, the juxtaposition of old and new, but it very difficult to find our way around. All the streets curve around the canal and everything is named so and so platz. I got so lost that I had to find a Hilton hotel to hail a cab to return to my hotel quickly when it started raining.

Word to Describe Amsterdam: Twisty

9)Chicago - the windy city and one of the closest to where we currently live. I have been there in the heat of summer with the Ann Arbor Jaycees to watch the fireworks on Navy Pier and dance the night away at some college bars . Tom and I flew out there for a overnight trip near Christmas where we went to a Christmas Tree exhibit, drank some gluwein at the German market and had a yummy dinner at Harry Carey. I have been there when the river was green for St. Patrick's Day and we have had many fun girl's trips there. We built a fort in Marshall's with all the clothes, Wendy, another friend and I bought. We had so many bags we could not even get through the El turnstiles and we filled the Vue to the rim.

Word to Describe Chicago: Familiar

8)Napa Valley - I love wine! I love the wineries there - V Sattui, Domaine Chandon, Coppola, Rutherford Hill to name a few. I have visited the wine caves of Kunde on a private Northwest tour (did you know I travel a lot) and I drank my way thought the many towns along the route (with a designated driver of course)!

Word to Describe Napa Valley: Hazy

7) LA - 2 years of work hell, but a lot of fun. Movie stars, cool restaurants, fun sightseeing and great friends. Where else can you run into Michelle Pfeiffer at a traffic light, and see Randy Quaid at the Beverly Hills Hotel dressed in a tuxedo ts-hirt? Will it ever be the same when I go back? Probably not but, the memories will last forever.

Word to Describe LA: The Single Life

6)Istanbul - Starbuck's is my friend! I sought it out as a way to refortify myself for the marathon sightseeing adventure! The shopping is great, the views amazing. Just be aware of the taxi drivers - you need to negotiate or you will get cheated. I argued with several taxi cab drivers before finding an appropriate driver to take us from the airport to the hotel.

Word to Describe Istanbul: Mystical

The top 5 are still to come....but if I could drink wine, drive a convertible with the top down while singing "Istanbul is Constantinople" while winding my way down Lake Shore Drive or the PCH, I would be an extremely happy camper!