Brian Allen’s Place

After our visit to Chicago, we settled into the Sleeper Car Lounge in Union Station to wait for our train. We have never had access to the lounge in a station. Most stations don't have Sleeper Car Lounges. The lounge provides you with a nice place to wait and free access to food and drinks.

After we boarded the train, we settled in our room and made plans for dinner.

We took Katherine to the Observation Car were she enjoyed watching the world go by the train. She has now been on both sides of the Mississippi River.

Everyone has enjoyed Katherine. She smiles and laughs with almost everyone we meet on the train.

In the morning, we had a quick breakfast and packed up the items in our room.

Hertz picked us up at Union Station in Denver and we were on our way to Colorado Springs.

Karen and Katherine enjoyed the heated pool at the Antlers Hilton. I have even been swimming after work with them.

Tuesday:

Karen and Katherine enjoyed the heated pool at the Antlers Hilton.

We went to the Blue Star restaurant the night the we arrived. Karen had the blueberry salmon, which she loved. Katherine smiled at the hostess and waitress before falling a sleep at the tables. I had the pork shank; I looked like Henry the VIII. I had Bristol Brewing Company's Pumpkin Ale, which I enjoyed.

Wednesday:

During the day, Karen and Katherine went shopping around downtown. She may have over done it, because her leg was hurting that night. There is a independent hobby and game shop. they have lots of models and adult games like Settlers of Canton and Ticket to Ride (www.gamesandhobbies.com) as well as other neat games and such. Like bow and arrow sets with suction cups. They looked like something from the 1950's.

We had pizza at Il Vicino. Karen had one of their homemade root beers while I had the real beer.

Thursday:

John and Kelly Smith invited us to join them at Jack Quinn's Irish Pub for dinner. I work with John. John wanted to take Kelly to hear the great Irish folk music. John and I both had the Irish Breakfast, which is great. Karen had the Fish and Chip. I believe Kelly had the Cottage Pie. John told us ghost stories.

Friday:

I wrapped up my work today. I still have a few things to handle when I arrive back in Huntsville, but everything will come to a good end.

We had thought the Christmas Parade of Light was tonight, but it is tomorrow so we went to the Phantom Canyon for dinner. Katherine wanted attention and the restaurant was full of stimulus. Karen and I had to take turns with Katherine so that we could each eat.

Saturday:

We went to the Book Sleuth Store, which is were Karen loves to purchase used mystery books. The owner of the store gives Karen all sorts of ideas on new authors to try. He remembers books and authors and eccentricities such as pseudonyms authors use. We are bringing home a bag full of books including the latest Dick Francis in paperback., “Under Orders”.

The Christmas Parade of Lights is tonight so we decided to head back to Il Vicino for pizza, because the parade goes right in front. The parade is at night

Sunday:

We went driving to find snow to show Katherine. We ended driving up Pikes Peak and found snow around the 10 mile marker. We got some cute pictures of Katherine in the snow.

We decided to eat pizza again tonight, because we had a card for a free pizza so we decided three night wouldn't be that bad. And, we love pizza.

We arrived in Chicago and made our way to the ticket counter so that we could pay the remainder of our ticket. We learned that Amtrak has a Sleeper Car Club Lounge. So, I dropped off Karen, Katherine, and our luggage in the lounge while I settled our tickets.

I spent so much time with the ticket agent, that Karen called to check on me twice. I finally settled our tickets. It looked like the agent kept redoing the paperwork. I am going to have to check my credit card bill to see what was going on behind that counter.

After settling up, we headed out into Chicago to see the Sears Tower. Well, the Sears Tower is tall. But, the viewing area was closed, because of the overcast sky and no visibility.

We headed over to the Federal Reserve Bank's Money Museum. On the way, we walked by the Chicago Board of Trade, which is where commodities are traded like corn, wheat, etc. At the Federal Reserve Bank, we got our picture taken with a million dollars in $100 bills and we took Katherine's picture over a bunch of coins.

As we headed back to Union Station, we stopped for lunch at the Corner Bakery in the Sears Tower.

My aunts, Becky and Joy, sent us off from the Newbern train station. They were so nice to ride us to the train station. They stood on the train car’s platform waved as the trained pulled out of the station. It was so “black and white movie”. The picture is Katherine sleeping on Aunt Becky’s floor prior to us heading to the Newbern train station.

The train left the station almost as soon as it arrived. We had not gotten into our room before the train had pulled out of the station.

As we put our bags away, we could see that the pullman porter had already turned down our bed.

Katherine Elizabeth slept through most of the night in her car seat on the floor of the room.

The pullmen porter brought our breakfast to the room so we could get ready to disembark in Chicago.

As we neared Chicago, we could see the Sears Tower disappearing into the clouds. Wow! It sure is a tall building.

We arrived at Union Station, which is a famous land mark in Chicago.