A surprise turn of events followed.

We completely forgot about switching our watches back by an hour. Oops! That meant that we were too early for check-in. Too early for lunch. Too late for breakfast. Darn!

Not ones to be bogged down, we decided to walk aournd a couple of blocks near the hotel. Map in hand (which was too puny and quite confusing especially when you have to translate left and right to east and west) we stepped out.

There's only so much time you can spend walking around in practically deserted downtown streerts. Why deserted you ask? It was Thanksgiving day. Everyone was at home feasting away on cranberry pies and pumpkin soups. The turkey population also just went down by a few hundred million. At least this year, the president generously pardoned two turkeys! I guess he felt a little like Noah. Those two were shipped away to Disneyland in what one might think would be a life of R&R. I'm pretty sure the birds would've preferred the slaughter house over being paraded in a glass box next to Mickey and his friends! Sigh.

Back now to our intrepid twosome. I had a brilliant idea, why not cover the museum and the King Tut (Tutankhamun for those of you not familiar with Egyptian history) exhibition now!? We asked a police officer for directions. We asked a couple of pedestrians for directions. Even our map was useless at this point. (We eventually mastered it, but let me remind you that at this point we were still quite lost.) What do you do next? Hail a cab! Hop in, forget your worries and enjoy the ride. Our cabbie kept alive the tradition of swearing profusely and honking at other drivers. They never subject other cab drivers to this friendly gesture though. Hmm.

The Egyptians during the time of the pharaohs at least, were, in my opinion, a confused lot. They lived their entire lives preparing for the afterworld. And if you were a man/woman of standing in society, you were assured of a tomb well stocked with your own model slaves, your belongings from this life to be taken to the next, jewellery, staffs that represented strength, scrolls of magic from the Book of the Dead and a beautifully decorated, hand painted, gilded casket. You'd even have your innards removed and bottled up. Did they expect you to put them back in when you reached your destination in the afterlife? What if you shoved your stomach up your head thinking it was your brain. Yipes!

King Tut never had these concerns. He was, after all, the famed boy king. The child that ascended the throne at eight. Did he make everyone eat candy and close schools? No. Thats where we differ my friend. He restored the Egyptian gods banished by his predecessor, moved the capital to Memphis, and sent his armies to war across Syrian borders. A life unfortunately cut short at 18 and buried in true royal glory, the treasures of the tomb were rediscovered in 1922. Almost 3000 years later. And so much of it preserved beautifully.

As we stepped out of Egypt, we came face to face with Sue. Sue who? Sue the world's largest, most intact tyrranosaurus rex. Poor Sue. She's all just bones now. I'll bet in her hayday she was probably making the other dinos shiver to their bones. She might have been the toast of town. Every able bodied male t.rex would've hit on her. What a babe, they thought. Those teeth, that massive build, that strong tail, that terrifying cry.

We stopped briefly to see the lions of Tsavos. The only lions in the world that have no manes. For further insight, read about the movie "The Ghost and the Darkness" featuring these felines.

A quick bite at the Corner bakery and we were off to the hotel again. This time we checked in. Freshened up and hit the roads. On foot. This time to the magnificent mile! It was chalk-a-block of desinger stores. The Armanis, the Louis-Vuittons, the Salvatore Ferragamos et al. I walked gaping at the window displays. I looked closely to spot a made-in-china tag. But these are the biggies, they dont have tags on their things right? Oh, what I'd give for a Chanel sweater!

After a looong mile, we landed at the John Hancock observatory. A 10 second elevator ride to the 96th floor. The Signature Lounge that overlooks the lake, downtown, and rest of Chicago city and beautifully lit up. Nothing better than a cocktail at the top of the world. Well almost the top. And a view that comes for free. Ah, the high life. Lovely. Unforgettable.