11:23 P.M.
We made it to the airport early in case there was a long line for the security check.
With all of the rush we actually made it to the airport too early.
Since we were so early we spent a lot of time in the restaurant at the airport watching other flights take off and land.
Sitting in the little cafe' made me miss going to the airbase with my grandparents.
I used to love sitting in the cafe' at the airbase watching flights take off and land.
Once we got through security and boarded our flight the rest of the night seemed to pass by like nothing.
The flight wasn't long at all.
Once we arrived at Midway in Chicago we hurried to the baggage claim to meet Ben.
I scanned the crowd for his face and Amy made a comment about a fat guy in really short shorts...
"Hey Kelly that looks like Ben."
I scanned the crowd looking for the guy she had described and laughed because Ben was actually standing right next to that guy.
I didn't recognize Ben at first because he had so much facial hair.
It was so great to see him.
I introduced Amy and we made our way to baggage claim.
We watched identical bags go around and around for about 20 minutes and finally found all of the baggage that we had checked in.
Once we had our bags we walked out to the CTA stop and boarded the "L".
After our first transfer we rode the "L" for about 30 minutes and exited the train at Wilson.
It felt like our trip from the airport to Ben's place flew right by. I glanced at my cell phone to check the time and saw that it was still fairly early.
We dropped off our bags and went over to Godfather's Pizza for a snack. As we were eating Ben jotted down a simple itinerary that we could follow for the rest of the weekend.
After our snack we headed back to Bens' place and hit the hay.
He pulled out a bed from the wall and I was amazed by the Murphy bed, given it was my first experience with a fixture I had only once seen in a few old movies and television shows...
Ben lives right next to a fire station and I found it difficult to sleep through the sirens.
I'm pretty sure I woke up every 15 minutes, but I was still so happy to be there......
