Today was the first full day in Chicago. The weather was great and even had a few minutes of nice cool rain early in the morning.
Today's goals were to get my conference badge, scope out the convention center and begin to "nest".
The first two tasks were accomplished. The third is under way. I've got a couple of days worth of food from the local store. With a small fridge in the hotel room, this is a great cost saving measure as restaurants, room service and snack machines get expensive for a conference that lasts 4-5 days. One of the few benefits of being diabetic is getting a higher priority for a hotel fridge for the room.
As an added bonus, the 9 story Harold Washington Library was right across the street from the store. Topped with a skylight garden and gargoyles at the top, this is an impressive building.
The first floor houses their Popular Collection and Information desk.
The second floor is the 18,000 sq.ft. Thomas Hughes Children's Library. A quick look around shows that the space clearly is designed for children; my opinion is that a children's space should look appealing to children. This is true of this space. Kudos to the Chicago Public Library System.
The third floor contains the computer commons, the newspapers/periodicals and my favorite part, the new Maker Space. According to an employee, this is set to open in about a month but as a conference attendee I was able to join the group that was touring the space. There were about half a dozen laptops, a laser etching machine and several 3-D printers working away. The coolest part was the laptop hooked up to a Microsoft Kinect sensor that, after taking a picture of someone, was able to send the image directly to the 3-D printer to create a bust of the person. Uber-cool!
Unfortunately, at this stage, my blood sugar took a major drop and I had to leave. I think the 13 hours it took to get from AZ to IL yesterday and today's humidity combined with the four miles I walked in 3 hours was a bit too much. Like a dope I left my sugar boosters in the fridge at the hotel. D'oh!
No worries though. The store across the street supplied me with what I needed and I was able to down some orange juice and stock up on a couple days of supplies. I returned to the hotel with plans to check out the rest of the library before leaving town.
I have pictures to upload including some shots with Flat Stanley. My new phone isn't playing nice with the computer right now but I'll get them up soon.
Time to catch some zzzzz's. The conference kicks off with sessions tomorrow.
Michael
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