I got a trip to Chicago as a birthday present from my mother. I've only now found the time to complete my account of the trip. It's a beautiful, fun city that everyone should visit at least once in their life. I'd been to Chicago in 1986, 1992, 1996, 2001, and 2002, plus various day trips. The main feature of most of these visits has been the Art Institute of Chicago, which we deliberately avoided this time around in order to spend our time differently.

I went up on April 17 with my mother and my aunt Karen. Our first destination was the Shedd Aquarium. There I saw a green tree python, many colors of poison dart frogs, one species of nonpoisonous frogs who mimic the coloration of their poisonous cousins, suckermouthed catfish, cool armored fish I want to call "paquins" even though I'm sure that's not what they were called, Australian lungfish (which are HUGE), Livingston fish (that's lionfish for non-Trekkies), tiny fish that looked bluish-silver or greenish-silver depending on how they caught the light, those seahorses that look like seaweed (I don't remember what they're called), seadragons (which look like something out of Captain N), crown of thorns starfish, slate urchins, and many other amazing animals. I'll take some time to describe a few that really stood out.

Early in our visit, we passed by a tank with neon blue jellyfish. Later on, my mom wanted us to take a close look at the PINK glowing jellyfish she saw. This puzzled me until we relocated the jellyfish tank and saw that there was a colored light illuminating the jellyfish that changed color every few seconds. The jellyfish themselves were transparent, and probably almost invisible without the special light.

One of the tanks had a pair of cæcilians, among other animals. In the time I was looking at the tank, two different groups of girls came by and wondered what the cæcilians were. So I ended up explaining to a total of about seven people that they weren't snakes, or eels, but legless, blind amphibians.

I was thrilled to see a tank labelled "Giant Centipede," but it took a while for me to find the centipede. It was on the underside of a piece of wood shedding its skin. It was a cool sight, although I wish I could've seen it from a better angle.

There was a large aquarium filled with branches and leaves labelled "Chameleon." Me and 5 other adults searched in vain for the camouflaged lizard until a small boy pointed out a sign that clearly said the chameleon had been temporarily moved.

The dolphins were gone while their tank was being overhauled, so there was a dog show scheduled instead of a dolphin show. No, I don't understand either. Anyway, the show was sort of entertaining and sort of educational, but honestly not much of anything. At one point I got glared at because I cracked up laughing when a black Labrador retriever was demonstrating his drug-sniffing abilities by finding hidden coffee grounds. It was because it reminded me of a time when James told me a story about a lazy black Lab and did a hilarious black Lab impression while telling it.

Another non-aquarium-related feature at the Shedd Aquarium was a red-tailed hawk. "Ironically it has a red tail," the handler said in his presentation.

We stayed at the Congress Plaza Hotel, a nice place near Grant Park that we stayed at before in 2002. It had a great view of the lake, and things looked amazing at night, with Buckingham Fountain and Navy Pier all lit up. But it did make me long for the Hancock Building. My family got to stay in a high-up apartment there for a week in 1992, and nothing compares to the night view from that vantage point.

For dinner on the seventeenth we went to a place that was probably the Exchequer Restaurant & Pub (I might be confusing things). The food was good, but not great. I got a medium deep dish pizza that was absurdly large. My mom and I were eating leftovers of it for the following two days. This is as good a time as any to mention a place called the Artist's Snack Shop, which had great food and a very nice ambiance. I think we ate there twice during those three days.

Chicago has gotten even cooler since I was last there. Now there's Millennium Park (which, despite the name, opened in 2004). It includes the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, a bandshell designed by Frank Gehry; and the Cloud Gate, a sculpture designed by Anish Kapoor. I visited it on the eighteenth with Karen and my mother, then we split up, and I spent most of the day with my mom until we all met up for dinner. We got a good look around the downtown, and I took pictures of some of the more remarkable buildings. There are a lot of varieties of pigeons in Chicago, if you actually pay attention. After noting about eight different types I stopped keeping track. Another fascinating creature that's abundant in Chicago is cute girls. Unfortunately, I was never in a good situation to talk to any.

