I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto

The original plan after Flagstaff was to stop in Kansas. However, while on the train and looking at our options we decided to skip it. Yep, miss out Kansas City altogether. It would have meant getting on and off the train very early, trying to get to a hotel quite a distance away and to be honest besides a giant shuttlecock, there's not much in Kansas. Indeed, most Americans had laughed when we told them we were going to Kansas City. Apparantly we are far too cultured to go to such a place.


Here is the giant shuttlecock that we could have seen. It's so... beautiful. What did we do, how could we have missed this. I'm booking a ticket to Kansas City just so I can see it with my own eyes


Without stopping in Kansas City, it did mean a 31 hour train ride to Chicago. We had a brief stop in Alburquerque to replenish on snacks and stretch our legs. The only problem with this, was that we had no accomadation booked. And we didn't realise until we got to Chicago that there was a large music festival on, meaning the hostel was fully booked up. This wasn't helped when going to the the tourist information centre and asking about accomodation. "How many of you are there" we were asked was quickly followed by "7 of you!" with a frightened expression on her face. We managed to find a motel and split into two different rooms.

Our first morning saw us go on a walking tour from the hostel. We didn't go that far and our guide spent most of the time talking about railways. It was choo choo riffic


Here's the fountain which was apparantly featured on Married with Children. It is therefore known as the Bundy fountain


The rail system that runs through Chicago. It was actually used to film the train sequence in Spiderman 2 with New York painted into the background. You can use all this film and television knowledge I'm giving you to impress family and friends


The view from our giant hostel room. Chicago was quite surprising with it's wonderful architecture. Although Andy saw more than he bargained for in the actual room itself


Our room was so big, Gav needed a map to navigate his way around


Ian and Liz go and pray to the giant face on the wall


While Gav stands in awe of the giant silver bean


Either our refelctions in the giant silver bean or evil versions of ourselves from a mirror universe


Keenie and evil Keenie, which one were we travelling around with though? If we had the good Keenie then I fear for the mirror universe


After a mind bending music visual experience in the planatarium, we were greeted with a great view of Chicago at night


I stole this picture from Gav as I didn't have my camera with me that night. You can find a link to all his pictures at the side of the blog. We went out somewhere, there was a bar and some things and some other things, stuff happened and there was a bowling arcade machine


Now, what would a city be without a tower to go up. But this time we had the choice of two. Either the Sears Tower, which used to be the tallest in the world or the John Hancock Tower. With the promise of an outdoor balcony and that we'd also be able to get pictures of the Sears Tower we went with Mr JH


The outdoor balcony was a bit of a let down but there in the background you can see the Sears tower. It made it all worth it


That looks dangerous. There was no stunt men involved


Gav pondering his future career options. He keeps appearing in my Chicago pictures for some reason


This may look like the sea but is actually Lake Michigan. It's quite big... and is full of water, with land around the outside


Another stop was the mini fairground. We went on the ferris wheel, the swings (Ian was too scared to go, crying like a baby he was) and finally a game of crazy golf. This was completed in heavy rainfall with myself pulling off another stunning victory to follow my success at Playland


Oooh, that's a bit of an arty shot. But what does it represent?

We were getting through so many cities in such a short space of time that you had to take pictures to remind yourself of where you were

A bit of excitement occured when the hostel had to be evacuated due to a fire alarm. Rumours that Keenie had tried to torch the place down proved to be unfounded

The hostel had free table tennis, we let Simon win all his matches. He's from the North, he doesn't have too much to celebrate

That was Chicago, the next stop would be Washington DC. Here we would have tea with Mr Bush and discuss the pros and cons of American foreign policy, the works and life of William Shakespeare and who was his favourite Tellytubby. It was Tinky Winky if you were wondering.