American Admirals Club Chicago

With 4 1/2 hours to departure, we headed to one of my homes away from home, the spacious and pleasant H/K Admirals Club.

At T-3.5 we headed for the taxi stand and the Norridge Walgreens to correct a major senior moment embarrassment. Not only had I forgotten my blood pressure meds, I left my entire toiletries bag at home. Quel idiot! Don't know I was thinking this morning but in all my travels, that was a first. I had all the India meds in one bag, and just forgot the regular bag. Left it on the counter in the bathroom. Didn't even realize it until Mrs. SFO left a VM. She was so sweet about it... even had the kit with her on her errands this morning and was going to go to FedEx to try to ship them to India. Fortunately, I was able to find my Walgreens prescription number online and called it in the store closest to O'Hare. Taxi driver was initially not pleased about the short trip... Walgreens in Norridge and then back to T-5 but was happy when we asked what his typical ORD ride was and we told him we'd pay him his $40.

We got a big laugh at the presumably standard Chicago taxi $50 Vomit Cleanup Fee. Our driver said he actually had it once, couple of months ago. He had to call the cops when the woman refused. She paid up when the cop gave her the "$50 or jail" option.

One of the advantages of a taxi is door-to-door service and you don't have to take the train between terminals. We arrived back at ORD and T-5 departures level at just under 3 hours before departure. Not much activity at the LX counter or anywhere in the terminal for that matter. We were the only pax at security.

Not sure what the thinking was with this terminal. Maybe there was a space limitation, maybe budget issues and/or too many cronies to pay off, but wow, this is one butt ugly and poorly designed monstrosity. Long narrow, dark corridors with very little space or open areas. What a stark comparison to the beautiful International Terminal at SFO.

Next up: Small but very pleasant FCL at ORD.