Chicago Recap

Everything is getting back to normal after a whirlwind weekend in Chicago.  These last few days have been amazing.  I have met and grown closer to incredible people who have taken me in and have taught me things a classroom can never teach.  I was also able to make a lot of contacts and I am feeling really comfortable at what I am doing. I no longer feel like a rookie; I feel like I can handle my own and I am acting more confident. Even full time staff is looking to me for direction.

I had to take a day or so to recover. Not so much from work, but from my airport experience. My flight was scheduled for Monday morning at 8:25. I woke up early, got in our rental car and headed to O'Hare very much on time.  On the way there, we noticed that the GPS was acting up because of the bad weather that had come in overnight. Needless to say, we got lost and I made it to the gate at 8:45.  My flight was gone. I made arrangements to be on the next flight to South Florida later that day. What I realized was that all flights were being grounded because of the severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings in the area.  I spent all day in the United Airlines terminal.  By 9pm, the terminal was full of people trying to get home, at which point, we were told that all flights for the night were cancelled. After making a line at the costumer service counter, the only flight that was going to get me home the next day involved me leaving Chicago at 6am, then connecting in Knoxville, Charlotte and then finally to Ft. Lauderdale.  By the time I arranged my flight, it was 11:30 pm and I had to find a place to sleep.  I found a hotel near the airport and fell asleep at 1 am to wake up at 4 for my flight. I finally arrived back home at 4:30 pm on Tuesday afternoon, 34 hours after leaving to the airport.

Besides that fiasco, everything went great. Below are some pics that I wanted to show you. Enjoy!

The Lobby at our hotel, The W Lakeshore.

The Indoor Pool, with views of Lake Michigan and the Navy Pier

The Press Conference setup at the hotel

Sightseeing at the Chicago River

The view of Lake Michigan from the window of our office

View of downtown from the top floor in the hotel

Gino's East. Heather suggested it, I had to try it.

At Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears and site of the Barcelona vs Chivas game

Luis Arroyave, sports writer for the Chicago Tribune. He is writing the article for Sunday's paper. This is the article I mentioned on the August 3 post. By far, the coolest thing I was involved in this weekend.

Luis Arroyave's article in the Sunday morning edition of the Chicago Tribune. How cool is that?

Toyota Park, home of the Chicago Fire. The staff was so nice

Barcelona doing a  light workout at the University of Illinois-Chicago

Suited up for game day

In our office at the Soldier Field. The staff is going over last minute preparations for the game.

Barcelona warming up before the game

Moments before the game

That's all for now...