Chicago Loop: 1-Amtrak Train Station 2-Hotel 3-Art Institute

I learned a lot on this trip, including how to use Uber and when NOT to use it. When I arrived in Chicago by train, I didn’t really understand where my hotel was in relation to the Amtrak station or public transportation. I followed some young people from the train platform hoping they would lead me to where Uber picked up and they went right outside to the taxi stand. The Uber app told me that it would be $16 plus tip to get to my hotel but I was mesmerized by the very fit, very loud, very exprienced Black man directing taxis and fares. I asked him how much it would cost to 22 West Monroe and he said, “It’s not far. Less than $10.” In fact, it is just over one mile, but it crosses the Chicago River. I hopped in the cab and the meter said $6 when we arrived. With tip, it was $8, half of what Uber would have cost.

I doubt if I would have been able to find the hotel entrance by myself — it is a side door to a theater in a skyscraper office building! The hotel lobby is on the ninth floor and my room was on the 12th floor, sandwiched between offices above and below. I selected the Hampton Inn because it was close to the Art Institute (“3” on the map above) and I had shakily made the reservation by phone from the Amtrak lobby in Milwaukee, cringing at having to give my credit card number over the phone in a public place. The first night was $163 and the second (Wednesday) night was $195. I asked about the discrepancy and the front desk told me that if I stayed in the same room Thursday night the rate would be $358 because the national Oncology Conference was just starting in Chicago. What a difference from Milwaukee where the room rate was a flat $125/night.

My biggest surprise was the rates at the Radisson Country Inn near Newark Airport which I chose because my uncle Joey’s daughter Maureen (theMommee) was staying there, along with her daughter Mary Elizabeth and two of Maureen’s sister Annie’s daughters: Kathleen Anet and Brigit. The first night, when all of us stayed there, was $135. The second night, only Maureen and I were there: $215. I stayed a third night so I could fly to Milwaukee with the immediate family of the departed Mary Catherine: her siblings Janie and Johnny; and Danny the son of her deceased sister Maureen. The third night at the airport hotel, a Saturday, cost $263, nearly double the first night. Is this airport hotel a destination spot for Saturday nights? “Saturday night always costs more,” the front desk shrugged.

Milwaukee Ambassador Hotel

Chicago Hampton Inn – Majestic Theater

Saturday night was expensive in another way. Janie, Johnny and Danny were visiting Allison and Nick on Staten Island and the purpose of my visit was to spend time with them, but finding a ride for the 14 mile trip which crossed a toll bridge was a challenge. Following Mary Elizabeth’s example, I took Uber which cost $49 plus tip. When I arrived, Nick asked how much it was. I evaded, but he pulled his smartphone from his pocket and looked it up. “We will drive you back,” he said firmly. But Johnny protested and said that he would do it, but it wound up falling to Janie, when it was after dark and everyone was tired.

One reason my Chicago hotel reservation was so hasty was I spent a lot of time trying to figure out where to drop off a rental car in Chicago, not realizing that there were no rental cars available in either Muskegon or Milwaukee. I suspect that when rentals plunged with Covid, and used car prices soared, the rental companies sold off their fleets, and have not yet been able to replace them because of the shortage of new cars.

O’Hare Airport ORD

Getting to O’Hare from the hotel cost $3 and took 45 minutes door-to-door. Chicago is truly civilized in this way. The hotel is at the “2” circle on the map at the top, and so is the Monroe station for the “El” Blue Line which goes to ORD. No escalators at the Monroe station, stairs only, so one must carry one’s bags, but the lady in the ticket kiosk was very friendly and helpful with information and buying the correct ticket. As you can see, just a few stops further goes very close to the Amtrak station “1”, so one can connect between the airport and train economically.

Even though United has a flight from O’Hare to SFO practically every hour, after their disastrous flight delays over Memorial Day weekend, I chose to fly Alaska. The flight went smoothly but we were on the tarmac in SFO, on the plane, for more than an hour because Alaska could not get the air bridge to work. They eventually tugged the plane to a different gate. I missed my Airport Express bus and didn’t get home until midnight. But I got a $50 credit from Alaska, half of which went to the cab driver who was willing to pick me up at such a late hour. Nevertheless, it cost $80 to get from SFO to home.

Newark Airport EWR

Airlines canceled more than 2,800 flights over the Memorial Day weekend and 20,644 flights were delayed, according to FlightAware, an aviation data site. Janie, Johnny, Danny and I were flying on the Sunday in Memorial Day weekend, and spent six hours at Newark trying to get a flight that took only about two hours. The delaty was a blessing in disguise because it gave me more time to hang out with the folks that I really wanted to spend time with.