We had breakfast with Dave in the morning at the hotel (free continental breakfast in the lobby). Then Dave had to go to work which was a stone's throw from the hotel. Peter and I left the hotel at around 11 a.m. and stopped at an Aldi that we had passed on the highway last night. Aldi is a German discount grocery chain that has no American equivalent. It has a lot of generic brand goods and occasional brand name items, very minimal presentation style, and you buy your own bags for 10 cents each. The place takes debit cards and the checkers scan products instead of memorizing the prices, but otherwise it was the same as being at an Aldi in Germany. Peter was in seventh heaven there.
After doing a little grocery shopping, we got on the road down I-90 to Illinois. We stopped for lunch at an "oasis," a type of highway travel plaza where the McDonald's is actually an enclosed freeway overpass that is accessible from both sides of the highway. I thought that was cool when I passed it on the way out to L.A.; this time I got pictures. Peter also had a nice chat with an employee who was "German"--well, her great-grandfather was German anyways. (Peter finds Americans' definitions of their German heritage peculiar.)
After lunch, we drove to Huntley, a city about an hour outside of Chicago, to stop at an outlet mall there. We had a real Einkauforgie (shopping spree) there. Peter spent a lot of money at the Docker's/Levi's outlet. I picked up my first pair of Rockports at the Rockport/Reebok store and learned about the European way of wearing socks with slacks and brown shoes. The most fun came at the Gap, where Peter helped me pick out clothes and where the two of us scrambled to put together $75 worth of purchases so we could use a 15 percent off coupon. Nur in Amerika (only in America).
Five hours later, we were on the road again. We stopped for dinner at a Popeye's in a really rundown part of Chicago which turned out to be only 10 minutes from our hotel, the Hotel Wacker. We parked and got to our room, which was not bad for $45 a night downtown but no Stardust. Even though it was after 10 p.m. Peter felt we should try to walk around the city a little bit. I didn't have a problem with that. We walked to the Navy Pier but it was already closed. We walked back towards the hotel and stopped for a beer at an Irish bar and watched the bartender clean out the fridge. I got a little silly walking back; I wasn't buzzed, just feeling funky.