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You can go see The Bean
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May 7, 2023 17:30
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Escape From Noise posted:You can go see The Bean I saw that two weeks ago, believe it or not. I'm right by this river, I think it must be the one they dye green. I'll go walk around there and see if I stumble on anything cheap I'd like for lunch. Nice day out again. |
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May 7, 2023 18:01
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Hot takes; This is the most river debris I've seen in North America. I'm astounded that foot traffic here isn't heavier. I'm also surprised that there are essentially zero places for me to go along the river. It's all corporate office buildings with no ground level retail. Really weird. |
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May 7, 2023 18:33
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Downtown Chicago is very much a business center, in the most literal sense of the word. Go there on a public holiday and it's a ghost town.
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May 7, 2023 18:43
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Escape From Noise posted:Downtown Chicago is very much a business center, in the most literal sense of the word. Go there on a public holiday and it's a ghost town. Seattle is like that too. I was just surprised how little stuff there was along the water. I guess people here just don't consider that a destination. San Antonio has the best river in the country so far in my business travels. |
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May 7, 2023 19:10
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IME there are still crowds in downtown Seattle on a weekend. Much smaller amount of people but there are places open. Chicago was like everything was closed and I didn't see anyone.
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May 7, 2023 19:12
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when your city is sinking into a lake people tend not to want to hang out and look at the future if you know what I'm saying |
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May 7, 2023 19:13
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So, rear end-penny, it's looking unlikely that I'll have any free evenings. I'm going to be in manager schmooze mode for probably 10-14 hours a day, every day I'm there. I'll PM you if it looks like an opening is coming up, but don't hold your breath. Ugh, this conference. |
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May 7, 2023 19:16
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Basically Chicago is this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2OFubG0dPo
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May 7, 2023 19:18
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cruft posted:Seattle is like that too. I was just surprised how little stuff there was along the water. I guess people here just don't consider that a destination. Which water? I think there's so many assorted parks and points of access around lake Washington and the Sound that it doesn't concentrate people. On a sunny weekend there's all sorts of people out on and around the water. But equally there's a lot of working ports, marinas, and private property that limits access in those areas. There could be more bars, cafes and restaurants I suppose, but it's not like there aren't any, they're just scattered around. |
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May 7, 2023 19:27
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Finger Prince posted:Which water? I think there's so many assorted parks and points of access around lake Washington and the Sound that it doesn't concentrate people. On a sunny weekend there's all sorts of people out on and around the water. But equally there's a lot of working ports, marinas, and private property that limits access in those areas. There could be more bars, cafes and restaurants I suppose, but it's not like there aren't any, they're just scattered around. There's stuff along Seattle's water, just not Chicago's canal. At least, not the part I was able to walk to. Maybe I didn't go for enough, but I sort of assumed the train station would be near a bunch of tourist destinations and I was wrong. Anyway, there's a squash tournament happening in the lobby and it's weird. 
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May 7, 2023 19:34
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cruft posted:There's stuff along Seattle's water, just not Chicago's canal. At least, not the part I was able to walk to. Maybe I didn't go for enough, but I sort of assumed the train station would be near a bunch of tourist destinations and I was wrong. I don't know a lot about Chicago, but my impression is that it's a lot like Toronto, if Toronto was American. |
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May 7, 2023 19:36
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i did amtrak from new orleans to IL last month. Tornadoes ripped up the tracks ahead of us and we had to stop in Memphis and I was on the train for over 30 hours total and they gave us pizza.
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May 7, 2023 19:38
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Finger Prince posted:I don't know a lot about Chicago, but my impression is that it's a lot like Toronto, if Toronto was American. I don't know,. Chicago has a really great music and arts scene. A lot of really important bands and musical artists came out of Chicago. I saw a lot of great shows there in the short period I lived there and got introduced to a lot of local acts that blew me away.
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May 7, 2023 19:49
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Escape From Noise posted:I don't know,. Chicago has a really great music and arts scene. A lot of really important bands and musical artists came out of Chicago. I saw a lot of great shows there in the short period I lived there and got introduced to a lot of local acts that blew me away. *ahem* Rush |
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May 7, 2023 20:03
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Finger Prince posted:*ahem* Rush Like I said, Chicago has good music...
