my only wound is on my right foot, 3rd toe...

yesterday morning came early as we got up and got ready for the taste. we knew it'd be packed and crowded and didn't want to have to fight the crowds...

our game plan: leave early, leave hungry, get in early, chow down on some grub and then explore Chicago, watch fireworks and go home.

we did all that and more

first we walked from the millennium garage where we safely parked our car near the exit to the surface (fast entry fast exit -- or so we thought) and walked to the main gate of the taste. after being told hatefully by some large black woman "its closed until 11pm you can not go in, go away" i smarted off "i'm just taking a picture lady, chill out, we weren't planning on going inside, yet" and i finished taking my picture and we walked away towards... the road that makes me think of Bilbo Baggins...

once we made a left onto that street and we came upon lake shore drive... OMIGOD that is alot of street and alot of cars! but with the help of a FRIENDLY crosswalk guard we made our way safely to the other side of LSD!

onward our journey to see the sail boats which were 50 feet infront of us now in the water and that 50 feet being water... (note: i have no idea of actual footage this is a guestimate if my numbers are wrong, keep them to yourself, thanks!!) i want a boat badly!! and this just helped enhance my hunger!!

we continued down the walkers path until we got to shedd aquarium. we WERE going in there but there was a line 50 miles long because of special holiday weekend pricing (bastards) and so we decided to pass. and the museum of something right next to it, we passed on that cuz joe's not a huge fan of museums. i got to see soldier field from a distance!! it was pretty awesome. then we strolled through grant park.

please keep in mind we arrived in chicago at like 9:00 am

so the taste doesn't open until 11 and we're still walking towards LSD. its about 15 til 10 now and we cross back over LSD to the "land" side. then we walk the block(sss) around the taste and finally end up somewhere not far from the funky looking ampitheatre to wait out our fate. here it is 10:30 am and we are exhausted. boy do we have a long day in store for us!

after what seems like 15 hours instead of 15 minutes they call for people to start lining up at the entrances and make an announcement about drinking plenty of water and how they must search all bags, etc etc. another 15 minutes that seems like 25 hours this time and the flood gates open, literally!!

the 1st thing we tried was the frozen chocolate dipped bananas. then we had garlic mozzarella bread. next came mozzarella cheese sticks. free cup of amp energy drink. then we had chocolate and caramel popcorn. next came hushpuppies. we scored some homemade potato chips. finally we had stuffed sausage then stuffed spinach pizza. and our hunger was sated for a moment.

it was beginning to get crowded (that's funny right?) and it was after noon. we'd only been IN the taste itself for roughly an hour and 20 minutes?? wow it didn't seem very long at all!

next we headed into downtown to see the architecture and just roam around. we had no idea where we were going until joe had the bright idea to see the sky deck at sears tower.

we got there after an hour of walking so its about 1:20 or so in the afternoon and there is a long line but we figure, we got time to kill til the fireworks so we'll wait. the line moved fairly rapidly. we were at the door in 15 minutes. then in the elevator in 15 minutes. once downstairs i'd say it took about 30 minutes to get from one compartment to the next and then the movie so about an hour traveling under the tower to get to the elevators. and we must have had perfect timing because the next thing you know there is a door that opens and this man says "you guys from me back i need about 50 people, we're forming another line" and guess what? in 2 minutes (1 to walk to elevator and 1 to go up in elevator) we were on the 1st skydeck. 99th floor.

omigod i was 99 floors up in the sky! people looked like ants and cars looked like matchbox toys!! you shoulda seen the taste from up there!!

then we traveled to the 103rd floor where the skyboxes are... i could only do 1 of them but joe did 2, there are 4, 1 was out of commission. the other had a family that wouldn't move...

and down we go!! it took 10 minutes of standing in line for the down elevator.

and we were beginning to be a little hungry but ignored it because it was only 3pm or so... we walked back towards LSD taking more pictures and dunked into barnes and noble to check out a comfy couch but they were all taken so we bought me "the talisman" by stephen king and peter straub (i have "the black house" already and loved it, didn't realize i was getting part 2 instead of part 1 but thankfully you don't have to read 1 in order to get 2 but some parts did leave me a little lost)

anyways, its about 3:30 now and we decide to find us some grub. we walk along the road we parked under (is that michigan?) but couldn't find any resturants we'd want to try out... and re-passed the main entrance to the taste. we were not going to go back in at first because all the crowds but when it looked like that was our only chance at putting our hunger to rest...

so we snuck in through the backside and eyed a ticket booth with no one at it (this part of the taste was dead, if you can believe that... being near the ferris wheel and all) got us some tickets and away we went!!

he scored some pork tacos and i got some orange chicken. delicious! and then we went and had icecream while we staked out a spot on the grassy knoll behind the fountain out on LSD.

it was about 4:30 once we finally crashed onto the spot we deamed ours for the night. we laid down and relaxed. my feet never thanked me enough for finally putting them up! we waited on the grass for over 4 hours. joe eventually went back and got us fudge and that was the end of our tickets.

there was a fight that broke out behind us on the otherside of the bushes. the cops couldn't keep it contained. finally they got it settled after what seemed like an hour and they walked them right in front of us! some of them, not all of them... tassers out and all. it was very unreal.

that's when they closed down LSD and people were playing in the street-ahem highway-er freeway??...

then another boy, he looked all of 14 with "gang gear" that the other ADULTS were wearing that were just escorted away, was suddenly rushed away after a loud bang and the cops swarming around us.

for the record: i have never seen that many cops come rushing at the same time. never in my life. and someone screaming he's got a gun and someone being carried away on a stretcher. i almost didn't stay for the fireworks. but it was getting dark and i'm kind of glad i did wait.

que 20 minutes of awesome fireworks

after the fireworks there were more "bangs" could have been fireworks, could have been guns, who knows. i just know that cops were around with tons of tasers and somehow we got shoved into a group of those kids wearing what the others were wearing "gang gear" that had gotten in trouble. i had never been so scared before in my life that i was going to be shot instead of the person they were aiming for and be the "wrong place at the wrong time" girl dead on the local news.

finally we got to the blazer and then we were stuck in another line. it look over an hour for them to clear the streets enough for people to be able to get out of the garages.

on our way home we almost ate the ass of the mustang we were behind in the garage. trust me, i know that mustang i almost had its liscense plate memorized... we were cruising down 290, i'm texting about the gangs on facebook then traffic stopped suddenly with squeeling tires in front of us with cars on both sides -it was an accident. joe slammed on the brakes which woke my ass up (i was drifting to sleep while texting) and i knew we didn't have enough time to stop so i'm holding the door screaming "oh god oh god oh god oh god" and he swerved to the right and barely missed the mustang infront of us and the car next to us by mere inches. my life was flashing. i almost didn't have to use the bathroom anymore. if he would have hesitated just a second on what he was going to do, i would have been the fleshy middle of a car pile up. i think the SUV behind us might have crashed into the mustang...

i havn't been brave enough to look on the news about last night's gang stuff and then the 290 stuff... i think in this instance, ignorance might be better than knowing. and i'll be happy i wasn't shot, mugged or raped and in the end of the night i didn't die in a horrific car accident.

i'll also be happy that after walking from 9am to 4:30 pm the only wound i have is a blister on my right foot, 3rd toe...

ps pictures come later...