All posts tagged chicago

With children in (and near) Chicago – part 1

by noel.piper on February 8, 2012 in North America with 11 Comments

Last weekend we were with one of our sons and his family in the Chicago area. In the process we discovered some to-do-with-the-grandchildren activities that we all enjoyed.

Friday outing to downtown Chicago–Grandaddy, Grandmama, Mommy, Daddy, & 2 girls

The girls are very familiar with their local Metra station because of dropping Daddy off in the morning sometimes or picking him up in the afternoon. (And from going with Mommy to Starbucks across the street).

But to actually ride on the train themselves . . . too exciting for words. Well, not actually. Both were gushing words and anticipation.

 

At the end of the train line, a 10-minute walk (or longer if following a 3-year-old’s path, instead of the straight line of an adult) took us to Giardano’s for Chicago-style pizza. This is just a block or two from the Sears Tower, America’s tallest building. Some other time, we might go up to the Skydeck.

 

 

On the way back to the train, the plaza alongside the river is good for watching and running.

 

 

 

Back at Ogilvie Transportation Center, Mommy’s stop at Mrs. Field’s provided a satisfying end to a sweet outing.

 

 

 

QUESTION FOR YOU: What have you enjoyed doing with children in or near Chicago? Or what do you wish you could do?

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A time for everything, including patience

by noel.piper on October 4, 2011 in South America with 20 Comments

Like several other airlines, for a price United offers seats with 5 inches extra leg room. Our seats from Minneapolis to Chicago were the 2nd row behind Economy Plus. Naively, we thought that if those seats didn’t fill up, we could take one of those after take-off. Then we heard the following conversation and decided not to try it.

Boarding was almost finished, and a male flight attendant stood cross-armed in the aisle.

Man behind us to his wife: Hey, honey. Look at all those empty rows. Let’s move up there.

Flight attendant: Not unless you want to pay for them.

Man: You’re kidding! . . . Right?

Flight attendant: No. You can’t have one of these seats unless you pay an extra $29. [It's more like $129 between Chicago and Sao Paolo.]

Man: (sputters)

Flight attendant (on his high horse): Listen, I have passengers who paid for the privilege of sitting here. I can’t let  just anyone decide to take one of these seats.

In my experience, flight attendants range from business-like to friendly and chatty–usually more toward the business-like side. So I was surprised to run into this flat-out rudeness. No explanation. No “I’m sorry.” No “Sir.” He was like a big brother wielding his authority over the younger siblings at his mercy.

Later, someone got up from his seat soon after take-off to go to the rest room. Big Brother’s voice snapped over the PA, “The seat belt sign hasn’t been turned off yet.”

Then getting ready for landing, he had that if-I’ve-told-you-once tone of voice when he said to Johnny, “Put your seat back up.”

Johnny: The seat keeps slipping backward.

Attendant (rolling eyes): Well, have you been pressing the button unintentionally? [I wonder if he's ever noticed how hard it is to find the seat-back button and press it intentionally?]

Johnny just smiled and said nothing. But I know him well enough to see that he was rolling his inner eyes.

Back to Economy Plus. I’m not very good with math, but if our flight was typical, the books on the MSP-ORD flight can’t be balancing very well with so few people paying for the leg-room seats–36 seats, 7 passengers. That leaves a lot of empty seats, which aren’t very good for business.

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