It's my final day in Chicago and whilst I'm not looking forward to the Greyhound ride, mainly due to every American's reaction to me telling them I'm even using Greyhound, I am looking forward to the next stage in my trip: Washington D.C.!

I had planned to go to the Museum of Science & Industry yesterday, but as it only opened at 9.30 and I wanted to be back in the city for the free concert at the Cultural Center (spelt wrong I know, but when in Rome!) I decided not to go and instead leave it for next time. I killed some time in Millennium Park and Caribou Coffee before heading to the venue, only to find that the law of the sod had prevailed again as there was no concert due to Veterans' Day! Typical, as Catlin said the museum was always her favourite too! As I said though, there's always next time.

I walked in the sunshine over to Greek Town as this was another place recommended by Missy Cherco, and after mistakenly wandering around the University of Illinois campus I eventually found it! I walked straight past Mr Greek Gyros, Cherco again, and saw that they served Italian Beef. As the sandwich I tried in another deli on State wasn't quite up to the standard I'd been led to expect I thought I'd give it a go: it was worth it! The beef was stacked up in a juice-covered bun alongside far too many fries and a drink in a, shock horror, polystyrene cup! All for $7! I eat that at 12.30: I didn't eat again yesterday. Nuff said.

After the feast I walked up State Street's entirety, or so it felt, to the original Playboy Mansion in the Gold Coast area. My second Gold Coast of this trip, and quite different from the one in Oz! I found the house name listed in Lonely Planet, but couldn't see a plaque or the honorary street name they'd mentioned. I'm pretty sure I was in the right place: either way, I took a picture of someone's house!

That took me up until about 4, too early for the free session at the art institute, so another trip to Caribou ensued: this time for a hot cocoa, but with white chocolate. How queer. Nice, but not as good as the old fashioned milk. As I drank it near Crown Fountain a little lad came over asking for donations toward his basketball team's uniforms: I obliged but asked him where the adult was, he said he was just with his friends, which was a little suspect and so I pulled out a little change. The little change turned out to be 31cents, better than nothing, but he was not impressed and told his friends so. I should have said I'd have it back if it wasn't good enough! Cheeky little man.

The art institute was an improvement on last week, as I actually found more of the exhibits! The architecture displays and impressionism were my favourites, but the contemporary art was appalling. There was a reconstructed tree that the artist wrote about, describing how he came across it in the woods and was amazed by how it had fallen down ten years ago and was now at one with the rest of the nature surrounding it. He then went on to say how he'd used a chainsaw to cut it up and transport it to his LA studio so he could reconstruct it! Not my cup of tea I'm afraid.

The excitement of my day was epitomised by washing. A lovely way to spend my last night in Chicago. Well it was better than sitting in the dorm whilst the French woman smoked in the toilet! She thought she was going unnoticed, but the stench of cigarettes is pretty hard to miss: she then annoyed me further by going for a shower at 2am! I was careful to be very loud when packing my bags this morning and preparing to check out.