Saturday 11th August ~ As seems to be the case at the moment, we were awake and up early because of our jet lag (around 6am). We had breakfast in our room and headed out at 9am. It took us some time to apply sun block to ourselves and to Caesar ... he kept trying to lick his off! (Specially formulated for dogs, so hopefully not damaging if licked)!

There was just one thing on the agenda today, geocaching! The Geocachers of Northern Illinois (GONIL) had arranged a meet up for us and we were delighted so many folks turned up. We met at the site of a geocache in Millenium Park and exchanged stories, travel bugs and coins etc., then set off for some serious geocaching.

Our geocaching tour took us through Millenium Park and Grant Park, down to the Museum Campus finishing with a webcam at the Planetarium. We walked just about 6 miles in scorching heat with frequent stops for cold water, ices and refreshments. As we progressed we were treated to even better views of the city behind us.

Karen & Caesar at the Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park

Finally about 3pm, Karen, Caesar and I took a taxi back to our hotel so that we could all cool down and take a nap. We'd had a superb time and made many marvellous new friends ... certainly a day to remember for a long long time.

In the evening, just as we were leaving the htoel we thought we could smell cooking, we got outside to discover upwards of 40 fire and rescue tenders, sirens, flashing lights, a helicopter overhead and a TV news van round the corner. The roads were cordoned off as it seemed there was some sort of fire in the block opposite our hotel. We picked our way through and went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. We had a super time there, cocktails and all! We had hoped to go to go out afterwards but decided it has been a tiring day and made our way back to the hotel again to relax.

The cocktails were called "Hurricanes" consisting of a blend of orange, mango and pineapple juice infused with Bacardi Superior Rum, Bacardi Select Rum, Disaronno Amaretto and Finest Call Grenadine garnished with orange and Maraschino cherry ... delicious!!!!!!

A rather sunblushed Wendy with Hurricane!