1 p.m.: Liar, liar, theater on fire

After a whirlwind two days, we're home. And it was absolutely amazing ... just what the doctor ordered.

Sunday, we took an early morning stroll down Michigan Avenue from our hotel to buy our bus passes and grab a few brochures about places to visit.

Passes in hand, we made a couple of detours on the way to the bus stop. We stopped at Argo Tea for Tea Sangria (strong hibiscus tea with fresh fruit floating in it ... and a spoon with which to fish out the fruit). We also made an unexpected pitstop at Hershey's Chicago, where we each bought a cookie but managed to pass up tons of candy and candy-themed wares (Twizzlers pillows or Reese's hats, anyone?).

Buzzing from the sugar high and not wanting to miss our 1 p.m. Blue Man Group show, we grabbed a seat on the 146 bus, which became increasingly crowded at each stop. Why? Because our bus was going in the wrong direction and we were now headed directly for the Bears/Panthers playoff game.

Oops.

Paul and I got to the hub of the tailgate parties, and the bus driver said he had a scheduled 8-minute break. We asked if there was any way we'd make the 1 p.m. show via bus ... and he said probably not. So we hailed a cab and booked it to the theater (with cabbies, "book it" seems to be a very understated term). We were pumped! This was the highlight of our trip! But we were cut short because ...

There was a fire in the theater, and the smoke was still thick inside ... and the Blue Men didn't want to put the crowd in danger. Oh, um, okay. We'll just, um, hike back to the main street, hail another cab and just go back to the hotel.

The evening was saved by a trip to the top of the John Hancock Center. That's a lot of fun! Paul took some amazing(ly blurry) photos, we enjoyed the view, then we grabbed some fish 'n' chips from The Elephant & Castle and went back to the hotel.

I'm glad to be home. Nobody should try to fit that much into one weekend! ::grins:: But it was great. And there's plenty we missed (Navy Pier, The Field Museum, etc.) so we have a good reason to go back later this year.

So, what did you guys do while I was gone??