June 2018 ILLINOIS Palatine 1 - North Chicago Suburbs

On June 26 we headed to Chicago (my home town) or actually to Palatine, a northwest suburb of Chi-town. Departure time was 9:40am. The temp was a pleasant 70 degrees with high clouds. Near the Indiana border we had a 10 minute deluge of rain and then it cleared for the rest of the day.

We made one stop along the way. We have been to Chicago many times and always suffered through the many toll booth stops. This time pal Tim suggested we get an I-Pass. So we stopped at the first rest stop (they call it an Oasis) driving into Illinois and checked into it.

The deposit for the transponder was $10, plus an initial $20 banked toward future tolls. The unit attaches to your windshield and can be stored away when you are not on the road. Bonuses are: you avoid toll lane waits, you pay only 50% of the normal toll fee, and it works on toll roads in 16 midwest and eastern states. We highly recommend it. Read all about it at https://www.illinoistollway.com

Outside of that, it was an uneventful 180 mile trip. We arrived to our destination at 12:30pm. That was to the home of long time and fab friends Tim and Nancy

We made friends with Bob again. He is a big baby purr cat, but can turn on you much like Bella does on occasion. Don't touch that belly.

We had a chatty catch-up and then headed to a late lunch at Artistic Cuisine. Their menu offers a combination Argentinian, Latin American, and Italian menu. We tried various wraps, soups, calamari-two-ways, pizza, and sandwiches. Everything was delish.

Are you drooling yet?

Tim gave us a little driving tour of the area and then back to their place. We chatted a bit more. Finally we felt beat so we headed toward our hotel for check-in.

There was a big snafu with our room, which took a while to work out. But we finally got our king size bed. They basically checked us in to another person's room under their name. Never had that happen before.

Our view was a lovely mini farm garden.

After all was settled, we grabbed our warm chocolate cookie at the desk and settled in. Good night's sleep in our comfy bed and spacious room.