Thursday night, we headed to Chicago on the big blue bus.  In the past, we’d always driven to Chicago, struggled to find to a parking spot, and then shunned the car in favor of walking or public transit (p-trans) until we were ready to drive back to StL, so skipping the car altogether seemed like a logical step.

Despite LOTS of fretting (who, me? Fret? Never!) about accommodations and logistics in the days and weeks leading up to the trip, everything went pretty smoothly, including my first solo foray in Chicago on Saturday night.  Given how nicely their p-trans worked, I was surprised at the large number of personal automobiles I saw in downtown Chicago.

We stayed with friends in Hyde Park, and went out to Geneva (a Chicago suburb) for a wedding on Friday night.  For less than $6 per person, we took p-trans to Geneva.  The same trip by cab would have cost us $90!  Instead, we saved a lot of money, had a nice, healthy 1/2 mile walk to the wedding site, and didn’t waste time sitting in traffic.