Travel Tips

One of the best parts of VT is actually meeting some of the people behind the pages and we've had many dinners in Chicago since I've been a VT member. The October 2003 meeting at Paprikash in Chicago, set up for Robert (rmdw) when he was in town for business/pleasure, was my first organized VT meet.

Joining in the fun was Dave (dlandt) and his wife Miyuki, Robert (rmdw), Julie (Travelmad478) who flew in for the weekend to surprise Dave (dlandt), another Dave(Tiganeasca) and my husband (what else?) David. Several other friends of Dave's and Robert's also joined us.

From left to right Dave (dlandt), 1/2 of Dave's head (tiganeasca), 1/2 of my head, Julie (travelmad478) and Robert (rmdw).

From left to right:

Dave (dlandt), me and Julie (travelmad478)

Here's the only publishable photo I have from the Chicago VT meet on 1/31/04. In attendance was my co-host Dave (dlandt), Sam (sambarnett), Robert (rmdw), Martin (mjb123), Jane (ljbs) and Sakshi (Saks_b) and 6 other guests.

If Sam doesn't pay the ransom, I'll publish the other photo ;-)

A last minute gathering at Simplon Orient Express was organized for yooperprof's visit to Chicago, his request was to eat at one of Chicago's wonderful ethnic restaurants.

In the photo starting at the left side of the table and going around-Martin (MJB123), me, my husband David, Sam (sambarnett), a couple of Sam's friends, Katja (pedersdottir)who is hiding behind Chet, Chet (yooperprof)and Dee (deecat).

The first Vter that I met was sambarnett when he came down to help out with a cleanup near our house, I thought that was pretty cool especially since we had never met before!

Sam has joined us on other local things, such as the Trolley Tour of Terror given every year by my husband in Hammond. See my Hammond page for more Trolley pictures.

Dee (deecat) organized this meeting at Lou Malnati's for Mehmet (mehbos37) who was in town from Istanbul. Martin (MJB123) and Erik (Erik707) also came to welcome Mehmet to our city.

Martin (mjb123) surprisingly picked an Italian restaurant not affiliated with Stefani's, Cafe Luciano on Rush Street. Joining in on the fun, Erik (Erik707), Dee (deecat), my husband David and Katja (pedersdottir). The food was great as was the company, the loud atmosphere made in a little difficult to hear conversations but that's true in most popular restaurants.

This was the 3rd VT gathering at Paprikash, Chet (yooperprof) was traveling down from Marquette and this was his pick based on everyone's glowing reviews. In addition to Chicago VT regulars Dee (deecat), Martin (mjb123) and Dave (dlandt), we saw a few new faces at this one, Brad (bradbrown) came in from Wichita and Noreen (girlswithcurlsrock) came with her mom. We also had a couple of out of town visitors, Lisa (shekaago) from New Mexico and her friend Karen and Robert (rmdw) who was visiting from Vancouver.

This was the only picture I took: on the left side-David (husband), Karen, Lisa, and Brad, hidden on the right Martin, Dee, Noreen, mom, and Chet with Dave in the front