It took us over 1 hour to go through immigration at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. The line was good in the fact they spread people a long way down the hallways and we were walking the entire time until we got close to the immigration kiosks. I thought it was a good strategy for weight loss for Americans returning to the USA.
The air conditioning system at our hotel, the Double Tree by Hilton was out last night. Our room wasn’t too bad, but with hot temperatures on the summer solstice last night, they must have received a lot of complaints. The hotel desk was nice about it and gave us complimentary breakfast and a late check out to make up for the uncomfortable night. The pool was not working either, which causes me to think it might be a more systemic problem.
The best thing about staying close to the airport is the Des Plaines River Trail, a forest reserve along the Des Plaines River just east of the airport. Oliver and I went for a walk in the morning and saw quite a few deer. You can hear a lot of traffic and planes landing, but they have some big trees and I spotted a woodpecker and a kingfisher. Later in the afternoon, I went for a run and it was delightful to be running in the shade on a hot, summer day. We also took an Uber in the morning to the Trader Joe’s in Park Ridge, a tony suburb of Chicago in the far northwest of the city. Nadia and Ocean love new grocery stores and Trader Joe’s is a boutique supermarket with lots of interesting products.
I love the long travel days because our family is together. It is so nice to spend time with our teenagers as we go across the world. The flight to Istanbul was 5 hours and then another 11 hours to Chicago.
I am writing this at our gate in O’Hare Airport to take the final flight of our travel home to Marquette. The views from the plane were spectacular as we flew north along the shore of Lake Michigan. I noticed the Upper Peninsula is mostly forest compared to the farmland of southern and central Wisconsin.
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