Day 1 - 15th Feb 2009

Started the day at a reasonable 7 O'clock and Duncan gave us a lift to Heathrow. Arrived 2 hours early but the queues to check-in were huge so in the end were fairly rushed to get to our gate, which left us no time for airport shopping. Oh well I'm sure there will be plenty more airport shops to come!

After an 8 hour flight we'd arrived in Chicago! Cleared customs and got on the train to the city centre. After what seemed like a fair walk with our big packs we got to our hotel. Checked in without problem, quick shower then we were off to see Chicago.

Weather was fairly cold, grant park opposite our hotel had an snow sculpture exhibit which was pretty impressive and we did see a few showers of snow as we walked round. Walked through grant park up to the tourist information where we got some leaflets on things to do. Had a look round millenium park which had some intersting sculptured and a bendy bridge! Then walked on to Navy pier where we had burritos for dinner. We were pretty cold by the time we got there and so decided we would get the bus on the way back. Got back to our hotel and went for a quick swim, though by then we were feeling pretty tired from the jet lag. By 9 O'clock we were ready to fall asleep and so went to bed.