My Travels

I headed out to Chicago for my comp exams. Unfortunately, I was not able to convince my work to fund the trip but I was able to work remotely for a day to avoid using vacation time. I flew out on United Airlines on a red eye flight. I checked into the Doubletree O'Hare Airport hotel. They were nice enough to let me check in even though it was 6 am. I grabbed a quick nap before heading into work for the day. I don't usually hang out in the merchandise mart area and found it interesting. It isn't a touristy area but lunch options aren't bad. Switched hotels to the Hampton Inn Chicago O'Hare Airport  hotel the next day. Interestingly, this Hampton Inn uses the Thrifty car rental shuttle to shuttle guests to and from the airport. I guess the arrangement must work well for them. I wonder if there is a Thrifty discount for guests??? In the evening, I went out for happy hour at  Allstars Bar & Grill . I was told the burgers are great here. I was joshing for Porti

Impromptu trip to NYC because of expiring credit airline vouchers on United Airlines . For this trip, I flew into Newark Airport . I haven't flown to Newark before this year (or have completely forgotten) and I find it funny that I've been to this airport twice this year. Although this time, I'm not laying over and went to NYC via train. The train takes about 40 minutes to get to NY Penn Station. After all these years of flying into NYC, I am not sure why I haven't done so since it is faster than taking the subway from JFK. The downside of the New Jersey train is that it runs on a set schedule and doesn't run as frequently as the NYC subway . Checked into the Conrad New York . This particular hotel is a conversion from an Embassy Suites near the World Trade Center before 9/11. The hotel opened in March of this year. It was interesting to see the bones of the hotel as an Embassy Suites. The hotel conversion was done really well and it isn't obvious that