Another Vacation

OK, it’s been a crappy week but I won’t dwell on it. Let’s talk about my vacation from last week.

It started on Tuesday. I was sitting at work Monday wondering what the point would be to coming into the office on Tuesday. I didn’t come in. My traveling partner picked me up in Taylorville a little after 5 PM that evening. It was hot, humid and really sticky outside. The car had A/C so it was nice. After dinner at one of the Steak and Shakes (http://www.steaknshake.com/) in Normal, we headed up I-55 to Joliet. Along the way, Duran Squared ended up in the CD player. If you heathens don’t know who Duran Squared are, think about it for a minute and then come back to reading the blog. After a trip to get five free dollars at the riverboat for signing up for a card (and losing it), it was time to go bed. Here’s a hint: http://www.duranduran.com/.

Wednesday dawned hot and humid (notice the trend). However, Channel 7 (my TV station of choice in Chicago) (http://abclocal.go.com/wls/) said that rain was coming. Since it was so humid, we stayed in the “metro” Joliet area. We dined at Portillos for lunch (http://www.portillos.com/), went to the Joliet Mall and stayed indoors. The Weather Channel said the heat advisory would end at 7 PM that evening. I sat my clock to see if it would. We were sitting in the lovely Joliet Bakers Square (http://www.bakerssquarerestaurants.com/) when 7PM hit, but it did seem cooler when we got out.

Thursday was the highlight of the trip. We headed up the Tri-State Tollway to Naval Station Great Lakes. I don’t recall the Tollway being so crowded, but it had been six years since I headed up old I-294. I went to boot camp at RTC Great Lakes and was stationed at Naval Reserve Readiness Command Region Thirteen (now REDCOM Midwest) in Great Lakes, so this was a homecoming. The base has changed a lot over the past six years. I’ll put a couple of pictures up. Galvin went to boot camp the Friday before, so it’s possible we saw him marching around somewhere.

After getting an awesome tour of the base, we headed towards Wisconsin with a quick pit stop first (ask Shana where we stopped). Shana had never been to Wisconsin. It was only 10 miles, so we went. We bought a Powerball ticket (had I won, you wouldn’t be reading this) and headed to Gurnee Mills Mall. After Gurnee Mills, we went to see Lake Michigan and then to see Ira in Vernon Hills. We got back to Joliet about 10 that evening.

Friday was a quiet day in the burbs. We went to Mongolian BBQ for lunch, then to Orland Park (home of the illustrious Deputy Dawg) to see the malls. We stopped at Aurelio’s (http://www.aureliospizza.com/) to get some pizza and prepare for the main event. At this point, the blog is getting too long. Come back later for the conclusion of the story. Think Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.