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May 7, 2023 20:03
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But yeah Chicago does have more of a music scene than Toronto I think. I guess Toronto has the film industry and theaters though, so apples and oranges but both still fruit. |
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May 7, 2023 20:06
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Yeah, I can't say anything about Chicago other than Union Station is pretty, and the area around it is vacant on weekends. Okay so I got my boarding pass. It's a little slip of paper with my seat number and destination city one one side, and the train car number on the other side. When it's time to board, I'll go down to the car indicated and show the the pass. They let me on, and then I climb the stairs to get my seat. The conductor will come by and take my pass, then jam it into the overhead shelf, so they can remember where I'm going and wake me up before my stop if I'm asleep or whatever. I'm getting to check out fashions and honestly not much has changed since the 90s when I first started paying attention to this. The main changes I'm noticing is more body hair on men and women, and more tattoos. But the clothes seem to be pretty much the same. |
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May 7, 2023 20:07
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Oh, but you know what there's a lot more of now than there was in the 90s is luggage with wheels. I'm going to refrain from opining on that in this thread. |
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May 7, 2023 20:11
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I'm mostly just joking around but Chicago has a really serious music scene. Probably the most vibrant of any city I've lived in. You have the whole Chicago blues scene (which I know admittedly very little about) going back, but you also have weird seminal bands like Naked Raygun that led to Steve Albini launching his career with ex members of Naked Raygun to form Big Black. Then you have later noise acts like US Maple and Shellac formedcby Steve Albini after Big Black broke up. Then you have the whole house scene (that I again, know very little about) and then you have Wax Trax and the whole weird late 80's/early 90's industrial metal scene with Ministry, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, etc. There were so many shows going on all the time and so many great artists.
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May 7, 2023 20:26
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cruft posted:So, rear end-penny, it's looking unlikely that I'll have any free evenings. I'm going to be in manager schmooze mode for probably 10-14 hours a day, every day I'm there. I'll PM you if it looks like an opening is coming up, but don't hold your breath. yes please feel free to hit me up if you have energy. I'll pour one out for you if it doesn't happen  miss you tupac
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May 7, 2023 20:37
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Hot train tip: bring an extension cord. On the Superliner cars, the electrical outlet is on the outside wall. So if you get a window seat, the person next to you needs to drape their USB cable across your legs. A six-foot extension cord lets you locate an outlet between the seats that they can fiddle with and not have to mess with your legs. Once you have a travel extension cord, bring it with you on plane trips too. They come in so handy in so many situations. |
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May 7, 2023 21:05
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LOL, the train just derailed. |
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May 7, 2023 21:10
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May 7, 2023 21:11
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uh is everyone ok?? |
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May 7, 2023 21:35
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Dang those corkscrew tunnels! |
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May 7, 2023 22:00
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Everybody's fine, but this lady from New York is quite perturbed. I made a new friend named Dieldre who works in a long-term care facility. We're pals now. They moved us into another car and handed out snax. They say they're going to evacuate the train at some point and then..... Probably we wait for a long time. |
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May 7, 2023 22:43
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cruft posted:LOL, the train just derailed. 
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May 7, 2023 22:46
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I hear you can go kayaking on the chicago river https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSYNfFh24i4
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May 7, 2023 22:48
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sb hermit posted:I hear you can go kayaking on the chicago river Yeah, I saw a dude doing this. He was doing a sort of slalom around all the flotsam and it motivated me to post about all the junk in the river. |
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May 7, 2023 22:49
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They told us to leave all our stuff in the car, so I'm bored AF right now. I should have brought up my book. |
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May 7, 2023 23:00
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you are not really selling cross country train tickets here hoss lmao |
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May 7, 2023 23:05
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Yeah, well, if it would help, I can tell you about the time the plane got stuck on the tarmac for 6 hours before we finally returned to the airport and had to find some other way to get to Tennessee. I mean, travel delays happen for all kinds of reasons, regardless of your means of transport. Train travel in the US is seen as a kind of fun novelty, so a lot of the people on this train are like "this sucks I am never taking a train again". I get it, this is 100% of their train experience. But, look, at the end of the day, this is a hundred times better than sitting in a plane out in the sun, over black tarmac, with no A/C, for six freaking hours. The seats are still first class. The A/C is working great. There are electrical outlets so I can charge the phone, they're handing out snacks and water... I mean, as travel delays caused by mechanical failure go, this is a first class one. |
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May 7, 2023 23:18
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Barco Fiesta posted:i did amtrak from new orleans to IL last month. Tornadoes ripped up the tracks ahead of us and we had to stop in Memphis and I was on the train for over 30 hours total and they gave us pizza. This sounds like a win.
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May 7, 2023 23:50
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cruft posted:Yeah, well, if it would help, I can tell you about the time the plane got stuck on the tarmac for 6 hours before we finally returned to the airport and had to find some other way to get to Tennessee. Yeah, my best flying experience is worse than my worst train experience. But then, I haven't done a lot of either.
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May 7, 2023 23:53
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My best flying experience is better than my best train experience, and my worst train experience is probably worse than my worst flying experience, but for the huge chunk in the middle, I think my train experiences have generally been better. |
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May 8, 2023 00:20
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Got a shot of the derailed cars
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May 8, 2023 00:44
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cruft posted:The seats are still first class. The A/C is working great. There are electrical outlets so I can charge the phone, they're handing out snacks and water... I mean, as travel delays caused by mechanical failure go, this is a first class one. sounds like a good deal to me I'd rather be stuck on a train and eat free snacks then stay at home and run my AC bill and pay for my own snacks
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May 8, 2023 00:45
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cruft posted:Got a shot of the derailed cars Multi track drifting!!! |
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May 8, 2023 00:45
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cruft posted:Got a shot of the derailed cars 
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May 8, 2023 00:46
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