Razzled and dazzled.

After our brief excursion in Chattanooga, we hopped aboard a plane, flew to Illinois, and drove deep into the heart of downtown Chicago.

I'm talking downtown downtown.

Here was the view from my hotel window, by night, when I arrived:

Chicago River, Chicago Tribune, and the Trump Tower.

And then by day:

Chicago River, Chicago Tribune, and the Trump Tower.

Trump Tower

[Apparently these condos and their parking structure are famous...?]

One morning for breakfast I decided to brave the streets of downtown all by myself. The challenge came when I saw someone walking with a coffee cup from Au Bon Pain, one of my favorite breakfast joints. I didn't want to appear like a tourist, so I decided I wouldn't ask anyone for directions to ABP; rather, I would just walk around until I found said ABP. It couldn't have been too far from where I saw this caffeinated suit, so I decided I would just make a loop around two very large city blocks and hope to come across the restaurant. Extremely logical, right? I was about to abandon hope when I came across the revolving door that stood between myself and muesli with a cup of coffee. Success. I grabbed a table by the window, began to eat, and the engaged in one of my favorite pastimes: people watching.

My favorite experience though, by far, was eating dumplings from Wow Bao with Charlie and all of the eager, young, business professionals, while sitting in a grassy tiered-park on the bank of the Chicago river, in near perfect weather.

It's the small things in life.