This weekend started out as a fun sisters weekend. I met two of my sisters in Chicago where we hooked up with a friend. We planned to visit some of Chicago's ethnic neighborhoods and play games in our suite at the Hilton. Things started to go wrong on Friday because the weather was cold, rainy and windy. After lunch at the Cheesecake Factory in the Hancock building, we went to Water Tower Place where it is all indoors. I guess none of us were in a shopping mood because we couldn't find any stores that interested us so we headed back to the hotel to wait for our friend to get off of work.
    We played one game of Scrabble. I managed to make an 8-letter word using all the tiles in my tray (gaining a 50-point bonus). Unfortunately one of my sisters had already used all her tiles and then did it again a few plays later so she beat us all.
    That night the rain had stopped so we headed to Greektown on the bus and ate at a greek restaurant. We ordered flaming cheese (which almost burned my sister's hair). Afterwards we took the bus to Michigan Avenue and walked through Millenium Park where we were able to catch the end of a fireworks show at the Navy Pier. It turned into a good night.

The "bean" at Millenium Park in Chicago

    On Saturday morning we headed north on the bus to go to Sari-town which has Indian shops and restaurants. Halfway there, one of my sisters was overcome with motion sickness. The bumpy ride and frequent starts and stops of the bus were too much for her. We got off at a pharmacy to get some medicine and went to a fast food place to get a drink and recover.
    While we were resting my brother called from Wisconsin. He had taken our mother to the hospital because she was dizzy and her heart rate was extremely low. The doctors were talking about putting a pacemaker in her chest. We returned to the hotel, packed up and headed to Wisconsin. We arrived in the evening to see that our Mother was doing much better. She was on oxygen and stabilized. They had changed her blood pressure medicine to see if that would work but by Sunday they had made the deicsion to put in the pacemaker. Amazingly they can now do that with a local anethestic and an overnight stay. We decided not to stay for the surgey which is scheduled for tomorrow. We have three siblings who live close by that can stay with her so she will be okay.
    Chicago's ethnic neighborhoods will have to wait for another day.