I went to the Windy City with my best friend Lyndsey July 17-22. This would be my first trip without the parents, so alot of begging (by me) and coaxing (from Lyn's mom) had to happen before the trip could. I was the young & impressionable age of 18 then, you know! They were convinced once they knew we'd be staying with a friend of Lyndsey's mom...but they wanted to know WHY I wanted to go. So, Lyn & I made up an elaborate story of a Blues Festival in Lincoln Park we HAD to see! You see, we were in the middle of a huge Blues Brothers/Dan Aykroyd obsession so the TRUE mission of our trip was to relive as much of that movie as possible...as well as throwing in any Ferris Bueller references that came up! Thinking back, I'm amazed that we got away with it! I was totally clueless & nervous about visiting a big city "alone"...but I had the best time of it! Some of the more outstanding memories: the "old decorated" McDonalds being closed at 8 pm! and then having the most digusting meal there the next day; doing the Bueller Sears Tower scene; Lyndsey FREAKING out at seeing the BB suits on display at Planet Hollywood; running around the Daley Center trying to get pigeons to fly; seeing Wrigley Field; riding the El-Train; and literally quoting as many Chicago-filmed movies as possible! It was truly a surreal experience for me.

DAY TWO (Feb 27): Up early to get the free continental (pastries & juice)breakfast. We lined up at NBC studios for the 10am hand out of Conan O'Brien stand by tickets (getting #22&23), and also buying tickets for the studio tour(11:30am). We had 90 mins to kill, so we walked up 5th Ave, specifically heading for FAO Schwartz. Even though all those big name stores are on 5th Ave, I wasn't too impressed. I just wanted to play with toys! Back to NBC: the hour long tour took us through a short history of NBC with clips of tv shows, a sports news studio, Rosie ODonnell's very small set (what they can do with cameras!); looked thru glass into SNL's set--crew was painting backdrops and then into a made-esp-for-tours-weather news desk (only place we could take pics) where a volunteer did a weather report. To kill time before our 4pm date with the standby audience, we went to Central Park-walked through the tiny zoo (watched the seals get fed!) & had lunch at a recommended pizza parlour. None of the standbys got in that night after waiting over an hour (David Schwimmer was a guest). We were disappointed but what could we do?!?! Instead we went to the Guggenheim modern art museum. I only visited one floor, because I was feeling ill and very tired at this point. It was lovely to see some Van Gogh, Picasso & Monet pieces. Throughout the trip I was determined to see the House of Blues (that I swore was there!) so I spent some time trying to discover its location--I even asked a cop! To my surprise, it didn't exist! Instead we ate a late meal at Planet Hollywood.

DAY THREE (Feb 28): This was our BIG walking day!! We headed to the neighbourhoods of Greenwich, Little Italy, SoHo, Chinatown. Greenwich is so cute & quaint! On a Saturday, stores don't open until 11am (we were there @10) So we did some window shopping and bought deliciously huge bagels and ate them in a "cement park". Then we remembered we wanted to see a off-Broadway play so we went back to Times Sq for half price matinee tix for "Forbidden Broadway Strikes Back" which parodied all the major shows. Quite amusing. Subway back to the neighbourhoods for more window shopping and sight seeing. We had a lovely Italian dinner in Greenwich Village and I finally found some nice shirts to bring home as gifts. Our purpose for walking through was to get a feel for the 'hoods and to get to our final destination of Battery Park/Statue Of Liberty. We passed through Wall Street and I remarked to Connie that it would've been cool to be there in the middle of a business day--see all the suits. :) Battery Park was frightening in the late evening so we made our way to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal by lit streets.

DAY ONE (Feb 26): I woke up with a sore throat, which wasn't the best start for a trip, but I took some medicine hoping to end any future suffering. Connie & I didn't take the same flight to NYC (she had air miles, I didn't) so we met at the airport. We took a shuttle van to our hotel, along with these two Toronto students. Our first experience of NYC traffic was being amazed at how our driver could navigate at warp speed, coasting through the gridlock and pedestrians with ease. Connie & I got checked into our hotel around 2pm. We were hungry so we went looking for a late lunch, ending up at a sports bar with unappetizing food. Connie wanted to check out St Mark's Square for their used cd stores. A quick subway ride and Connie had added 3 CDS to her collection. Headed back to our neck of the city to check out Times Square. Into those cheesy tourist stores, and out with gifts & postcards. Downtown Toronto has nothing on NYC in the way of people & car traffic! The place was full of yellow cabs, big billboards, neon and that big teletron. It was surreal seeing so many "movie scenes" in one block! We kept going down Broadway to see Rockefellar Center's skating rink and NBC studios. On the way back, we passed David Letterman's studio and took advantage of the many photo ops! We ended the evening up on the Empire State Building---86 floors up. Beautiful view, but quite chilly. Unfortunately none of my photos turned out of the amazing view.

DAY FOUR (Mar 1): Our trip is almost over. Last night, Connie decided that if she doesn't go to Strawberry Fields, where John Lennon was shot and to the Museum of Modern Art, she'll regret it. She knew I wouldn't be interested (and I felt like shit) so she went alone. I slept in a little and checked out at 11am. We planned to meet for a 1pm lunch, before our 2:30 shuttle to the airport. I just walked around the area a bit more--Times Square etc. I felt weak and stuffed up at this point so I really didn't go far. We had lunch at a funky diner and off to Laguardia we went. I was really fading fast--so tired, stuffed up that I wasn't looking forward to the plane trip home. I just wanted to sleep, not run around airports. The flights home were alright except my ears popped on the take off and since I was stuffed up I couldn't clear them--talking was muffled and it was slightly painful. This was the first time I've ever been sick on a long vacation, but despite that I had a fabulous time in the Big Apple!