Tourist Activity #1- Architectual Boat Tour!

There are many wonderful things to do and see in the city so our first of many tourist things to do is the highly recommended architectural boat tour. Simply walking through the streets and looking at the buildings does not quite give you a good idea of the amazing architecture and history of Chicago like the boat tour does.

2:15 As we are waiting for our new friend Janet to join us before hopping in line to get on the boat- we see a group of 89 elderly people walking towards the boat. All wearing matching orange shirts and they take up the whole roof seating of the tour. So we did what any girls would do- bought tickets for the next boat tour and headed to the local pub at Navy Pier for a quick cocktail before our tour.

2:45pm
Head back to the dock and notice the same group and boat- as we take a closer look we see that one of the seniors has suffered from heat exhaustion on the boat. The boat had to head back to the dock early and paramedics were there trying to help the overheated woman who was laying on the grass!

2:50pm
Lesson of our first day being a tourist...Avoid large groups of elderly people who are doing the same tourist activity that you are!

Take a look at the photos below!

IKEA

Friday April 30, 2010

11:00am - All we brought was our beds and clothes, so have an entire apartment of furniture to purchase. Start the 45 minute drive out to Ikea in the suburbs.

5:00pm - After spending 5 hours in Ikea and Ashley Furniture and $2,500 later, we are finally on our way back to the city.

6:30pm - Finally got back to apartment after sitting in rush hour traffic. Feeling overwhelmed at all the Ikea building to come.

Saturday May 1, 2010

10:00am - Woke up to Momma Hassey 2 hours in to building our entertainment center.

1:00pm - Hating Ikea. Finally finished putting together entertainment center 5 hours later. Our first piece of furniture!

Entertainment center - Momma Hassey and Erika
Hall Table - Momma Hassey and Erika
Dresser - Momma Hassey,Tommy and Erika
Nightstands - Momma Hassey and Erika

What was Dana doing all this time? Who knows! Oh yeah...we forgot to mention that Dana was the one insisting we go to Ikea.

Total hours spent putting together Ikea furniture - 12 hours

Moral of the story - we are NEVER shopping at Ikea again!

Unpacking Our Lives

Thursday April 29, 2010
Beautiful Day - Sun out, 75 degrees and of course a little windy!
11:30am - We finally make it to our new little home in Chicago. The 3 day road trip was a breeze compared to the next four days of our lives. As we drive up to our building we realize we have no idea where we are, where to park and find ourselves completely terrified of the honking cars behind us that want us to move, as we have created a major road block with our trailer.

2:00pm -Trailer almost unloaded with the help of two men from the building that we bribed to help us unload our lives- the only items left are Erika’s mattress and three boxes. Cop pulls up and threatens Dana to “move the car right now off my sidewalk, don’t touch another thing or I am writing you a ticket.”

2:10pm - Part One of Dana’s Breakdown
Dana jumps in car and makes Israel (one of the movers) get in car with her so she does not get lost. Dana hauls trailer around city, gets lost, gets stuck in a random neighborhood, cannot reverse with trailer- On the verge of a breakdown

2:30pm - With the help of three people we reverse trailer and head back to apartment to finish unloading. Dana has gone from a level 5 breakdown to level 8 nervous breakdown

2:50pm - Trailer unloaded

3:00pm - On our way to return trailer to local Uhaul

3:15pm -Make it to the Uhaul store- but turn into the wrong entrance. The Uhaul guys now want Dana to reverse the car and pull into a small entrance on the side of building

3:16pm - Dana having full on nervous breakdown, says to the workman “absolutely not! I cannot do that, take this trailer off my car and move it yourself!”

3:20pm - Mission accomplished, no more trailer and head to our local cafe for a much needed beer and late lunch!

4:30pm - Momma Hassey comes to rescue us!

Road Trippin!

We were just informed that our Blog sounds more like a diary than a Blog so from this point forward we will refrain from details!

Day 1: 4-26-2010
8:45am - Erika bawled her eyes out saying goodbye to Dane and finally on the road- large trailor attached to car

Flagstaff was pretty, Holbrook longest wait for a DQ sandwich that was gross. Determined people in this town do meth all day and have babies with their cousins.

7:00pm - Stop in Albuquerque, which is really hard to spell for Dana. There is really not much to say about Albuquerque besides we used the bathroom. Oh and Erika got a very nice compliment from the man sitting next to the broken down car with missing teeth. “Daaaaamn, you should be a model.” See picture below. Does that look like the face of a model? Let’s just say it’s not our prettiest day.

The next almost 5 hours are a blur. Got to hotel in Amarillo at 1:30am.

Day 2: April, 27, 2010

9:30am – Hit the road after stealing bagels and peanut butter and jelly for lunch.

Proceeded to rock out to country on The Armadilla. Did we mention we forgot our ipod adapter? After 17 hours of driving listening to the radio and hearing multiple remixes of Lady Antebellum’s “I Need You Now” we decided to pull out the laptop.

