All in all, it was a wonderful trip. A lot of learning, a lot of running around, but overall it was nice. ALA Tech source Gaming Symposium was held at Chicago O Hare Marriott Hotel from July 22 to July 24, 2007. We reached there on Saturday afternoon at sharp 3 pm. Amit joined with me too. Soon after taking some rest, we went to the downtown area. The downtown area of Chicago is the heart of the city as it is surrounded by stuff that are of the tourist interest e.g.- tall buildings, nice parks etc. On July 21 that was Saturday, we took the train from Cumberland, [the place where we staying] to Downtown. Unfortunately, the train system were under the maintenance during our 3 day visit, but the CTA (Chicago Transport Authority) had started a bus service to avoid any interruption. I am too impressed by the public transportation system in Chicago and I really wish they imitate the same kinds here in Florida. Thanks to the transportation system, that includes both the bus service as well as the trains, the entire Chicago area and it's suburbs are very well connected and one hardly gets time to wait for the next arrival of the shuttle.
Anyways, talking of the places where we visited, the very first day we went to the Downtown area to see - Hancock Observatory.
Hancock is one of the tallest buildings located right in the middle of downtown, facing towards Lake Michigan. It's known for its splendid views from the top as it spans up to 80 miles and 4 states. We were allowed to go to the 94th floor and the escalator took almost 2 mins to take us to the top most floor. The speed of the escalator is 25 miles per hour!! And the view was....mmmmm...Incredible!! Soon after the sunset view, when the lights on street started looking like twinkling stars, we rushed down to grab our dinner at the Cheese Cake Factory, situated right at the basement of the building. Though we were running short of time, but we still managed to take a stroll at the Navy Pier which is about 4-5 blocks away from Hancock. Luckily, we saw the fireworks show during our walk. It was a nice breeze and cool weather added to the whole pleasant atmosphere. It was nice, and by the time we called off the day, it was 2 am already. Chicago being 1 hr behind, I was almost thinking it was 3 am :) and checking my watch to double check Orlando time! Next day, that is July 22 [Sunday] was the start of the conference. I'll write down more about the conference later in this blog. It was a nice opening ceremony at the conference, where each key note speaker was outshining the other with their knowledgeable speeches. We called off the day at 6:30 pm that day and since we had time left, we caught the blue line train and bus service again and headed to downtown again. That day we got an opportunity to see Millennium Park and the Buckingham Fountain.
The abstracts at the Millennium Park were quite impressive and that got me curious to know whose brain was behind these intrusive artifacts. I am not sure if it was an Indian, but I did see a name mentioned - Anish Kapoor in the support groups. Thanks Anish, you really made us feel proud!! We wanted to go back to the Navy Pier but couldn't do so cause I had the conference early next morning and more so the back and forth route took forever due to multiple hops.
July 23, [Monday] was a full day for the conference with too many shuffle in the classes. Not many speakers were good, but there were some, that were impressive. This day we decided to take a walk at the Indian market, soon after the conference got over and we decided to take the day a bit slow. So, we went to Devon Street or Devon Avenue as they call it, as we were craving for some Indian food. There is a bus service from Cumberland to Devon and that takes about 45 mins one way. Upon our arrival, I was amazed to see the market that was set up in the same Indian traditional style. I also wanted to check out the stuff in some of the stores, but couldn't manage to do so as I realized that I have lost my bargaining skills:(. This skill I had back in India, and now I guess its overwhelming whenever the shopkeeper come back with a list of questions and now it seems like a push even if you don't want to buy yet explore. I wonder what will happen when re-visit India!
However, I was glad to see some Indian salons- and you won't believe - I got my eyebrows threaded after almost 2 years!!!!!! Wow- it was a remarkable feeling. I was so thrilled to see Indian beauty salons. The lady at the salon did not do such a good job though, but overall I felt as a queen after getting the eyebrows threaded hhehehe. I am not exxagerating, ...I guess thats a girl's thing!!
Moving on, we had some snacks- i.e. Chat papri and Bhel puri and walked around the street. Dinner was amazing! Though we were stuffed already but we didn't want to miss the opportunity to have Indian food, so we had Dal Makhani with Tandoori roti at a local shop named Tiffin. I guess that was one of the best restaurants, not only in terms of the ambiance but also from the delicacy point of view.
Well, well- now was the time 10 pm and we were running a bit late. So we rushed to catch the bus. At the bus stop we met this lady, who told us that the last bus for the day has already left. To tell you the truth it was a bit of chaos but we managed it well. We were left with no choice but to go a longer route and take the train. We hopped onto almost 4 vehicles to get to our hotel. Overall it was an adventurous experience. We reached at 11:30 pm, Monday night. I wrapped up stuff coz we had to catch the flight next day afternoon.
The next day started early for me, i.e. July 24- Tuesday. Wow, the days passed quickly there. The sessions were not all that good except for the closing key note speaker. Soon after the speaker ended the session, I quickly requested for the airport shuttle, which arrived in merely 5 mins and I rushed to the airport to board my flight to St. Louis., scheduled to depart at 03:10pm (CST). We had a connection from St.Louis to Orlando and reached our home at 11:00 pm (EST).
I hope you had fun reading my blog, as much as we did on our trip. Now I am back at work, all tired and waiting for the weekend to catch up on some rest. Overall- our trip was full of fun, excitement and learning!!
