Hazard being the keyword. This is after all Chicago. Which size-wise eats every major city in Michigan for lunch. Including an appetizer and dessert.

The train ride was essentially uneventful. We took advantage of our free beverages. Somewhere close to Chicago, we had to wait a few minutes while traffic up the line cleared, and then we continued on, and got to Chicago pretty much on time.

Once we got there, we had to catch a bus to the hotel. Such things should be rather simple. Most of the bus stops have maps of which busses go where. Where being your destination. Which would imply you know where your destination is. Our destination: a Marriott.

A Marriott.

As in, a certain someone had not printed out any sort of itinerary and only had a general idea of where he actually had reservations. It was a Marriott and it was on or near a road that started with an H. In downtown Chicago. So, we crammed, and let me emphasize crammed, onto a bus and headed in the general direction that Andrew figured was correct. At some point, he pulled the string and we got off. He said we passed the road he thought we were supposed to stop at, but that was ok. We walked back about a block and found, lo and behold… A Marriott.

We walked inside and were looking around and both sort of paused. “This is a pretty nice hotel…” I said. That is if by “pretty nice” I mean upscale and expensive, porters and valets, continental breakfasts and turndown services, hot towels and minibars type nice. Paid for by the University. Andrew decided that maybe he’d better look at the itinerary. After finding the address and asking one of the people at the information desk (”No.” “Yes, just do it.” “No, we’ll figure it out.” “Just go ask.” “Fine.”), we figured out that we were not in fact staying at the Marriott, but rather the Courtyard by Marriott. Some few blocks this way and a couple that way.

Here’s where I really start kicking myself for packing so much stuff. Not having travelled to such places before, I hadn’t really thought the walking part through… And under normal circumstances in such places, we could have taken a cab, but considering neither of us had ever done that before, and were therefore apprehensive, and also the key point that we didn’t actually know where we were going… We had to take the bus and end up at the wrong hotel before figuring out where we needed to go. Lucky for me, Andrew is a very nice guy, and he carried my duffel and let me drag his rolling luggage instead.

We found the Courtyard, and while still quite nice, it was certainly much more appropriately fitting to a University-sponsored business trip. No minibar or even a fridge. However the beds were comfy and it had free internet. A geek can be quite happy in a place like that.