| After a good night sleep at Lida's aunt we left Maryland early in the morning. Since we had around 12 hours drive in front of us, we went through Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana stopping only for food and gas. Sometimes it was quite difficult to drive through the pouring rain with the wipers barely being able to do their job. But it is better to get some nasty weather while driving to than while visiting Chicago. The first stop we planned for was in Merrillville, IN, less than an hour away from downtown Chicago. We had dinner at Balagio Ristorante , where we got lucky with only one dish of the two we ordered (if you ever get there, order chicken Vesuvio and avoid Pollo Nilla). The hotel was nice and cozy, but we had really noisy neighbors. We complained about them and we got a free (and very good) breakfast :). |