A Long Day' s Journey Into Saturday Night

    Continued from yesterday...   
    Night was falling on Michigan Avenue when Tom and I decided to walk the four blocks from Michigan and Illinois out to the Navy Pier on Lake Michigan.

    The Navy Pier was lit up outside:

...and inside:

...though the view from the pier was far nicer outside:

    After walking around the pier for a while we decided to head back to town and, what luck, we were able to catch the Navy Pier holiday trolley, a free fancy trolly that transports people back and forth from Michigan Avenue to the Navy Pier:

    When we got off the trolley at Michigan Avenue we decided to walk back to the loop so as to enjoy the Christmas lights one last time.

   We walked all the way back to the Kristkindlesmarket again.

    ....from where we took the el and then the bus back to Bucktown, by which time it was time to eat again so we went to an Asian noodle restaurant down the street from our hostel called Penny's.
      That's right, an Asian noddle restaurant called Penny's,

...that was really cute inside.

        Tom ordered beef and red peppers over rice and a beer,

...and I ordered beef noodle soup:

    Tom liked what her ordered well enough, though we both agreed that my soup - which was really tasty  and delicious  - was the better of the two dishes.  I guess the moral of the story is that if you go to a noodle restaurant you should probably stick with the noodles, right?
    After dinner at Penny's we started walking back to the hostel, but Stan's Donuts was on the way so of course we couldn't pass by without stopping in.

    Evidently everybody else had the same idea.  Stan's seems to be the place to be on Saturday night in Bucktown.
    After our farewell-to-Chicago doughnuts we headed back to the IHSP hostel with its twisty, turny hallways, 

walls that double as blackboards,

...showers out in the hall,

   And bathrooms that look just like home.

    It was our last night, we'd be back on the Megabus back to Columbus early Sunday morning.
    As we were walking down the hallway to our room we passed a nice Australian girl we'd met.
    "Uh-oh,"  she teased, "here come the grown-ups!"
    Only on the outside, thought I.