Category: Photo

Eileen, Madeline and I took the train to downtown Chicago.  This trip starts with a car drive to Harvard, IL.  The train itself is very inexpensive despite covering a lot of miles.

Once downtown, we walked the mile or so to our hotel, the ultra-luxurious Palmer House.  From there we could easily walk to the lake, the Art Institute, Nave Pier. We stayed just one night, and despite the enormous size of the Palmer House, it was just our luck to find ourselves down at the end of a long hallway with some 20 somethings who’d checked in for the sole purpose of partying all night.

Our first sign of trouble was a thumping disco bass at 1:30am.  I opened our door, and right there at the end of the hall, one door away, the party was on.  They had carried in their own sound system (!) and it was admirably punchy, I had to admit.   We called security,  they came pretty fast.  Pounded on the door.  Much discussion, lots of loud voices.  Eventually it all died down and we went back to sleep.

For a while.  At 4:00am, loud voices.  Lots of them. Loud.  I looked out the peep hole. There’s 8 people, partying in the hall, right outside our door. They brought out food, All Night Party – Phase II: The Munchies was commencing.  Another call to security, another round of really loud voices.

It was the worst night’s sleep ever. We complained, asked for a refund.  Uh – we are very sorry, sir.  We are not allowed to offer refunds. All they would do is give us credit at the extreme-snotty house restaurant, which is over the top, even with a $50 certificate.

Beyond this, we hit the Art Institute, walked in Millenium and Grant parks, and then Navy Pier.

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Bienvenido a El Salvador.  This trip took our friends by suprise.

El Salvador won’t be found on the well worn American tourist path.   We would doubtless have never gone there without having made the acquaintance of Lawrence R., whom we met on the GRABAAWR bicycle tour of 2007.  Lawrence and wife Cathy have lived in country for over five years, speak fluent Spanish, and work at the American Embassy.  Without them, and with very little Spanish between us, we doubtless would have been lost.  They have since been reassigned to D.C., so we knew we had to take this opportunity before it was lost.

Those two kept us tourists busy and happy. We toured sites in and around San Salvador for several days, then lit out for the family beach house on the Pacific for some quality beach time.  The weather was hot and dry – we were just coming to the end of the dry season – and was just perfect for Midwesterners in need of a break from a long winter.

Lawrence found two extra mountain bike for Eileen and Tim. We pedaled back dirt roads through small hamlets and sugar cane fields and thus got an early jump on the cycling season.

(Click thumbnail for photos of Lawrence’s home)

Coffee processing plant tour:

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Coatepeque volcano

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Click the thumbnail below for photos from a visit to a small Mayan ruin

Click the thumbnail below for photos of our Ziplin tour.  (This was wild.)

Another volcano tour, this time – Boqueron !

The best part of the trip was hanging out on the Pacific Ocean at Lawrence and Cathy’s beach house.  The water was warm, really warm.  The riptides were stronger than Americans are used to on any USA beach, so we only went in at low tide.  We mountain biked out of this area.

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Day two at the beach house

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On our last day, we shopped around, visited some tourista places, a modern mall, and finally a fruit and vegetable market

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