Add in four other men, only 24 hours in the city, and three hours of sleep the night before and it isn't so romantic anymore.

That's right, we took our first mini-moon with four other men.  How does one get herself in that situation?  Well, I got all wrapped up in the idea of riding the train, walking through Chi-Town, and cheering on the Cubs at Wrigley Field.  I didn't take into account the following:

Pete--Pete is one of our dearest friends.  However, he's 68 years old, lives in a garage, has been married four times, has 60 coon hounds, just throws away his clothes instead of doing laundry, once lost one lens of his eyeglasses in the urinal at the bar, and claims his family lost the Civil War for the South.  BUT...he's one of the funniest guys you'll ever meet, wouldn't harm a fly, and would bend over backward to help you in any way possible.  Plus, we have the same political views, which is a bonus.  As you can guess, Pete was extremely laid back on the trip, but had trouble walking much more than a block at a time.

George--George is Cliff's younger brother.  He's 26 years old, has traveled the world but never packed a single item, believes the IRS will call him when they want him to pay taxes, keeps a random array of items stashed four feet deep in his car, and loves wearing Hawaiian leisure shirts.  BUT...he's another one of the funniest guys you'll ever meet, can be super sweet, loves to read and listens to good music.  Plus, we have the same political views, which is a bonus.  As you can guess, George is an extremely laid back travel partner also.  What I didn't expect, is that the night before we left George picked me up and dumped me in a swimming pool with all of my clothes on and my cell phone in my pocket.  So, there was a little tension between us for the trip.

Dennis--Dennis is Pete's brother.  We hadn't spent as much time with him in the past.  But when we had, he brought watermelon, danced a lot, was funny, and seemed sweet as pie.  What we didn't know is that he is a travel dictator.  

Jerry--We had never met Jerry.  We were expecting Dennis's friend Russel (who we love) to come along, but when we arrived at the train station, Dennis had Jerry with him.  Jerry couldn't hear and was embarrassingly rude to everyone we met.

So, once we got to Chicago, Cliff and I parted ways with the rest of the group and did our own thing.  We went to Millennium Park, saw Cloud Gate, toured Shedd Aquarium, had lunch at the original Gino's, and then met up with everyone else at Wrigley Field for the game.  We cheered the Cubs on and cheered even more when they beat the Cardinals.  

Then, our plan to stay in the bars all night instead of getting a hotel fell through.  Almost all of the bars in Chicago closed at 2am.  Cliff and I thought we had a good plan to camp out at Union Station.  I'd had to sleep in airports before, so why not a train station?  Well, because Union Station closes from 1:30am - 5:30am.  So, at 1:30 in the morning, we were punted to the streets of Chicago.  

For the first thirty minutes, we sat on the front steps of Union Station and tried to sleep.  All I could think about was keeping an eye on our money, our backpack, and our bodies.  Then I would relax in knowing Cliff would take care of us.  Then I couldn't sleep, well, because we were sitting on the streets of Chicago in the middle of the night in front of Union Station!

I finally convinced Cliff to move up to a platform where we could lie down together.  I'm embarrassed to say, I actually got comfortable there and had thoughts of knowing I could survive if I had to be homeless.  Still, I was never happier when Dennis called us and said he had gotten a hotel room.  We crawled into that bed as fast as possible and luckily I was out before four grown men started snoring!

Later, on the train ride home, I told Cliff how glad I was that he was thinking of our safety while we were sleeping on the street.  Cliff's response: Money?  Backpack?  Our bodies?  Oh, I hadn't thought of any of that!  I was just wishing I had a pillow.