Mike and I spent last week in Chicago while I attended a medical conference. The Army paid for me to go and put us up in a nice hotel, so it was a pretty good deal. When we got to the airport, we found out that the Army had indeed booked my flight but hadn't paid for it because in their infinite wisdom, they had OK'd the trip but had forgotten to tell the accounting department about it. So I had to fork out $550, which the Army will reimburse us for, but it was still aggravating.

We got to Chicago on Monday but meetings didn't start until Wednesday, so we had Tuesday to play and we went to the Museum of Science and Industry (done below in gingerbread with Sesame Street characters).

Wow. I hadn't realized the place was so blue.

On Saturday, we went to a pizza place that other attendees of the conference had told us about: Gino's East. When we got there for lunch, there was a line outside the restaurant and around the corner, so we knew it had to be good. It was. After eating entirely too much, we were walking back to the hotel when a scent that I can only describe as heavenly wafted through the wind and cold rain. Just like in the cartoons, it grabbed our noses and lifted us into the air, through the busy Chicago streets, around the corner, and set us down, to our surprise, in front of a popcorn shop. We waited 40 minutes in freezing weather to get a bag of this popcorn. THAT'S how good it smelled. I missed a meeting to get this popcorn. We went back to the hotel and I missed another meeting so that we could eat this popcorn. Yes, it was THAT good. So if you're ever in Chicago, go to Garrett's popcorn. And bring us back a bag.

Our flight was for Sunday night. That day, The Windy City lived up to its name and there was a big snowstorm that grounded all the planes. Since our flight was cancelled and we couldn't get out until Tuesday, we made the best of it and went to the Field Museum on Monday. We were so excited to fly home on Tuesday, then our flight was delayed an hour because of one of the three coffee pots was broken. (Which has got to be the dumbest reason for delaying a flight that I've ever heard.) So the week started and ended kind of rough, but the in-between part was awesome!