Howdy from Chicago

Oh hi the Poe!

So, how are you? Busy week? It was busy around here, at least for Benjamin and I.

This was the week of the big dental convention in Chicago. I went to check out all the different booth designs from our competitors and to see how our booth was doing. I recently redesigned our booth and I must say, it’s decent. Our sales team really likes it. That being said, I learned a lot and I think we can do better. 

The fun part was that I got to see Ben work his booth. He’s confident, professional, and outgoing. He also strikes a distinctive figure with his height and his style. It seems his coworkers think highly of him. 

He got in on Wednesday night and I got in on Thursday night. By the time I got to the hotel it was late and Ben had already eaten with his coworkers. So I checked in, got kicked out of my room and sent across the street to an even fancier hotel. I guess they had oversold my hotel. By the time that was settled Ben was back so we went to look around. I was hoping to find a local place to eat. Downtown Chicago is huge, like it makes San Francisco seem, well not small but not vast like I found Chicago to be. Interestingly, there’s a whole underground city that started less than a block from the hotel. It was fun to explore with Ben. After a couple of blocks under ground we saw this burger joint that Ben recognized from YouTube. It’s called the Billy Goat Saloon. And while the served beer there, it was more of a burger joint. It was a very old style burger. Just patties and cheese on a bun. All they had for toppings were these thick sliced pickles, white onions, and mustard and ketchup in packets. The didn’t even serve fries, just chips. I was not super impressed. But wow, the burger was delicious and it was fun to eat it with Ben. It turns out that that place was more renowned than just YouTube. In the 70s there was a movie filmed in the underground and the actors would eat there. Those actors were also on Saturday night live. And they created a famous sketch based on that restaurant that I remember seeing on tv when I was in junior high. 

The next morning Ben and I caught the shuttle to the convention center. It was about a 45 minute ride and a lot of it was underground.when we came to the surface it was the first time I saw the city scape in the daylight. Wow, the scale was massive and imposing, but so cool. The convention was also huge but by then Ben was an old pro and served as my guide. It was fun seeing my company people. I spent the next several hours walking the floor, taking pictures of booths, seeing what was drawing people in, looking for cool ideas that we could incorporate into out future booths, and introducing myself to a lot of people, even our competitors. It was really fun. I met Ben in the food court for a Chicago style hotdog —not terrible for a food court. 

After a while I figured I had seen everything I could see, several times. So I decided to take off and go see one of my bucket list items. The Chicago Museum of Science and Technology. There was a ton of cool stuff but the thing I had always wanted to see was a captured German U-boat from WW2. I sadly got there too late to tour the inside of the sub, but the experience was up to expectations never the less. I have to say it was a top ten museum experience for me.

I headed back to the hotel, the Uber took Lake Shore Drive, which is the famous roadway that hugs the south shore of Lake Michigan. The view was breathtaking as we came up to the skyline of downtown. Seemed like everywhere I looked I recognized a landmark from a movie or tv show. Ben’s team had invited me to dinner with them which was so kind of them. But you know me and you know that I have limited social capacity for each day. So I hatched a sneaky plan to get Ben to come to dinner with me. I googled Chicago style pizza with high reviews within walking distance, luckily for me he was as spent socially as I was so it was a pretty easy to convince him. We walked the two blocks and found a charming restaurant that looked like it had been around since WW2. The pizza was great as was the company. It had gotten really cold by the time we were done so the walk back was cold and snowy. But it man was it pretty.

Saturday morning I had no duties and I had several options of things to do before I had to go to the airport so I decided I wanted to see Chicago. I started by going to the Willis tower, formally the sears Tower, which held the title of the worlds tallest building until the 90s. There was a viewing platform on the 103rd floor. Wow, it was spectacular. That didn’t take all that long so I decided to walk the streets to Millennial park, wow, what a great city, I’m attaching pics. 

I had been assigned a talk for today on Preparing for the temple. I had been thinking about it intently all week, especially on the trip, and then even more on the way home. The problem is, every time I started to write the talk out I’d get frustrated. So I decided I was just going to give it without notes. I think I did fair job, but time goes fast and the other speakers went long, so I only gave about 1/3 of what I had planned.

For dinner we had classic roast beef and mashed potatoes. I really missed you making the potatoes. Mine were good though, but I really thought of all the potatoes you made for us over the years.

It’s late and I’m tired, so I’m going to send this now, love.

Pops