Home from Phoenix, Home from the Airport

Phoenix travelog #4
Back home · Mon, 18 Aug 2025, 8pm

Our flight home from Phoenix on Monday left 45 minutes late due to numerous aircraft swaps. Partly to make up for it our route home from the airport was swift. That was a mood lifter because waits at the destination airport always seem 10x longer than they actually take, whether it's for checked luggage to arrive on the conveyor or for a hailed driver to appear. Well, we drove & parked out own car, so there was no waiting. There was barely even any walking....



As we came down the escalator from the gate area to baggage claim we could see our car parked outside. We were in the second row!

Partly this primo location is from choosing to drive & park in this particular lot. The cost has increased over the past few years but it's still a tad cheaper than a roundtrip Uber/Lyft ride from home. (Plus there's the schedule certainty of not wondering how long it will take for the driver to come or how many times a driver cancels & has to be reassigned.) When I parked here two weeks ago it was a 5 minute walk each way to/from the terminal. The reason we're parked so close today is because we're using Hawk's disability placard.

More Pics from Chicago

Chicago Trip Log #10
Almost a week later

A few days ago I posted some pics from Chicago. Those were only about half the photos I wanted to share. I'm posting the rest here. Yes, these are from a trip that's now almost a week ago. "Almost a week later" isn't bad.... I've still got a few picture blogs in my backlog from visiting the Oregon Cascades a month and a half ago! Plus some even older stuff in the backlog that I'm ashamed to mention how old it is.



This is the Aqua Tower just north of Millennium Park in Chicago. I stayed at the Radisson Blu hotel, which is on floors 1-18. I had a really nice corner room on the 10th floor. As you can see from the photo, though, the building has a lot more than 18 floors. Floors 19 to, I think, 80 are a condo. Yes, it's a tall building— that's why it's ridiculous that every Uber/Lyft driver my friends and I called had trouble finding it.

Wednesday evening most of the sales team left, and my sales engineering team went out for dinner. My boss chose a restaurant within easy walking distance. And the weather Wednesday was beautiful! Especially around 5:30pm, once it had cooled down a tad. As we started walking a few of my colleagues shouted, "Hey, there's the Bean!"



They're talking about a metal sculpture known as The Bean in Millennium Park. We detoured slightly to take photos in front of it.



Here's a selfie I snapped with the buildings along Michigan Avenue reflected in the metalwork.



After dinner the Chicago weather was still beautiful, just less sunny. 🤣 We might've gone out carousing, but I think all of my colleagues were as tired as I was. We walked back to the hotel where most of us gathered for a nightcap at the bar in the lobby, then went up to our rooms. I was back in my room by 10pm. It had been a couple of long days already— with one more to go!