Wow, can a blog gather dust and cobwebs? I guess if anything major's been going on I've been talking about it on Facebook.Well Jay and I recently traveled to Chicago for the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show on April 16th, 17th and 18th. We were able to take the train out this time. We tried to take the train out last time, but at the time the rain was so heavy parts of the track were underwater. We drove over to Winona to catch the train. I've never even seen a passenger train before so I had no idea what to expect. The first thing that struck me was how tall it was! It turns out there is an upper level and a lower level on each car. I have to say all other things being equal, I think I'd take a train over driving and definitely over flying for several reasons:
- Amatrak didn't treat it's customers like the enemy
- We didn't have to arrive two hours early and prove we weren't terrorists
- There was plenty of leg-room, even in coach
- There were outlets by all the seats
- You could get up and wander around the train
- There was an observation car where you could just kick back and watch the scenery fly past
- There was a dining car where you could sit down and order decent food
- No rush-hour traffic or tolls to worry about
We got into Chicago around 4pm on Friday. The train ride took about as long as it would have to drive out.
The train depot was in what I'd consider the 'downtown' area, so it was just over a mile walk to our hotel. We were actually right along the river, across from the Trump Tower.We settled into the hotel, before trying to find the Giordano's where we ate a couple years ago. I think we got there at just the right time. We put our order in, and only had to wait about twenty or thirty minutes before we were seated. The place started filling up while we were waiting, and just kept getting more crowded as we ate. I thought we learned our lesson last time and only ordered a small pizza, but we were were feeling full after only two slices each. Since we didn't have a fridge back in the hotel room, I felt obligated to finish it off. By the time we finished the last two pieces, we figured we should walk around, check things out, and at least burn off some calories! On out way out of the restaurant Jay was flabbergasted to see three or four guys eating two medium pizzas. Keep in mind the two of us were stuffed after eating one small pizza!
I was kind of surprised how cool the weather was. I don't think it got much warmer than 40 or 50 degrees while we were out there. Since it was 60 or 70 in Minnesota I didn't think to bring a jacket, but I did have a couple long sleeve shirts.
We walked along Michigan Avenue, and eventually decided to stop and check out the Apple store. I got to try out an iPad in person. Jay had already seen a coworkers. It was kinda neat, but it basically struck me as scaled up iPhone or iPod touch. There's obviously a market for it, but I can't think of what I'd use one for.It probably wasn't much later that we decided to head back to the hotel and get some rest for the next day.
The next morning we got up and decided to grab breakfast before the show opened. We wound up going to a place called Yolk that was on the way to the convention center. The menu was really varied, and Jay had a tough time figuring out what to eat! He finally settled on the walnut waffles, and I had banana bread french toast! After breakfast we found a bus that would get us close to McCormic Place. My dad said McCormic Place was the biggest convention center in the States, and after seeing the place I wouldn't doubt it!
KBIS was there along with a big comic book, video game and anime convention! It was easy to tell what was going on when we started walking past people in costumes. One guy was dressed like Obi-Wan, and later we saw someone else dressed as a GhostBuster. Jay said if I was very good I could go hang out with the other geeks later!I think we spent most of the day walking around, and still didn't see all of the exhibits. There was a lot of cool stuff to see but I thought the GE smart appliances were the most interesting. It seemed like they were still in a beta stage but a representative said they had trial programs in a handful of cities. There's basically a module that gets installed in a house and it acts as a hub for all the smart appliances. An electrical utility can signal the module and let it know about high and low electrical peaks. So a refrigerator will only enter a defrost cycle when electricity is cheap. If you start a load of laundry during peak electrical hours, it will ask if you want to delay until power is cheaper, but it will allow you to start immediately if you want. The whole system seems to default to running appliances when it's cheapest, but lets you override with no hassle.
One of the high points was when we were wandering though a kitchen display when all the sudden Jay grabs my arm and starts pointing at someone.
"Do you know who that is?"
"Umm, no?"
"You don't recognize him at all?"
"No."
"It's Ed!"
"Okay..."
"Ed! From Extreme Home Makeover!"
"OH!"
