On The Road to a Cinderella Ending to a Perfect Day!

After our 10-hour adventure on Inauguration Day, most of it spent either walking or standing out in the cold, I wasn't sure I'd have the energy to attend a ball if we were lucky enough to get tickets! Most of them didn't get started until 10:00 pm! As it turns out, my Girl Scout friend, Susan R. is also a promoter for the group The Buckinghams - and what a coincidence, they are performing at the Illinois Agricultural Ball at the Grand Hyatt!

Susan had put our names on the list with "the band!" Whatever works, right?! They're on at 10:15 (another late night for me), so Sara and I transform ourselves and try to catch a cab to the Hyatt. Not a good idea...very few cabs to be had, and traffic was just gridlocked (shades of work going through my head!). Susan is madly texting me, thinking we won't make it. The cab finally pulls up at 10:45 pm - we're in!

We take a seat and watch the rest of the set - these guys are pretty amazing! They play all their hits and a string of pop music from the '60s and '70s. After the show, Susan takes us back stage to meet the band.

The conversation just flows, and before we know it, it's almost 1:00 am and we have to get back before we turn into a pumpkin! Now our mission is finding a cab back - after waiting to no avail (what was I thinking?), we decide to take the Metro. Much easier. Who would have thought that at 2:00 am the trains would be SRO with half the folks in formal attire?! By the time we get back on our train/hotel at Union Station, it was almost 3:00 am - on a normal day I would be on my way to work at that time - but this was hardly a "normal day!"