Day 293, 23 April 2013, Chicago, Illinois. Art Institute of Chicago - Monet - Picasso and Paperweights. Artists we like which are new to us? Georgia O'Keefe and Ivan Allbright (particularly his Picture of Dorian Gray - check out the album foe today). Chicago showed us her cold shoulder today and rained and rained (and rained). But that was OK - today was set aside for indoor pursuits, namely checking out one of the largest collections of French impressionists...

Day 292, 22 April 2013, Chicago, Illinois. We conquered "The Magnificent Mile" today. This is Chicago's premier retail district and we took the chance to visit all those "American" institutions we've only heard of - Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom's to name a few. Despite it actually measuring around a mile, the stretch of Michigan Avenue from the river to the Drake Hotel actually feels like 2-3 miles each way. Suspect that might have had something...

Day 290, 20 April 2013, Chicago, Illinois, Brunch in China Town, long drive to visit Lake Michigan in the state of Michigan (via the state of Indiana). Visited the Chopin Theatre for an outstanding production of Shakespeare's Coriolanus (yes - there has been a movie - Ralph Fiennes was in it). Wow - what a day. We had a late start and headed to China Town for an early lunch/late breakfast. The cafe was almost full of local Chinese people - which seemed like a...

Day 289, 19 April 2013 - Evening. We made it! 2,206 miles (3,550 km) - Seven states, 46 scheduled hours and we ran a whole 35 minutes late. Legend! Spring has been sighted in Chicago - just not today - we collected our baggage, found the taxi stand on Canal Street and found out how cold it was the hard way... Bitter, stinging hail and incredibly cold after 2 days in a cosy train. A few minutes later we were ensconced on the 24th floor in our Chicago friend's...