Going north, south, east, west - Chicago UPDATED 1/7 - Page 9 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Saturday 25 October – part five: sunset from the Sears Tower
We were quickly at the top of the Sears Tower, once we got into the elevator and just in time, as we were able to watch the sunset and that was such a wonderful sight to see. My goodness, I’m so glad that we were able to see that. It was mad on the side that was looking towards the sunset though, as of course everyone was crowed up against those windows, but we still managed to get some good shots of it.
To the very left is the Adler Planetarium with the Field Museum on the right and the Shedd Aquarium in the middle Grant Park The best shot we could get of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park The John Hancock Center to the left and the Trump Tower to the right Looking to the north of the city
We stayed a bit longer after that to get some photos of the city as twilight descended and the city gradually got dark, but, to be honest, it wasn’t as spectacular as we were hoping for. I thought that a lot more buildings would have a lot more lights on them, but it wasn’t to be.
Love this one. The city looks beautiful. I also love the shot of the lake in the background. It does look like it goes on forever. I remember when we flew over it on our way to Montreal. Even at such a high altitude I couldn't see either shore. Lovely pictures. More please.
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Oct '99: CSR ~ May '02: CR ~ Nov '04: SOG ~ May '06: SOG ~ Dec '07: Solo @ Pop ~ May '08: Pop w/friends ~ Oct '08: SOG ~ Dec '09: Pop w/LeAnn ~ Sept '10: Solo @ Pop ~ Spring '11: AKL ~ Jan '12: Pop for 1/2 Marathon ~ Sept '12: 1st trip for DL 1/2 Marathon? ~ Feb '13: Pop w/pals? ~ Mar '13: Tokyo Disney w/PP's?
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I loved your pictures at twilight. They turned out very nice and, coming from someplace with a unique skyline, I still get a kick out of the "mundane" skylines of the big cities - especially at night!
Saturday 25 October – part six: the first Chicago PassPorter meet!
We headed down after being up there for about 40 minutes or so and we were going to get a cab, but decided to walk at least some of the way towards the restaurant to see some more of the city at night.
Again, there wasn’t too much to see and, after about 20 minutes of walking, it became clear that if we walked the rest of the way, then we would be late, so we grabbed a cab.
By the time we got there, everyone else was pretty much there and we all introduced ourselves, although when there are 15 of you, it’s very hard to remember everyone’s names, both the real names and board names. It was a nice sized group and allowed us to pretty much talk to everyone that was there, which was nice. At first, it was a little quiet, but the conversation soon started, with the standard questions, like when are you next going to Disney and then you couldn’t shut s up, Fortunately, one thing we didn’t have to worry about was ordering, although we were presented with a menu when we first got there, which did confuse me, as I was pretty sure that Lesley and I had already done this. I had agonised over which two dishes to pick for each course for some time, but fortunately they had made a mistake in bringing the menu out and we were sorted. We had:
Appetisers: Calamari Fritte Stuffed Mushrooms
Salad:
Caesar Salad Maggiano's Salad
Pasta: Eggplant Parmesan Spaghetti, Marinara
Entrees: Chicken Marsala Salmon Lemon & Herb
Desserts: Maggiano's Signature Spumoni Apple Crostada, Caramel Sauce
It allseemed to go down well with everyone. Let’s just say that I don’t think anyone left there hungry, although a lot of people were told to take the remnants home with them, which was good, as I don’t like to think about food going to waste.
The food that went home with people
The meal took a couple of hours and then, after we were done eating and the bill was finally sorted out (with 15 of us, imagine what fun that was!), we all headed off on our separate ways. It was lovely to see a few old faces and to meet so many new friends and I just hope that the idea of a Chicago PassPorter meet now becomes a regular thing, as the first one was certainly a lot of fun and brought a lot of people together from pretty far away.
Sharing out the English candy Marianne (Mares75) and her boyfriend Patrick
[b]Bonnie (bonphil) and Frank (Donald Quackers) Kathy (disneyfan4994) and her DH Tim Lesley and her DS Sean Jodi (lazanya) and her DH Tim Maggie (maggieworkman), Michelle (marv) and Vicky (stretch 2864) My thanks to Lesley for helping with the labelling to this photo – here are the PassPorters in all their glory. Left to right: Marianne (Mares75), Bonnie (bonphil), Cheryl (chezp), Lesley (WDWfan), Maggie (maggieworkman), Jodi (lazanya), Patrick (Marianne's boyfriend), Tim (Jodi's DH), Frank (Donald Quackers), Michelle (marv), Kathy (disneyfan4994), Tim (Kathy's DH), Vicky (stretch 2864), and Mark. And of course Lesley’s DS Sean is taking the picture! Lesley with DS Sean – not behind the camera for this shot! Michelle (marv) getting some shots of the evening
We walked back to the hotel with Lesley, Bonnie, who was staying in our hotel as well, and Sean, Lesley’s son, who had been at the meal as well. He was just as much fun as Beth and I know Mark had great fun chatting to him. It was just as well that he was there, as he was able to do the duties with the taking of the group photos earlier in the evening. That can’t have been easy, with about 10 cameras flying towards him, but he certainly got some good results on our two.
Sean went off to get his car and Lesley suggested that we might like to see her massive suite, where she was staying. Oh my goodness, it was huge and really nice. I was so jealous and I don’t mind admitting that!
Then it was time to say goodbye to Lesley and we walked back with Bonnie to the hotel, as she was staying there as well, then it was off to our rooms and the end of another day.
Today we walked 4.84 miles The weather today was misty in the morning, then clear later on, with temperatures in the low 50’s. The best thing today was our PassPorter meet. The worst thing today was how misty it was in the morning. The funniest thing today was the PassPorter meet – we laughed a lot during that. Today we tried going to the Planetarium and the Field Museum And the result was both were much better than I’d expected. The most magical moment today was watching the sun set from the top of the Sears Tower.
About This Page: 
PassPorter Guide Author
There is no loitering when you tour with Cheryl and Mark. 
Still, we do cover a lot of ground and see a lot in a limited amount of time. 
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Claytrgtshooter (Minnie Lor's Hubbie)
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