the city of big shoulders

I'm here in Chicago and this is the beautiful view from Anna's apartment that I woke up to this morning. My fingers are crossed for good weather while I'm here although the weather forecasters are unfortunately being less optimistic. But they're never right anyway.

I had a long drive yesterday through Ohio and Indiana into Illinois, and I had an exciting moment when I realized that I was finally seeing from ground level the patchwork of farms I would always see out the airplane window when flying over the area. Lots of farms and fields with a spattering of homes and barns throughout. It was really pretty. These were the most expensive states to drive through, toll-wise, and it was interesting to see what differences there were between each state as I'd cross the state line. It got a lot greener in Indiana, they call their EZ Pass the I Zoom, and they had signs along the highway that I was quite curious about - they would say "animals present when light is flashing", and the light did indeed flash many times I drove past, but there were no animals around. Nor were there any animals in sight at all - in farms, on the fields, etc. So I'm still confused. Elizabeth, perhaps you can help?

I did have a stop in Cleveland yesterday morning before starting the long drive - I went to the West Side Market which I had read was amazing, and it was. There were rows of meats, fish, cheese, breads, fruits, veggies, etc. I picked up some pierogies, which, when I asked how to prepare it, the lady told me casually to "just deep fry it in butter". Right. I thought I'd sound like a wimp if I asked for a more low fat, healthy way of doing it so deep fried it is! I picked up some bread for Anna and an apple for the road to balance out the nutrients I was getting from my snack of peanut butter crackers.

So that's the latest from the road. We're off to the Cubs game today and Anna's planned very exciting stuff for the next few days so I'll be sure to have lots of updates along the way.