Chicago Day 1

We got up by about 6:3o am. Yes... even on a holiday. Thanks to Vivek. Did I mention that he is a early riser. He wakes up between 6- 6:30 am everyday!!! We did try to sleep in but no such luck. We got dressed and headed down to the restaurant for breakfast. Had an eggcellent breakfast and set out to explore downtown Chicago. It was a glorious day. Temp were 20 degrees above normal for this part of the year. Which was great because we could get out.
We walked thru Madison Ave toward Michigan Ave. On the way we stopped at St Peter's Cathedral - a Catholic church. A very modernistic and beautiful church. We spent a few moments there, also got to talk to the priest there. At Michigan Ave we went to the Lego store. Yes... I know Vivek is too young for Legos but not his parents!!! We had a blast there and we did pick up some thing for Vivek which he will get to open when he is 2 yrs old!!! Here is a picture at the store.



Vivek did fabulous all thru our walk. He slept most of the time. We grabbed some lunch. Great choices in big cities for vegetarians. Ha.. glad we didnot have to survive on subway sandwiches. On our way back we met our friend Ashwin... he works at the Sears towers which was about 5 blocks from our hotel. We had coffee in a swanky Italian coffee shop. Vivek got to meet Ashwin. in is an old friend. I know him from my college days. We did German together. And he also lived in Toronto while we were there. Now of course he and his family are in Chicago. We will get to see them soon. After coffee we headed back to the hotel and rested for an hour since we had to go to a friends place for dinner.


We had to be ready by 6pm since our host was coming by to pick us up. We were up and ready much before. Did I mention that we were in Chicago because Raghu had a conference? And the conference begins tomorrow... Friday.The hotel we are staying in also happens to be the conference hotel because of the proximity to the De Paul Centre where conference is being held. While we were getting ready we got a call from a dear friend Josh- another mathematician. He arrived for the conference and was staying at the same hotel!!! So Raghu and Vivek headed down to the lobby to meet him. Josh got to see Vivek for the first time. Josh has a son who is about 8 month. The second gen mathematicians!!!
We spent a few minutes chatting with Josh and then left for dinner. We had a great dinner. Authentic South Indian food. Yum!!!! I miss home!!!!
We got back to the hotel pretty late by about 11 pm. Raghu needs his sleep as he has to be at the conference centre by 7 am. I am glad I don't have to be up so early!!! Well right now I am sleepy. More tomorrow.