Tales from the Windy City - Days 1 and 2

I had meant to start this last night, but I got caught up in the baseball and football games and then crashed, so I didn't get to it! So here we are, Tuesday night, my second full day in Chicago!

Why am I in Chicago, you might ask? Well, for business of course (doesn't that sound all grown up?) The J. J. Keller website is getting a new search engine and we have purchased a product from a company called Endeca. It is actually not quite a search engine, but more of guided-navigation (not unlike what you see at sites like Amazon, or Walmart.com, or HomeDepot.com - the latter two are actually using Endeca!) Long story short, we are here for a training course on all things Endeca - we being myself and Jason, the senior developer on the project whom I work with.

We drove into town on Sunday night, left around 5.30pm. We first had to go to Keller to pick up the company car (a nice Lincoln town car, all fancy-pants and such) It was slow going to start though...traffic was backed up all the way through Oshkosh (I presume the Packer game and weather, which was rainy and icky, all factored in) so we didn't really start moving along until we reached just outside of Oshkosh, almost an hour later. We didn't get into Chicago until just before 10pm, but it was a pretty nice drive, and it was really cool driving into Chicago. I have only been here a handful of times, and the last time was in high school for a field trip (so like...7 years ago - and with my memory the length of, well, probably this blog post, I don't remember much)

Anyway, we found a parking ramp near our hotel, the Hotel Allegro, in the theatre district. Pretty darn nice place. Very fancy (more so than me, for sure, heh) but pretty nice. Not a place I would stay willingly (mainly because of the $250/night price tag - granted we did get a discount for there for Endeca, which means we are only paying $190/night, PLUS the company is paying obviously) - but still! I will try and get some pictures up when I get back - I still haven't figured out how to get my new phone connected to my computer (think my USB ports are dying) but I will try.

So we got the car parked and got checked in. Jason is staying on the 7th floor, while I am on the 16th! Yikes! It isn't so bad - other than the fact that the elevator moves at about 100MPH and you feel like you are in the Tower of Terror every time. I know that Kirsten would not like it at all (but I noticed that all the elevators in the city are like that, at least the ones I have been on..which, well, has been just two - but still!)

So our we is split up into 3 classes - one class that was yesterday and today (I got my first certificate of completion, yay!), one that is just tomorrow, and then the third that is Thursday and Friday) The guy that is teaching the classes is really down to earth, a younger guy, really knows his shit too. We have gotten quite a bit of information in just the two days we have been here, but it has been really great info and although this project is going to be quite a bit of work once we get back, I know that it is going to be really freakin' sweet when it is done and be really beneficial to the company as a whole.

Ah yes, I almost forgot about eating! For breakfast and dinner yesterday, we ate at a place called 312 Chicago, which is actually attached to our hotel. VERY fancy, and you know me, I am not the "fancy" type. But it was pretty nice - at least for breakfast. Take a look at their website, and their dinner menu. Anyone that knows me in the slightest will probably think I didn't eat anything, as nothing on there looks like I would even like it! But I had the rigatoni with meatballs...but not just any meatballs, VEAL meatballs! They actually weren't THAT bad...but I probably wouldn't have them again. I like my cow grown-up ;) We had lunch at the Endeca office (which is only about 6 blocks are so from here, so we are just walking) They ordered from a place called Potbelly's. Pretty darn tasty sub sandwiches and they loaded on the meat and cheese. Good stuff.

For breakfast this morning, we went to a place right across the street called Chef Petro's. More of a city-style diner, really nice waitress, definitely more my style. And damn good food. We are going there again tomorrow as well. For lunch today, we had sandwiches from Cosi, another fine sandwich establishment. Again, really good stuff. For supper, we decided that we wanted to go check out the Sears Tower and then find some authentic Chicago-style pizza. When we left training at about 4.50, it was raining decently. Now the Sears Tower is about 2 blocks south of the Endeca office. Our hotel is about 6 blocks north of the office. The pizza joint that we found was probably about a mile west of the Sears Tower. We figured we would walk, get some exercise, enjoy the sites. First off, Chicago at 5PM is nuts, I have never seen so many people - all KINDS of people, walking around, all determined, hailing cabs and getting on buses and lots of them being rude of course, heh. Add on top of that fact - that it is now raining. It started raining while we were in training. Ugh, so this should be fun...

We walked back to the hotel to drop our stuff off, and it was a steady drizzle. Nothing TOO bad yet. So we did have to back-track before going to the Tower, but we were still up for it. So we left for the Tower. It is raining a little harder now - and I have to say one thing - it was absolutely hilarious to see how many people had broken umbrellas. Pretty sure I saw more broken umbrellas than working ones (and there were a LOT of umbrellas, heh) Of course, we didn't have one. Took us about 20 minutes to get down to the Sears Tower, and we are pretty good and wet by now. We go to the Skydeck entrance, and it is still open, but the guy at the bottom tells us that the visibility is zero - well, what is the point of wasting our money then!? At least he was nice enough to tell us BEFORE we bought tickets. So we stood in the doorway a minute or two, contemplating our next move. We were halfway to the pizza, and already wet, so why not just go the rest of the way? So we did. 20 minutes later, and a whole lot wetter, we got to Primo's Pizza. GIANT slices of pizza. One big slice and a soda for 5 bucks. And soooo worth getting wet. Some damn fine pizza. But then we had to walk back to the hotel. Which was about 2 miles away now. Yeah...let's just say, I got back here about 45 minutes ago, and I don't think I am dry yet, haha. But it was fun, and a good story for sure :)

We are going to try the Sears Tower again tomorrow or Thursday, as long as the weather holds out - we obviously want to go when we can actually SEE something from up there! It looks like it supposed to be nice late tomorrow and Thursday, so here's hoping. I am here through Friday, coming back late Friday night, so keep your eyes peeled for another couple updates - and maybe this will be so enjoyable to me that I might *gasp* do regular updates again! ...doubtful ;)

Kirsten...Gracie...I miss you girls so much...I really can't wait to see you on Friday!