Just home from Florida vacation late last month, I headed to the airport again — this time on a work trip to Chicago.
I was off to attend my first Apple media event in years, and I was pretty excited about that.
Such press events are normally held on or near Apple’s California campus, but this one was staged at an inner-city Chicago magnet school. That is because the event, like one held in 2012, was heavily focused on education.
I even got a “class schedule.”
Officially, I was on this trip as a contributing editor for TidBITS, which was footing the bill. In short order, I wrote an article about Apple’s education-related announcements. (See other TidBITS stories about the event here and here.)
I also wrote about the event for the Pioneer Press. This coverage included a big trend piece on Apple’s role in education along with a review of an iPad that was announced in Chicago and released a few days later.
This was a really fun trip (and a bit of a blast from the past since I lived in Chicago for about a year back in the late 1980s).
I found inexpensive accommodations at the Wrigley Hostel, so named because it is near Wrigley Field, and a short bus ride away from the Apple venue at Lane Tech College Prep.
When I was not working, I feasted on burritos at El Burrito Mexicano, and pored over old comic books and other memorabilia at the Yesterday shop (apparently none too soon).
Briefly wandering farther afield via the conveniently located Addison Station, I made pilgrimages to the Apple stores in tony Lincoln Park and on downtown’s Michigan Avenue.
At one point, I stood in the shadow of journalism great Irv Kupcinet with, oddly, a Trump skyscraper as a backdrop — I wonder what the columnist would have thought of our current president. Kup’s statue was mum.
I also ran across a “ghost bicycle” (like the ones I’ve seen in the Twin Cities) to remind me that, like Kup, we’ll pass on sooner than we’d like, and should make the most of our time here.
I tried to make the most of this trip, and I think I succeeded.
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