Virginia and Chicago
August 18-20, 2026 - get to Chicago via Alexandria and New York.
Frankly, the next few days (Arlington and Chicago) are administrative/housekeeping. Occasionally I stop briefly to check on family graves and to say hello to dead relatives. This was the goal of our time in Virginia and Chicago. I'm happy to report that everyone is fine.
August 18 we left Lisa and Rob and drove over to Alexandria, VA, thankfully missing the worst of the traffic. Arlington is looking a bit "worse for wear" except there were some beautiful Monarch butterflies drying their wings.
Our hotels
(Hampton Inn)
(Homewood Suites)
(Double Tree)
and breakfasts
have been nothing to write home about, but I include photos for completeness.
Meals, in general, have been nothing to write home about. In Alexandria we had salad at a local sub shop - Potbelly - that had a "funny" slogan on the wall.
We were one night in Virginia and then overnighted the next night near BWI Airport because we had a 7am train the next morning.
Dinner in Maryland was at a Mexican restaurant where they had darn good guacamole and darn average (but huge) chicken burrito. The side salad was disgusting. I stopped for some ice cream afterwards (it was my one meal, so I was hungry).
The next morning was an early one to get to the train station and the start of a very long day. 1 Uber ride, 4 trains, and 1 flight later we were in Chicago. Amazingly nothing was delayed. Most of the trains were rather run down. One of the windows was so bad that we weren't sure why they bothered to install it (right photo).
of course we had to have some champagne in the BA lounge in JFK.
Buni is sitting on (no, it's not a hat) the beginnings of my next crocheting project. As many of you know, I crochet blankets with donated yarn for breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. This pattern is a mandala (currently hat-size). It's looking promising, so far.
ORD continues to grow and grow, but we were able to enjoy something I remember from 50 years ago, crossing the bridge over the expressway. Always fun for passengers and drivers.
Chicago is known for its deep dish pizza and we had a pretty good one in a lesser known place - Louiza's. We stayed in the (very) South side of Chicago (111st) and it was too far to go to Gino's or Uno's. Even so, it was very tasty (and very salty).
The next day, after doing my housekeeping work, we enjoyed another thing I remember from my childhood - White Castle Hamburgers. I realized I was last there over 50 years ago and felt quite ancient. It still tasted disgustingly good. 10 sliders, 1 large fries, 1 vanilla shake. (Yes we did share this. Yes, I ate most of it. Yes, this is why I have a weight problem)
Our final stop for the day was Garrett's popcorn. I got a small Garrett Mix which will be my breakfast for the morning:)
Tomorrow we are off to Seattle, WA
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