During the winter of 2006 I flew out to Chicago from Wyoming to visit my (then) girlfriend who lived there. I was only there for about a week or so, but it was cool because it was my first time there, and I flew by myself at the ripe age of 16, without anyone else guiding me along the way (no unattended minor this time).

I drove out to the Jackson, WY airport and parked my car at the edge of the parking lot because the parking lot was completely full with other holiday travelers’ cars. You weren’t supposed to park there, but I did it anyways and hoped for the best. Shortly thereafter I boarded the plane and flew to Chicago.

After flying to Chicago, I was greeted by nothing less than a limo driver. My girlfriend’s mom wanted to make sure I arrived in style, and she had a limousine pick me up, so that was pretty fun.

I was whisked away to my girlfriend’s place, where they graciously gave me a room to sleep in during my stay (since we were both in high school at the time, no room sharing was to be had of course). I did not have a good camera at the time, so you will have to excuse the terrible quality of the following photos.

One of the first things we did was that we all got in the car and drove around the suburbs of Chicago and checked out one specific street (I unfortunately can’t remember what the street was called), but it was heavily decorated with Christmas ornaments.

 

 

During the other days, we walked around a bit, and one of the more peculiar sites I saw was a mini golf course, complete with mini-houses. It was closed for the winter, but it was kind of neat looking, since I was as tall as the buildings themselves. It kind of made me feel like I was Godzilla or something.
Lightly decorated in the Christmas spirit

The highlight of the trip as far as attractions go was the Museum of Science and Industry, which happened to have a Star Wars exhibit while I was visiting. The force really was with me it seems.

The main part of the museum was of course about, namely, science and industry. It’s been unfortunately so long since I was there that I can’t really go into details about what each individual exhibit was.

Since there was a temporary Star Wars exhibit, there was a Rancor among the chicks, which was kind of funny. I am not sure what exhibit the chicks belonged to, but I assume something to do with biology.

A huge rifle round which was pretty much as big as my hand

And then we got to the Star Wars exhibit.

 

 

 

And that’s about all the (halfway decent) pictured I have unfortunately. All of the other pictures are terrible as they are too out of focus or the lighting is terrible. As I mentioned, my camera at the time was pretty terrible (it was a cheap camcorder if I recall, and I was just using it for the still-shot function most of the time). In any case, it was a fun first experience in Chicago. Blanketed in snow, and with a Star Wars exhibit to boot, it was a great big step away from home that wasn’t supervised by a family member.

After a few more days in Chicago, I flew back home before my Christmas break ended. I walked to where I parked my car and found it at the edge of the parking lot with no other cars around it as everyone else had already come back and retrieved their vehicles. It had luckily not been towed, but it was completely isolated and covered in snow which I had to clean off before I could drive home.

I later moved to Chicago, so I will revisit Chicago with many more (higher quality) photos and stories about my other visits in the city.

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