From Chicago

It was not a great start arriving at our high rise building in the downtown Chicago, within the Loop, after 9 pm following a day of travel, and finding out the apartment we had rented wasn't available. After some discussion and telephone calls, it turns out that our place was down the block but nearby. Wish they, the private rental company, had told us before we arrived. So we walked the block to the other high rise building only to find the concierge did not expect us and had no keys, or couldn't find it. So there were more calls to the people whom we rented from, whom are not connected with the people at the high rise buildings so it is not the responsibility of the building people to take care of us. After more anxiety and frustration, the building maintenance person finally agrees to let us into the apartment using a master key, but tells us he won't again so we had better get keys from the renter. Great, we are in but can't leave the apartment together because we can't lock the door. No matter, all the restaurants and businesses in the immediate area were closed anyway since it's well after 10 pm. Besides, it's starting to rain heavily along with thunder and lightning. Not a great start, but we are glad to have a place to stay; wasn't so sure for awhile. In the end, the keys were eventually found and the apartment was fine though missing a few items. We have a view from the 28th floor and there's a 7-Eleven store open nearby. Besides tomorrow had to be better. We spend our first full day walking from morning to evening visiting Millennium Park, the Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, the River Walk and many other places as we familiarized ourselves with city and planned our activities for the week ahead. Although Chicago is a big busy city, the people we encountered have been friendly. Here's some PIC's from the day. The first two pictures are from our apartment window while the others are from Millennium Park.