We leave the hotel, cross the street, get a glimpse of the city, and enter Macy's. This store is so much nicer than the New York store. I'm quite surprised. Mum is drawn to the alluring and somewhat confusing scents from Lush, the soap company, on the ground floor. The sales assistant offers her a hand scrub, which Mum accepts with pleasure. Her skin feels much softer afterwards. "How about the other hand?" Soap products aren't really on the souvenir list so we leave Lush with one hand short of a pampered pair.Macy's has a bias towards women. This store has eight levels and the first seven levels are for women; only the eighth for men. I ask Mum to come and find me on the men's floor when she is done looking at the women's. With a bit of panic, she asks, "How will I find you?!" Ummm, look for me. I'll be on one floor only. To help with the process, I take her up to look for a wallet I like. I find it and a few minutes later she goes down the escalator to return to the women's clothes. Within thirty seconds she hurriedly comes back: "I have no idea where I just went! I was in a different set of shops. I wasn't even in Macy's! I told you I'd get lost!" It seems Mum's uncanny ability to become lost by turning 180o around strikes again. She had taken a different set of escalators. I take her to the original escalators. I buy the wallet.
Eric calls to meet us for lunch and we're still in Macy's. Luckily, there is a fantastic food hall in the building. Mum could have found this if she kept going earlier but at least we're all searching for it together now. Eric's sense of direction is in the same league as Mum's. We find the queue for the entrance to the food hall and we wait.
I'm a little curious: I didn't realise food halls have queues. Eric explains that this one is quite different. A server will assign you a table when it becomes free, the table is reserved for you, and each person at the table is given a swipe card to 'purchase' food at the various food stalls. When finished, you flip the table's reserved card to indicate that it can be cleaned for the next group of people and you pay the accumulated total of each card at the cash registers at the exit. It saves handling money while purchasing the actual food. It's a brilliant idea!
Next on the agenda for today is to see Chicago from the Hancock Tower. This is a very tall building. There are three levels available in the elevator: 94, 95, and 96.
The observation deck on level 94 costs money to simply view; the restaurant on level 95 is closed, as it's mid-afternoon; but if we have a cocktail on level 96 there will be no entry cost. That doesn't seem too taxing! The view is as incredible as it sounds from such a height. The air-con isn't working in our area and the afternoon sun is radiating through the window with force so we're feeling a little tipsy and sweaty after one drink. Photos, click, snap, laugh, drink, fan the heat away. One drink is enough.
Our never-ending tour guide, Eric, takes us on a fairly short bus ride to Millennium Park. Unfortunately, it is closed. However, the outdoor concert area and the large silver bean right beside the gardens are great sights. I especially like the quirky effects on light that the silvery bean produces in my brain. There's a beating sound from afar with people chanting. We rush over to look at the footpath/sidewalk and see a parade. No, wait, a protest. Buses and traffic are blocked up on one of the streets and people are orderly walking, chanting, and holding placards displaying the word 'Occupy'. We saw the 'Occupy Wall St' marches in New York and now they have spilled over to Chicago. We're following this protest around the country. I could write a documentary on it.
Back at Eric's, I show him the functions on his TV and he is flabbergasted. He has no idea his TV has so many functions, as I suspected. We all have a drink of black Sambuca and get stuck into the TV tutorial session with Professor Bri. Eric is like a little boy with a new toy. Right, off to dinner... Eric knows a great Mexican restaurant where - you guessed it - he knows the owners. We walk from Eric's through the scary area to the restaurant. The scary area has all sorts of people where's quite a bit of crime. We make it safely to the restaurant but the owners aren't there when first arrive. Instead, a young Mexican waiter takes our order. His command of English is... well, he doesn't have one. When we ask what something is, he says "yes". When we say its name again and ask what it is in a different way, he says its name. 
He brings out our entrees with a smile. We eat our entrees but before we're finished, the waiter brings out a free serving of ceviche to alleviate the slight frustration we'd felt when ordering. Eric is allergic to seafood so Mum and I dig in. We're pretty full by now. Our mains arrive. They are HUGE. I think food from the last two days is clogging up inside me. I look in disbelief at the large burrito in front of me that is filled with two chickens and three blocks of cheese. Black beans and rice are on the side. Mum has a savoury chocolate sauce on her meal along with refried beans. We eat about a third each and can't fit in any more. The owners arrive and are pleased to see Eric. They're brothers and lovely guys. Although we can't really fit any more in, we order a single slice of three-milk cake as dessert to share. The waiter brings out three pieces of three-milk cake with two of them as a gift. Ugh! How do you refuse a gift? Bloated.The sensible thing to do after such a large meal would be walking for hours, sleeping it off, or maybe even purge. Although, I'd never recommend the latter (but I still want to do it!). With my belly looking down over my belt line at my feet, we set off on foot for Sidetrack, the gay bar. I feel very self conscious until Eric explains what tonight's Show Tunes is all about. Famous scenes from movies are shown on the large screens at Sidetrack on Monday nights while the bunch of queens at the bar sing along to the songs or make up songs to the dialogue. We arrive and the place is packed, the videos are playing, and then an uproar of male voices sings along to the chorus in a song. The lines are fantastic! So funny! The singing/shouting out lines goes on an off. Some clips are more popular than others. A musical appears on the screen where some people are being sent off on a cruise ship. Eric hands us a pile of serviettes and says, "you'll know what to do with these when the time comes." We watch intently, the crowd is singing at its loudest, the boys are getting excited handing out serviettes to everyone, and boys from the back come running to the main area to join in for this special treat... then the ship sails for a bon voyage and everyone throws their serviettes in the air! This occurs every Monday night. What an hilarious event!
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