Chicago

Today I left gorgeous weather in Philadelphia and arrived in rainy Chicago. An old friend picked me up at the airport and gave me a ride to my hotel (okay, he's going to read this so I will clarify that HE is not old; I've just known him for quite awhile!) Let me first state that Catherine is NOT running the Chicago Marathon this year; I am here because there are 4 people that I want to interview and it was cost effective to be able to get all four in one city rather than have to travel to each individually. Also, Jon is in town promoting Spirit of the Marathon so I didn't have to fly him in to shoot either.

After checking in and grabbing lunch I set out to explore and scout locations to shoot the interviews. I've never been to Chicago before and I am really impressed with the city! Even in the rain it is beautiful! I started at my hotel and walked down to the Hilton which is where the media center for the race is. There are so many parks and so much greenery that it almost makes me feel like I'm not in a city.

It was really cool to see a busy city street right next to a marina and have the cars and boats almost look like they were right next to each other! But, reality soon set in because even though I walked around for several hours looking for the perfect location for one of my upcoming interviews, I wasn't able to find a spot where the constant buzz of city traffic wasn't overwhelming! I'll check out more locations tomorrow when it is light out again and hopefully the rain will end as well.

It is evident that the city is geared up for the marathon on Sunday; there are banners lining the race route and porta-potty's are quite abundant!