On my own, I went to Graham Cracker Comics, which made me feel like a kid again. It has dang near every single comic book D.C. and Marvel have published since 1980, plus posters, action figures (vintage and modern), and other memorabilia. They had very little from Dark Horse, but that's a small criticism. I saw things there that I thought I would never find (except maybe on eBay). I spent about an hour there, and ended up focusing my searches to "Batman" and "X-Men" comics to keep from becoming overwhelmed (or broke).

My purchases included the two comic books I bought in Chicago in 1993, which I'd since lost. Ironically the one that thrilled me as a ten year old seems rather weak now, while the one I thought was kinda boring proved very entertaining upon rereading (it helped that I'd forgotten the surprise ending). I also got a Comedian pin from Watchmen, which I'd been looking for in many places without any luck. It's been on my jacket ever since (except one day when I had a job interview). Graham Cracker Comics is a great place, with employees who really knew their stuff (although I felt weird being at a comic book store where the people working there were younger than me).

We had dinner at the rooftop restaurant of the Plymouth Restaurant & Bar. The food wasn't great, but the view was.

We checked out Grant Park that evening, then went back the next day to look it over in daylight. We still didn't fully explore it. It's rather large, and very beautiful. I especially liked this one sculpture of an eagle.

We'd planned to walk along the shore of Lake Michigan, but didn't get around to it until the morning of the nineteenth, when it was cold, rainy, and gloomy (after two days of perfect weather). We ended up just walking up to the pier and looking out into the lake.

Another place I'd planned to go was a nice little store on Michigan Avenue called Oriental Jewelry & Gifts. I went there in the summer of 2002 and bought a stone gargoyle (which I later made a painting of) and a book about gargoyles. I remembered the whole store having a gargoyle theme, but now I'm pretty sure that was never true. It's still there, and we ended up walking by it countless times, but, when we finally decided to go in on the nineteenth, they were closed (with no sign to indicate why). I wrote down the address so I can be sure to go there next time I'm in Chicago.

The main thing I remember from the nineteenth was going with my mom to Powell's Bookstore, which John had recommended. It was disappointing, but it wasn't entirely their fault, since they had just relocated and many of the books were still packed up or sitting around unorganized. I did have two interesting finds there, though.

One was a book on the sculptures of Constantin Brancusi. I saw it in laying in a pile among boxes and crates in a room labelled "Do not enter," so I had to ask about it then wait while one of the staff found a way in (since the entrance I saw it through was mostly blocked) and figured out the price. The pages are falling out, and the photographs are all in black and white, but it's the only Brancusi book I've ever seen, so I'm happy to own it.

In the midst of books about Classical music I saw a spine that just said "MESSAGES." I thought, "Wouldn't it be cool if that were about Orchestral Manœuvres in the Dark?" (because "Messages" is the title of one of their songs). I didn't honestly believe that was a real possibility, but when I pulled it out I soon realized it was a book I had never heard of covering the history of the band up to 1988 (it must have been finalized mere months before they broke up). I presume it was misfiled because of the "Orchestral" in the band's name. I was really excited to find it, especially after I got home and saw how much copies of it are going for online.

I'd like to talk about one more store I went to. I don't remember what it was called, but it had all kinds of neat crafts and trinkets. They had a bunch of things I would have killed for as a child, including models of a snail and a frog with transparent skin and visible organs, and a miniature human torso and head with removable organs. There was a fat coffee table book of the insect art of Christopher Marley, but it was $85.00, so I decided not to get it. I did get a puzzle of one of his photographs for my Grandma Bonnie, though.

On the way back home we passed by the Le Claire Welcome Center, which is the building where my dream about the T-1,000 and the Agate students took place. I had forgotten the real-life name and location of it, not to mention the circumstances under which I saw it. That's one mystery cleared up.

I wrote down some notes after I got home so I could write this complete narrative, but it's been so long that I've forgotten what one of them meant. I wrote "S&R by Wade Davis." That definitely refers to the book The Serpent and the Rainbow by Wade Davis, but I don't remember why I wrote it. It seems like there must have been some kind of a story there. I don't think I would've made note of it just because I found a copy of the book.

Since I've written my account of this trip up like some kind of essay, I feel obligated to finish it with some kind of a conclusion. But I can't think of anything fitting to conclude with. It was an immensely enjoyable experience. I'll just leave it at that.