I made it!!

After Lauren flew back to LA I had a few days in Chicago to relax and explore. Sunday I went to a Mother's Day brunch which was great, then went downtown to the museum campus and saw the Field Museum. There were a few really interesting exhibits- there was a recreation of cave paintings from 20,000yrs ago, a whole exhibit devoted to bioluminescent insects and sea creatures, and a forensic reconstruction of several mummies from 3D CT scans.... Cool stuff. That night I had dinner with my friend Tiana and then went to bed early. 

Monday I went to the planetarium and saw some cool stuff there. Again, I went back to the apartment early to get some sleep and catch up on some Netflix. That night Riva and Gabe came back from their trip to Costa Rica- they were gracious enough to let me crash at their apartment while I was in Chicago. Something had happened with their flight so I wasn't sure when to expect them back. It was a nice surprise! We caught up and traded crazy travel stories from our respective trips. 

The next morning I went to brunch with Riva and Tiana, then we all went and saw Iron Man 3 which was a lot of fun- mainly action, but it was funny and we all enjoyed it. Later that day I took a cab to the train station for my last leg of the trip. My cab driver turned out to have a master's degree in biology from Ethiopia.... But he couldn't get a job with it here in the states. He said his son was his hope for a better future. Crazy.... Anyway, I got to the train station and as I've come to expect from this whole trip I hit a small snag. Amtrak has a 50lb weight limit on all checked bags.... And both my suitcases were over that. Lucky for me the lady at the counter gave me a moving box for free and didn't charge me for the third checked piece of luggage. 

A mere 12hrs later and I'm here in my new home... Not my room, but I'm in the house at least. The cool electronic keypad lock on my door is out of battery so I'm waiting for my landlord to come by with the key and replace the battery.... At least I'm here!!