It's always a letdown after a Do.

lili and I were staying an extra day to enjoy the city and
also getting much-needed Hilton stay credit. This involved
much use of hotel transportation and just a little bit of
shenanigans, during which we had some more time constraints.
Our plan was to take this shuttle to the other shuttle and
then the third shuttle to the CTA so we could spend the
day downtown. It sort of worked out.

We just missed a scheduled trip to the airport and
happily espied a hotel van in the driveway, whose sullen
driver indicated he was going "nowhere." Okay, whatever.
Eventually a functioning one came and got us to ORD, and
then we flagged down the other shuttle (Thrifty Rent-a-Car,
which subcontracts to the Hampton Inn next door).

lili needed a Hilton stay but wasn't going to stay the
night, so as I need no more Hilton stays she checked me
into the Hampton, getting the credits, Orbitz-like, while
I actually occupied the room.

The first room, supposedly nonsmoking, smelled like a
chimney, so on application she (I) was upgraded to a room
on the top floor with a somewhat nicer desk and a somewhat
worse view. The elite amenity: an Oreo 6-pack and a liter
of Ice Mountain water.

As it was just before 10, they hadn't taken away breakfast -
Western omelet and extremely shatteringly crisp bacon along
with the usual continental-type things; in addition lili had
a waffle from one of those self-serve machines, with some
pretty nasty fake syrup.

She dropped off her bag, we washed up, and off on another
great adventure, which owing to the lateness of the hour and
the crankiness of all the shuttle drivers and the even slower
than normal behavior of the Blue Line was restricted to
the Art Institute. It's all right, I really like the Art
Institute and could spend all day there. It has changed
quite a bit since I was last there, which was I believe
when the Dodger first got his appointment at Northwestern,
so that was a long time ago (after a good career there he
moved to U of C, where he's been for a decade). So I had a
hard time finding things for an efficient tour of the place.

Saw the sights as best we could in half a day (a special
pilgrimage to Nighthawks, of which we saw a 3-D homage in
Rome earlier this year and side trips to American Gothic,
La Grande Jatte, and Van Gogh's self portrait complete with
ear). I was more interested in Impressionists, but she is
sort of tired of them, so we compromised and spent an
inordinate time in Modern.

We didn't want to cut it too close, so we got on the L
before rush hour: back to the hotel, pick up her bag,
back to the airport. Interestingly, the shuttle drivers
got more cheerful as the day went on.

I used one of the many standard methods of getting through
security and joined her at the F RCC for some of that
Concannon. The bartender, who talked more like a college
student FTer than an RCC drone, said that his fiancee, who
works for American Eagle, had noted that the Admiral's Club
had gone to free booze, so we decided to check it out.

That story was indeed true, but the wine was worse than
the RCC stuff. On a lark I hunted for the drink coupons we'd
hidden the last time we were there together - there was
still one, dated September something, in the hiding place.
lili rehid it elsewhere. Oh, to be young and living
dangerously.

I saw her off at the gate, where boarding was just about
over but she still got her originally assigned seat in F.

Toddled back via the Thrifty shuttle to the hotel, where I
promptly collapsed, waking up many hours later in a state
of modest disarray. Back to the club to spend a few coupons
before they expired forever.

premium
A glass of Perrier-Jouet Grand Brut made a nice breakfast:
lemony, crisp, nice bubbles, and a grapefruit-peel finish.
A good deal for two soon-to-be-worthless chits.

premium
312 Urban Wheat ale - very much like Blue Moon but maybe
a little less spicy.

complimentary
Concannon Merlot 08 - pretty decent, berries and cherries,
a little sweet, slightly coffeeish. Not much finish.

premium
Forefront by Pine Ridge Pinot Noir (Willamette) 08 - typical
- a tad sweet, cherry nose meaty-cherry-plum on the palate;
plum finish.

premium
Tierra Secreta Malbec (Mendoza) 08 - raisins and stems on
the nose, pleasing, a bit too acid on the tongue, meaty,
long finish, consistent raisin skin character from
beginning to end.

I didn't have the stomach to check out the other two premium
offerings, Ch. Bonnet Rouge (Bordeaux) 05 and Joel Gott 815
Cabernet (California). Speaking of stomach, I needed to fill
it, so I headed for the hated Manchu Wok for a respectable
spicy tofu and a Mongolian beef that could almost have
qualified as vegetarian, as it was mostly mushrooms.