Chicago Illinois! It's like a shiny toy!

For those of you who aren't familiar with the reference:

Leslie Ann Warren is a goddess

So yes, today we are in Chicago.

It took, however, a truly heroic amount of driving to get here. Lucky for us, overnight the foliage started changing.

I have to say that, while very pretty, the Great Smoky Mountains are more like Very Nice Smoky Mountains. 

The other thing we could see more of during the day was the alarming amount of kudzu in the area to the north. I didn't get any great shots of it, but there was places where the ground, bushes, trees and even buildings were completely smothered in green vines. 

We stopped in Knoxville, home of the Sun Sphere and several Waffle Houses in order to refuel. 

Either the sun sphere or the worlds largest snitch

The Waffle House is a chain restaurant which, one would suppose, is known for its waffles. 

One would be wrong. 

As Frankie eloquently put it in their Yelp review:

Never before have I eaten a waffle and thought to myself "You know what would be good right now? A waffle." This is a waffle that you make from batter that comes in a gallon jug. This is the first, sacrificial waffle that you make just to get the iron warmed up, the sad, floppy pale thing that you leave at the bottom of the stack to collect the condensation off of the plate from the crisp, fluffy, superior waffles that you make later on. This is the waffle that your dog eats off the counter and then violently shits out all over your favorite rug. I have extremely low standards when it comes to chain restaurants. Not only did this fall short of my expectations, it failed to even attempt the leap.

Hash browns were okay.

We did manage to squeeze in a far too brief visit to the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory. 

Such a catch!

I like big bats and I can not lie

We got in far too late, and got up again far too early to visit the University of Chicago. Excitingly, they have anew policy of no student loans, which makes them veeery interesting as an option. 

They look at home here

Afterwards we went to see the mermaid carved by steelworkers:

Then to the Field Museum, where they had a special exhibit on specimens and collection - why it's important, how the process works, and the types of data collected. 

Not that Frankie was excited or anything.

When we left, there was a crowd gathered around the door inside and crowding the south exit, which is this huge portico. We went out to see what all the fuss was about (and go to the car) when we discovered: it's raining. 

Seriously, there had to have been over a hundred people, standing around, looking out at the rain as if confused by its presence. Some even had ponchos and umbrellas. My first thought was that maybe there had been a tornado warning, or it was really super heavy or windy, but no - it was just your average moderate rain. 

I mean really, Chicago - weather is like your thing. I thought you were good at it. 

So Frankie and I tromped out, wearing sandals and tank tops, and saying "I'm melting! I'm melting! What a world!" I'm pretty sure they thought we were insane, but after that they started to trickle out into the wet. 

By then I was so tired I was pretty sure I saw the face of God, so we went back to the apartment for food and sleep. 

So the only remaining thing I have to say is zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.