So we stood in line for a little while and eventually got to talk to him. Jay didn't want to take too much of his time, because there were people waiting in line behind us. Ed seemed like a real nice, cordial guy. He took a few minutes to talk to everyone, pose for pictures, and even hand out autographed pictures! After meeting Ed, we wandered around the show floor a little more and Jay ran into a vendor he knew. The guy showed us a new line of countertops make from recycled materials like corn cobs, beer bottles, mirrors and a few other things. It's amazing what people will come up with!
After a while we stopped at a little food court and grabbed some lunch. At that point we were finally reaching the edge of the show floor but we were walking past a bunch of vendors I'd never heard of. Turns out KBIS is international. We were actually walking though the Italian Pavilion, the Chinese Pavilion, the French Pavilion, and a few others I've probably forgotten. At that point we had been though about three-quarters of the exhibits, and walked across an atrium to see the rest. The first section was predominantly cabinets, kitchen and bath fixtures and the like, while the next part seemed to focus on appliances.
We spent a lot less time on the appliance side but I think we saw everything that looked interesting. Jay actually stopped to talk with another vendor who wasn't sending updated catalogs and samples to his store. I guess if you're going to drop a few thousand on a countertop, you might actually want to see a physical sample of said countertop!
It was probably about 4:30 pm by the time we finished looking at everything, and the show was closing at five. I was also aching, tired and a little crabby. I can't even guess the distance we walked. We headed out to the bus station, passing a lot of costumed folks from the comic book show. A note to the geek community: just because someone looks good in spandex in a comic book, doesn't mean you can pull it off in real life. Ulch.
Luckily the bus dropped us half a block from the hotel, so it wasn't long before we were back in our hotel room peeling off shoes and collapsing into chairs and beds! After taking it easy for a little while, we decided it would probably be a good idea to go get some dinner.
We wound up at a place called "Billy Goat's Tavern & Grill." Apparently it was the setting for a Saturday Night Live skit. It wasn't easy to find because it was actually under Michigan Avenue. The place was a typical greasy spoon, and not being regulars, we had no idea what to do when we walked in. There wasn't anyone to show us to a table so we just kinda stood there clueless until the bartender came out and told us we could sit wherever we wanted, and when we were ready to order a burger, just head up and place an order with the cook. The burgers weren't really anything to write home about, but now we can brag about eating someplace connected to Saturday Night Live. When it was good!
After dinner both of us were ready to call it a day, so back to the hotel, and eventually off to bed.
The next morning we went out and wandered around for a while trying to find someplace to get breakfast. Eventually we wound up at a place just around the corner from our hotel called, oddly enough, the Corner Bakery Cafe.
The timing for the rest of the day was odd. We couldn't think of anything to do Sunday morning that worked with our checkout time, so we just went back to the hotel and hung out for a while before checking out. The plan from there was to walk down to the train station, stuff our bags in a locker, and then Jay wanted to check out the glass atrium of the Sears tower, or whatever the hell it's suppose to be called now.
Well we made it to the station and even found the lockers.
Allow me to digress. Computers are good for a lot of things like, e-mail, word processing, making a huge number of mistakes in a short amount of time...
Hell I wouldn't have the career I do without computers. But what the world does not need is computerized lockers with biometric security and an implementation so counter-intuitive that no one can use the locker without the help of an attendant, who conveniently disappeared when we could have used some help... After about five minutes of fscking with the lockers we gave up. Neither of us wanted to haul luggage around while sightseeing so we just sat around the train station until it was time for us to board and head back home.
The trip back home was pretty much the same as the trip out. Jay and I headed into the observation car as soon as the train pulled out of the station. On the way out Jay was wondering how fast the train was going. But, it wasn't until the trip back that I remembered there's an app on my phone that I use for tracking bike rides (yes there's an app for that) that includes your current speed.I'd also like to say, hallowed are the Google maps on an iPhone. I'm sure our time in Chicago would have been a little more difficult if we couldn't look up directions and track out progress, to make sure we were heading in the right direction! You could also ask it to calculate routes that included public transportation! So you'd put in your origin, destination, and it would give you directions like 'Go to bus stop X. Take bus Y, which departs in five minutes...' Luckily we looked right at home with the half of Chicago that was walking around staring at mobile phones!
