Morning all:

Morning all from the heart of the Magnificent Mile in Chicago. As with any older city center hotel, and the Knickerbocker is no exception, rooms are miniscule. Bouncing between the wall and the beds and luggage for three I opened the room’s cabinet and found myself staring at Wolfgang Puck. Not the real Wolfgang, just a bag of his coffee along with a little coffee maker. This morning as I am sipping away, all I can say is “thank you Wolfgang.”

Marcia has discovered quite a similarity between Tonga and our stay in The Knickerbocker; both have no shelves for clothes. In both you are expected to truly live out of your suitcase.

So, Marcia, Jason, and I are here for our nephew Nick’s wedding to his bride Stephanie. They had been dating so long that it was assumed that they had sneaked off to Vegas at some point, but no—the festivities are this weekend.

What is interesting is that in a city the size of Chicago the dinners, service, and party for the event are all within a single city block. Last night the rehearsal dinner was held in a spectacular setting—the 95th floor of the Hancock Building. And the wedding gods cooperated fully by providing perfectly clear skies, resulting in us being able to enjoy 25+ mile views. of the city and beyond. This afternoon the service will be held in the historic Fourth Presbyterian Church …….. Then party time back here at The Knickerbocker.

OK, “grace in motion” might be somewhat questioned after my noisy dive onto the dance floor. It started as a graceful slide when the edge of my shoe’s sole grabbed on something. The next thing that went through my mind was “how can I make this landing more graceful than I know it will be?” I didn’t have a good answer and the full effect of the fall amply demonstrated that fact. Boy, did I have a good time though.

Modern hotel pricing schemes and ways to implement new pricing ‘gotchas’ are getting ridiculous. One important component in these schemes is the mini-bar. No longer is it checked once daily and as items are replaced a charge is placed on the bill. As I discovered at the Bellagio two weeks ago when I wanted to look at and picked up a nicely packaged internet cable, that the second I picked it up from the basket my room got dinged $10.95; all of this through the magic of sensors. Last night my brother-in-law went into a state of panic when he realized a similar system was in place at this hotel and that his wife and daughters had already been happily rooting around the back corners of their in-room mini-bar; ca-ching, ca-ching.

Make it a great week everyone.
Cheers,
Dirk