Chicago visit

The flight to Chicago went well. Even though one cabin crew member got a meltdown and insisted on the fact that it was a flight with service to Calgary. Her colleagues corrected her loudly and with arms waving. After about an hour in the air we landed at the right airport, O'Hare. I was picked up by my mother's second cousin Jeane and her son-in-law.

Jim, Jeane and I had a lot to catch up on, so we spent most of the weekend talking about family and viewing old photos. I have also learned several new words, but I'm not certain I will get any use for them. Maybe I can find way to include "goopy" in a sentence in the future, who knows?

Jeane is in the process of compiling her and her husband's family history in a large file. It's an impressive work with lots of names & dates, along with anecdotes and pictures. Someday I should probably do the same with my family history.

Monday morning I got a ride to the train station in Geneva. I got on the 8.17 train to Chicago. Since the research library is closed on Mondays, I spent the day shopping. Borders bookstore is having a closing-down sale, and I made some purchases there (not books, but calendars). Incredibly cheap. I couldn't resist the sale at Macy's either, so I got three dresses there. I can never get that affordable clothes at home (unless it's second hand). Most of what I have bought are summer outfits, so it will take a while before I get to wear them at home. (Since I didn't bring that many clothes with me, I wear the new outfits here, though).

Monday evening we got a visit from their grandson Derek with wife and a very active six-year old son. We sat in the living room talking about Sweden (of course) and the town of Lund. Very nice to see them.

This morning I got on the early train again and arrived in Chicago just before 10. I walked maybe five blocks and took the bus up to the Newberry library. It's a private research library open to the public. They have an extensive genealogy collection. I have been there many times before. I spent about six hours there, looking for more details about various relatives. Found some more info, but nothing worth reporting. It started to rain heavily, so I couldn't go out to have lunch. I ended up eating a small bag of potato chips and some peanut butter candy for lunch. Very inappropriate, but it kept me alive and awake enough to continue the research in the afternoon. When I left the library, there were no buses for about 20 minutes, so I gave that up and took a taxi to the train station instead. Speaking of food, the American "kebab" I had to eat this evening was chicken skewer with boiled rice and sweet potato. A little different than a Swedish one (which is more like slices of meat wrapped in a thin bread). But very tasty!