2:00pm – Didn’t realize we needed to stop to pay the toll in Oklahoma City, lied about it to the toll lady in Tulsa, and renamed ourselves “The Toll Both Bandits.”

4:00pm – Who knew that Springfield, MO was home to the adult video store, 24/7 arcade, men’s spa, erotic dancer strip mall capital of the world?

6:30pm – Wine, normal food, Idol, Glee, Facebook

Day 3:

9:00am – Woke up late after turning off 7:00am gym alarm clock.

9:45am – Hit the road to see beautiful rolling hills and green trees. We’re definitely not in AZ anymore.

1:00pm – Saw Chicago on freeway signs.

2:15pm – Finally entered our destination state.







Quotes:

When we’re 2 girls living our daily lives, our focus is GTL. When we’re 2 bandits on the road, our focus is GFL, gas, food and lodging.

“B.O.W & P.O.W”
AKA- Bitch on Wheels & Prisoner on Wheels

“Hunting in the Viagra Triangle”

Talk about pulling out a map, closing your eyes and placing your finger on a random city because that is basically what we did! Neither of us have spent much time in Chicago; in fact, the last time Dana was there she was four years old and her only memory is playing laser tag with her brother and sister in her families high rise condo. The last time Erika graced her presence to the windy city was for a drunken 48 hour last minute New Years Eve trip in college. So basically her only memory is of the Hyatt hotel where she spent the party and the entire next day recovering from the resulting hangover. So when we booked our tickets to go to Chicago to find an apartment it literally was the blind leading the blind!

We flew out on March 18th from Phoenix Sky Harbor airport, it was sunny and a perfect 75 degrees. We had both Kathy and Jennifer aka “the moms” meeting us out there to provide us with wisdom, moral & financial support. We got off the plane at O’Hare and were told it was very easy to take the L straight to our hotel. But nothing is quite “easy” with us…as we went to grab our luggage from the carousel we ran into our first “D & E Moment”
Definition of a “D & E Moment”: When Dana & Erika (both very intelligent young women) become subject to a blonde moment. Occurs frequently and usually results in laughter.
Basically we saw two screens above the baggage claim carousel that had flights from Phoenix to Chicago, we stood there like dears in headlights trying to figure out which carousel was ours. We were in a full on debate when we noticed an older man staring at us who was obviously eavesdropping on our convo- after a few confused minutes we realized that it was one big carousel with two large screens that were mostly likely meant to help travelers find their luggage, but in our case made us very confused. That was the first sign that should have indicated we might be in over our heads.

We were informed that it was extremely easy to take the L (the L is the Chicago train system) from the airport to the Westin on Michigan Avenue. So we got our tickets & hoped on the blue line feeling confidant. Two hours later after changing trains, lugging our oversized suitcases up and down 2 flights of stairs and a 4-block walk to the Westin down Michigan Avenue we finally made it.

The next day we met our realtor and for the purpose of this blog we will name her “Gladys”. Gladys was a 62-year-old realtor who was referred to us by a family friend and we quickly came to realize that her only intention for us was to be her new neighbor and new BFF. To paint you a picture the first day of apartment hunting consisted of four hours of walking around and only seeing 4 places. Needless to say it was a frustrating first day! We were quickly saved by one of our friends, Mike, who took us around the city and showed us where all the “cool” people live. He laid out very strict requirements to be cool in the city …1) location and 2.) Pool- if you have a pool you are cool!

We showed Mike the building and area that Gladys was pushing for us to live and his exact words to us were “absolutely not”. You may be wondering why…well we did too and he informed us that this is the area that was referred to as the “Viagra triangle”. Obvi this was not where the cool people live.

We decided to give Gladys one more shot and requested she show us apartments in the areas where the “cool” people were. Well that weekend it snowed in Chicago and Gladys decided she did not want to get out of the car and show us the apartments. So instead she had us unlock lock boxes and carry around her card so that we could pretend to be her. Her exact words to us by the end of the day was “I am done…just done”

Now I know “the moms” and us can be a lot to handle…some may say high maintenance, but we really tried to be on our best behavior. I mean we only had 3 days to find a place and were under the impression it was her job to help us!!

After that day we decided we were done with Gladys and we were forced to take matters into our own hands. After calls to other realtors and countless hours of costly Internet use at the hotel we found an apartment Monday morning 4 hours before our flight back to Phoenix!

We are very excited about our 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, washer and dryer in unit, with door man, parking spot, gym and last but not least a POOL! We are totally cool people! Picture to come!!

XOXO
D & E

WHAT IS THIS BLOG and WHO ARE THESE GIRLS?

After 26 years of living in Arizona and being the bestest of friends, we decided to make a change! Has there ever been a moment in your life when the alarm goes off and you think FML I have to sell payroll AGAIN today? We hope not, but that’s what happened to us. So we decided that life was too short to not experience an adventure. We chose Chicago because we craved the city life and the spirit of the Midwest. We originally thought cameras should be following us, but after not landing a reality show (crazy we know), we’ve decided to create a blog to document our journey and all the adventures that await us. We hope you enjoy it!!