Boystown, IL

BOYSTOWN...Guess what kind of shops they have in this place! I love how "hopeful" the anatomically correct dummies are. I liked the costume shop, but they were too big for me, I guess cross dressers are bigger than I am.












Okay, this Chicago Pizza was THE BOMB! It was also my Plane food on the ride from Chicago to Montreal! Was soo good!

Taking in the Chicago Sights

Group Photo of all the AMTAers from all over the US! Thanks for the great time!










Last day festivities, now its time to do as the locals and have some fun! Watching the Cubs at Wrigley Stadium. Do you know that they built bleechers on the tops of apartment buildings that are not even connected to the stadium? What a great idea, imagine, how much money you could make on your roof top!

Had so much fun at that stadium. Gotta see the butt shot though. Classic!

The Meeting Breaks and Mexican Restaurant

Okay, we have some pretty interesting people in our group. The Illinois Chapter did a great job hosting cocktail hour every evening for us to mingle and gather to make dinner plans for the evening, they made us feel very much at home. The guy sporting the big smile and bottle is Chris he's the Pres of the IL chapter, very cool and fun guy!












I have to tell you about this Mexican Restaurant, It was FABULOUS too. they made their homemade Guacamole right at your table, it was so yummy and they did it all in these Stone bowls. Loved it.

Here's a list of the things that we did and restaurants we visited that you should check out if you go to Chicago somewhere on your journey.

Pete Miller' Seafood & Prime Steak (Jazz Club)
www.petemillers.com 847-328-0399
Evanston, IL

That Little Mexican Cafe
Evanston, IL
847-905-1550

Mercury Chicago Skyline Cruiseline
www.mercuryskylinecruiseline.com
312-332-1353
(the sunset tour was the best a good 2 hours on the water! you get the best of the day time and evening views)

Oh, and more about the Blue's Club:
Bill's Blues
Its a dive, but it has some good blues music and they loved us, because we brought the party with us. I'll post those pictures soon.

One last item is Ethel's Chocolate, OMG you have to visit that place. chocolate fondu and the best customer service around. Great role model!

Oh and lastly, Wrigley Stadium and Boystown, will post pics of that too, later!

Cocktail Hour with the AMTAers Day 1

the Chicago Skyline is breathtaking and the evening was perfect!
Our guide was great too, nice voice for a young guy. Very knowledgeable about Chicago's architecture.



















First Night getting to know each other we ended up at Pete Miller's a great Jazz Club in Evanston. We got to know the band pretty well and closed down the joint. Very cool. We danced and pretty much created a party in this quiet little Jazz club.

Ray and I found a Hawaiian type of restaurant. Notice how they spelled Kahoona? ha ha ha, I guess they aren't really Hawaiian.

Meeting the other AMTAers

Meetings Start....its business! We got to visit the AMTA National Office and take a tour.
we look like such the "conventioneers"

Later that evening, a bunch of us went with our "local Guide" Ray, and took a wonderful boat tour around the waterways of Lake Michigan and then through the locks and onto the Lake it was FABULOUS! A must do if you're in Chicago! Ray actually used to live there, he's our First V.P. so he knows his way around pretty good. We were so lucky, it was a beautiful day in Chicago.

This huge building is the the Merchandise Mart and its HUGE! Like really HUGE!
Here's some background on it:

The Merchandise Mart was built in 1931 to replace a wholesale store for Marshall Field's and Co. At that point in time, the Merchandise Mart was the biggest building in the world in floor area (4 million square feet!).

This building has its own Zip code, its own Fire Dept, and Police Dept. Amazing.








We also had dinner at Navy Pier and ended up getting in at about 1:00 AM, it was a very long day because they were doing constructions on some portions of the EL so we ended up taking a long bus ride back to the hotel instead of zipping back on the EL. It was nice to climb into the nice beds at the Hilton.

Chicago At its Best

July 8th arriving on the 9th.

Heading to Chicago, Long flight 8 hours, got in, took the EL, 1.5 hours to get to a massage office in Oakpark, IL. Massage with Jean Sweeney, 1.5 hrs was fabulous and worth the ride out.

Met with Mel and Joanne Thar, long time old friends of our family. They were wonderful and it was so nice to see them after over 20 years, I can't believe how long its been. They looked wonderful and haven't changed a bit. They picked me up and we visited for a while before having a nice dinner together, then we hunted down the Hilton in Evanston, IL. I love this city, home to Northwestern University. Beautiful, Clean right near Lake Michigan, and the run along the river is breathtaking!